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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Scarcity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2021) | Viewed by 29559

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Prof. Dr. Josue Medellin-Azuara

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Guest Editor

University of California, Merced, USA
Interests: hydro-economic models; integrated water management; economics of agricultural; consumptive water use; climate change adaptation; engineering economics; modeling agriculture; water management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Guilherme F. Marques

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Guest Editor

Instituto de Pesquisas Hidraulicas, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Interests: hydropower; urban water use; hydro-economic models; water management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Marcelo Olivares

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Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Interests: water food-energy nexus; water use tradeoffs; hydropower operations; water infrastructure planning; instream flows

Dr. Alvar Escriva-Bou

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Guest Editor

Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco, USA
Interests: integrated water, energy, and environmental resources management, including systems approaches, simulation and optimization of economic-engineering models, and climate change analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water resource management to satisfy competing agricultural, environmental, and urban uses has become complex and contentious in most regions around the world. As water infrastructures age, irrigated agricultural areas expand, thriving cities grow, environmental needs are increasingly recognized, but tensions over scarce water resources also grow. Systems analysis for water management has long provided a framework to examine complex water problems; nevertheless, the roadmap regarding how to implement solutions within existing or proposed management instruments continues to merit further examination. This Special Issue presents recent developments and systems analysis approaches to improve quantitative understanding of the tradeoffs associated with satisfying beneficial water uses and increasing resilience in natural systems. Examples in various regions are presented exploring innovative views to address future challenges to allocate water among different uses in the context of climate change, sustainability of surface and groundwater, and the food–water–energy nexus. Of special interest are applications of multipurpose infrastructure, as well as conjunctive use as means to reconcile competing uses. A concluding chapter highlights major technical and policy insights for future water resource management.

Prof. Dr. Josue Medellin-Azuara
Prof. Dr. Guilherme F. Marqes
Prof. Dr. Marcelo Olivares
Dr. Alvar Escriva-Bou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

agricultural water use
hydro-economic models
water supply
systems analysis
multi-objective optimization
integrated water modeling
water management
water policy
environmental water use
water infrastructure planning
economic analysis

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 7026 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water–Food–Energy Nexus Tradeoffs in the São Marcos River Basin

by Pedro Henrique Bof, Guilherme Fernandes Marques, Amaury Tilmant, Ana Paula Dalcin and Marcelo Olivares

Water 2021, 13(6), 817; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13060817 - 16 Mar 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2421

Abstract

Given its potentialities and characteristics, energy generation, food production, and water availability have a strong interdependency and correlation. Water is needed to produce energy and food, while energy is required to produce water and food. This nexus brings several challenges when scarce water resources must be allocated among competing uses, often in the form of unexpected tradeoffs. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the water–food–energy nexus and the associated tradeoffs to support water allocation and management decisions. Those tradeoffs are still not properly understood in the uncertain and stochastic context of water availability. When not properly accounted for, the results are conflicts, loss of investments, environmental impacts, and limited effectiveness of sectoral policies, all of which undermine a country’s development model relying on water and energy security. This paper addresses the competitive uses of recent irrigated agriculture expansion and existing hydropower production in a Brazilian watershed with water conflicts, assessing the economic tradeoffs and water values between energy and irrigated agricultural production under uncertainty. An explicitly stochastic hydro-economic model is used to determine water’s economic value and its variation in space and time. Results indicate that the agricultural benefits outweigh the potential energy losses, and the best course of action should explore an economically compensated reallocation strategy, upon negotiation among users, rather than imposing water supply cutbacks to the agriculture sector. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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19 pages, 2460 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial–Temporal Evolution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Agricultural Water Use Efficiency in Northwest China—Based on a Super-DEA Model and a Spatial Panel Econometric Model

by Weinan Lu, Wenxin Liu, Mengyang Hou, Yuanjie Deng, Yue Deng, Boyang Zhou and Kai Zhao

Water 2021, 13(5), 632; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13050632 - 27 Feb 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 2980

Abstract

Improving agricultural water use efficiency (AWUE) is an important way to solve the shortage of water resources in arid and semi-arid regions. This study used the Super-DEA (data envelopment analysis) to measure the AWUE of 52 cities in Northwest China from 2000 to 2018. Based on spatial and temporal perspectives, it applied Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) to explore the dynamic evolution and regional differences of AWUE. A spatial econometric model was then used to analyze the main factors that influence the AWUE in Northwest China. The results showed firstly that the overall AWUE in Northwest China from 2000 to 2018 presented a steady upward trend. However, only a few cities achieved effective agricultural water usage by 2018, and the differences among cities were obvious. Secondly, AWUE showed an obvious spatial autocorrelation in Northwest China and showed significant high–high and low–low agglomeration characteristics. Thirdly, economic growth, urbanization development, and effective irrigation have significant, positive effects on AWUE, while per capita water resource has a significant, negative influence. Finally, when improving the AWUE in arid and semi-arid regions, plans should be formulated according to local conditions. The results of this study can provide new ideas on the study of AWUE in arid and semi-arid regions and provide references for the formulation of regional agricultural water resource utilization policies as well. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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17 pages, 2733 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Assessing the Potential of Agricultural Reservoirs as the Source of Environmental Flow

by Young-Jun Jo, Jung-Hun Song, Younggu Her, Giorgio Provolo, Jina Beom, Minhyuk Jeung, Young-Joo Kim, Seung-Hwan Yoo and Kwang-Sik Yoon

Water 2021, 13(4), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040508 - 15 Feb 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2621

Abstract

Excessive nutrient loadings from drainage areas and resulting water quality degradation in rivers are the major environmental issues around the world. The water quality further deteriorates for the large seasonal variation of precipitation and water flow. Environmental decision makers have been exploring affordable and effective ways of securing environmental flow (EF) to improve the water quality, especially in dry seasons, and agricultural reservoirs have attracted the attention of policymakers as an alternative source of EF. This study proposed an analysis framework for assessing the EF supply potential of agricultural reservoirs as alternative sources of EF. A reservoir water balance model was prepared to mathematically represent the reservoir water balance and quantify temporal variations of the amount of water available for the EF supply. The simulation model was designed to explicitly consider inflow from the upstream drainage areas, irrigation water requirement, and hydrological processes happening in the reservoirs. The proposed framework was applied to four agricultural reservoirs located in South Korea to evaluate its efficiency. Results showed that the additional storage capacity added by the dam reinforcement enabled the study reservoirs to satisfy both needs, EF and irrigation water supply. The surplus capacity turned out to be enough to satisfy various EF supply scenarios at the annual time scale. However, the current operation plans do not consider the seasonal variations of reservoir hydrology and thus cannot supply EF without violating the original operational goal, irrigation water, especially in dry months. The results demonstrate that it is necessary to consider the temporal variations of EF when developing reservoir operation rules and plans to secure EF. This study also highlights the unconventional roles of agricultural reservoirs as resources for improved environmental quality. The methods presented in this study are expected to be a useful tool for the assessment of agricultural reservoirs’ EF supply potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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22 pages, 6292 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

A Framework to Assess the Reliability of a Multipurpose Reservoir under Uncertainty in Land Use

by Anh Nguyen, Thomas A. Cochrane and Markus Pahlow

Water 2021, 13(3), 287; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13030287 - 25 Jan 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2228

Abstract

Socioeconomic development in watersheds lead to land-use changes, which can alter water and sediment inflows into reservoirs, leading to uncertainty in water supply reliability. A modelling framework coupling the Soil and Water Assessments Tool (SWAT) and the @RISK genetic algorithm optimisation tool was developed to optimise water allocation and estimate water supply reliability under uncertainty in future land-use. The multi-purpose Nuicoc reservoir in Vietnam was used as a case study. Modelling results showed that an expansion of the urban areas by 10% and conversion of 5% of the forest to agricultural areas produced the highest water releases for downstream demands of all simulated scenarios, with 5 Mcm/year greater water releases than the baseline for the case where sedimentation was not considered. However, when sedimentation was considered, it generated the greatest decrease in water releases, with 6.25 Mcm/year less than the baseline. Additionally, it was determined that spatial distribution of land-use significantly affect sediment inflows into the reservoir, highlighting the importance of targeted sediment management. This demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed framework for decision-makers in assessing the impact of possible land-use changes on the reservoir operation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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21 pages, 791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Conserving Message Influences Purchasing Decision of Consumers

by Melinda J. Knuth, Bridget K. Behe, Patricia T. Huddleston, Charles R. Hall, R. Thomas Fernandez and Hayk Khachatryan

Water 2020, 12(12), 3487; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123487 - 11 Dec 2020

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2243

Abstract

As more of the U.S. population urbanizes, freshwater resources will become more partitioned and scarcer. Live plants need water to become established and survive, but water demands vary by taxa. Additionally, outdoor household water use is becoming a greater target for watering restrictions, particularly landscape irrigation. Yet, how important is water conservation messaging in the context of a plant purchasing decision for outdoor plants? A ratings-based conjoint analysis of the water message, plant type, price, and plant guarantee was conducted using data from 288 subjects from three locales who rated their purchase intention to buy a plant from a retail merchandising display while using an eye-tracking device. Subjects were clustered by state of residency and, separately, their conjoint utility scores. Results indicate that water-related messaging does play a positive role in purchase intention. Residents of states who frequently experienced drought rated a water-saving message higher compared to residents of states who experienced relatively little drought. For some consumer groups, such as plant buyers, water savings are important and sought after. Green industry stakeholders should be aware of their region’s drought history and help develop point of purchase information to include water conservation messaging in retail displays. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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19 pages, 3795 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impacts of Arable Land per Farmer on Water Markets in China

by Yahua Wang, Maosen Xu and Tingju Zhu

Water 2020, 12(12), 3433; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123433 - 07 Dec 2020

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2316

Abstract

Water trading markets have been introduced in many countries as a means to alleviate water scarcity. However, the performance of water markets varies greatly across different countries, and in only very few countries do they work well. In this study, a two-sector water rights trading model is developed and applied to a case study in China. The results suggest that arable land per farmer is a key factor that affects the performance of water markets in China. This is positively correlated with traded water volume, with the market’s economic efficiency, and with the social welfare the market brings. Although the model simulation ignores other factors, this problem can be solved by selecting a suitable research area. These findings suggest that water markets may be less likely to be effective in countries with small arable land per farmer. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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17 pages, 4035 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Grapevine Sap Flow in Response to Physio-Environmental Factors under Solar Greenhouse Conditions

by Xinguang Wei, Shining Fu, Dianyu Chen, Siyu Zheng, Tieliang Wang and Yikui Bai

Water 2020, 12(11), 3081; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12113081 - 03 Nov 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2381

Abstract

Understanding transpiration responses to physiological and environmental factors is essential for efficient water management practices in greenhouse grapevine farms. To determine the driving factors of grapevine sap flow under solar greenhouse conditions in a typical cold climate, the sap flow, greenhouse micro-environmental conditions, and canopy details were measured and analyzed for the 2017–2018 growing season in Northeast China. The results showed that leaf area index controlled the upper boundary of sap flow rate (SFR). Correlations between SFR and meteorological factors obviously varied with time scales. Besides, the correlations at the hourly scale varied across the seasons. Photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR) was the primary control factor of sap flow, irrespective of time scale or season. The start and stop times of sap flow did not change with weather conditions, but SFR had broader peaks with higher peak values during sunny days. The diurnal variation of SFR lagged behind that of PAR, but remained ahead of those of VPD and temperature. Weather condition changed the sizes of the hysteresis loops, but not the rotation direction. The hydrological and physiological processes involved in sap flow are useful for refining transpiration models and improving water use efficiency in the greenhouse environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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21 pages, 6562 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Gate Selection on the Non-Cohesive Sedimentation in Irrigation Schemes

by Shaimaa Theol, Bert Jagers, Jigyasha Rai Yangkhurung, F.X. Suryadi and Charlotte de Fraiture

Water 2020, 12(10), 2765; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102765 - 04 Oct 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1793

Abstract

In order to cover the crop water requirements, flow control structures such as gates and weirs are used to transfer the desired amount of water from the canals to the field canals. This paper examines the impact of gate operation and the selection of gates on the deposition of non-cohesive sediment. The Delft3D model is used to simulate the effects of different scenarios regarding gate operation and the location of the gate that is opened. The model results showed that the gate selection affects not only hydraulic parameters but also morphological parameters. It was found that opening the gates closer to the offtake resulted in less sediment deposition at the entrance of the branch canal when compared to opening the gates further away. Gate selection can be used as a tool in sediment management. By alternating the opening of different gates sediments that are already deposited after opening one gate can be eroded when another gate is operated, thus minimizing the additional cost of sediment removal. The use of Delft3D proved beneficial as the selection of different gates leads to asymmetric sediment deposition patterns which would be missed when using a 1D model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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23 pages, 9559 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mountain Lake Evaporation: A Comparative Study between Hourly Estimations Models and In Situ Measurements

by Andrés Pérez, Octavio Lagos, Mario Lillo-Saavedra, Camilo Souto, Jerónimo Paredes and José Luis Arumí

Water 2020, 12(9), 2648; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12092648 - 22 Sep 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3424

Abstract

The quantification of evaporation is very important for water resource management, determination of water availability and environmental modeling. Evaporation (E) is a key component of the hydrological cycle, which becomes more relevant under a changing climate scenario, where increases in temperature and E are projected on a regional scale. This study evaluated the hourly applicability of 21 methods to estimate E in a mountain lake. Models were grouped as combination, solar radiation-temperature and mass transfer methods. Estimated E by all models were compared to three measurement campaigns with an eddy covariance system in Lake Laja during the month of January (22 to 28), March (17 to 23) and November (09 to 15) of 2016. The average evaporated water during the measurement sessions were 3.40, 3.38 and 1.89 mm d⁻¹, respectively. Best model performance was obtained with models whose main E principles are heat flow and water vapor flow. The best performance in this group was the Penman model using a calibrated wind function with a determination coefficient (R²) of 0.91, Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (NS) of 0.9, and index of agreement (W) of 0.98. Comparing daytime and nighttime hours, it was found that the daytime E in the lake is best explained by the product of the vapor pressure deficit and wind speed, while the nighttime E was explained by the flow of heat in the water. The results highlight the importance of the analysis of diurnal dynamics of water flux and energy stored in water to better understand the E in water bodies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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23 pages, 4571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multivariate Analysis for Assessing Irrigation Water Quality: A Case Study of the Bahr Mouise Canal, Eastern Nile Delta

by Mohamed K. Abdel-Fattah, Sameh Kotb Abd-Elmabod, Ali A. Aldosari, Ahmed S. Elrys and Elsayed Said Mohamed

Water 2020, 12(9), 2537; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12092537 - 11 Sep 2020

Cited by 46 | Viewed by 4415

Abstract

Water scarcity and suitable irrigation water management in arid regions represent tangible challenges for sustainable agriculture. The current study aimed to apply multivariate analysis and to develop a simplified water quality assessment using principal component analysis (PCA) and the agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) technique to assess the water quality of the Bahr Mouise canal in El-Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. The proposed methods depended on the monitored water chemical composition (e.g., pH, water electrical conductivity (ECiw), Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃⁻, Cl⁻, and SO₄²⁻) during 2019. Based on the supervised classification of satellite images (Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)), the distinguished land use/land cover types around the Bahr Mouise canal were agriculture, urban, and water bodies, while the dominating land use was agriculture. The water quality of the Bahr Mouise canal was classified into two classes based on the application of the irrigation water quality index (IWQI), while the water quality was classified into three classes using the PCA and AHC methods. Temporal variations in water quality were investigated, where the water qualities in winter, autumn, and spring (January, February, March, April, November, and December) were classified as class I (no restrictions) based on IWQI application, and the water salinity, sodicity, and/or alkalinity did not represent limiting factors for irrigation water quality. On the other hand, in the summer season (May, June, July, August, and October), the irrigation water was classified as class II (low restrictions); therefore, irrigation processes during summer may lead to an increase in the alkalinity hazard. The PCA classifications were compared with the IWQI results; the PCA classifications had similar assessment results during the year, except in September, while the water quality was assigned to class II using the PCA method and class I by applying the IWQI. Furthermore, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) around the Bahr Mouise canal over eight months and climatic data assisted in explaining the fluctuations in water quality during 2019 as a result of changing the crop season and agriculture management. Assessments of water quality help to conserve soil, reduce degradation risk, and support decision makers in order to obtain sustainable agriculture, especially under water irrigation scarcity and the limited agricultural land in such an arid region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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26 pages, 1318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Improved Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process for the Allocation of Water Rights to Industries in Northeast China

by Juanjuan Gao, Huaxiang He, Qiang An, Jiqiang Xie, Yingjie Cui and Xinmin Xie

Water 2020, 12(6), 1719; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061719 - 16 Jun 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1757

Abstract

To facilitate water management and efficient utilization of water resources, the allocation of water rights to individual industries must be underpinned by a rational and defensible process. This study aimed to develop an improved fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method of allocating water rights to different industries and focused on Qing’an County, northeast China as a case study. An evaluation index system for allocation of initial water rights was established, and incorporated physiographic, societal, economic, and ecological criteria. The system classifies four categories of second-level indices, 14 third-level indices, and 30 fourth-level indices. The order of priority of the evaluation index was determined and the total weight of initial water rights for different industries was calculated using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method. Results showed that the indices for the allocation of initial water rights ranked in descending order of their total weights coefficient were: (1) agricultural water rights: 0.9508; (2) residential water rights: 0.0240; (3) water rights for non-agricultural production: 0.0173; (4) environmental water rights: 0.0078. Agricultural water consumption accounted for the largest proportion of total water because the study area is a major grain production area. The study provides a theoretical basis for the allocation of water rights and water rights trading in northeast China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Management for Agricultural, Environmental and Urban Uses)

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