Papers presented at the 11th International Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management are included in this volume. These research works highlight recent technological and scientific developments associated with the management of surface and sub-surface water resources and as well as river basin management methodologies. Water is essential for sustaining life on our planet and its uneven distribution is a source of permanent conflict. The growth of human population combined with the irregularity in precipitation and water availability may restrict even further the access to water in certain regions of the world. This problem is made more severe by anthropogenic activities that affect its quality. River Basin Management includes all aspects of Hydrology, Ecology, Environmental Management, Flood Plains and Wetlands. Riverine systems are coming under increasing pressure due to anthropological and natural causes. Prominent amongst the problems affecting them is water scarcity and quality, which requires the development of improved methods for better river management. This volume features research from professionals involved in sustainable water resources management and provides an insight into the state of the art in the current technology, techniques and solutions in that field as they have been developed and applied in different countries.

This book analyses the state of the natural environment and the causes of its degradation using the biosphere approach. Further, those issues that must be resolved immediately on the global level are identified following the ideas defined by V.I. Vernadsky, and new principles of Man-Nature interaction are pursued. The modern world currently faces three global trends inducing biosphere degradation and the aggravation of ecological hazards, namely: a) rapid and uncontrolled growth of human population on the Earth and insufficient natural resources to sustain it; (b) technogenesis development; and (c) global climate change and the aggravation of natural disasters. Ecological safety and military security are becoming the crucial conditions for the survival of modern civilization. To mitigate the ecological strain on the Earth, the technogenesis strategy should be changed and many other pressing issues must be resolved. These problems should be addressed using the biosphere approach, because the individual human being is the biosphere constituent, and his or her safety cannot be provided without maintaining the entire natural system on our planet.

This monograph instructs the reader on how to analyze the hydrogeochemical vulnerability. It introduces notions of geochemical signals, points of migration of pollutants in the unsaturated zone, and new hydrogeochemical classifications. Three test sites in the USA, Germany, and Moldova are described as case studies accompanied by illustrative data. The authors presuppose for future readers only the background mathematics and elementary knowledge of hydrogeology. The presented methodology is both for local and regional assessments. It is simple, does not need implication of high qualification specialists and can be applied to test the groundwater quality. The book is useful for undergraduate, graduate, master, and PhD students as well as water quality specialists, ecologists and geology professionals.

Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorus (P) are three of the most important elements used to build living beings, and their uptake from the environment is consequently essential for all organisms. Photosynthesis is the process in which plants absorb atmospheric C as they grow and convert it to biomass. However, plants acquire N and P only when these are available in the soil solution, which makes these elements the most limiting nutrients in plant growth and productivity in most ecosystems. When plant residues and roots decompose, the C, N and P they contain is transformed primarily into soil organic matter (SOM) or C and N can release to the atmosphere. Recent interest on the global C, N and P cycles has focused attention on the different proportion of terrestrial C, N and P stored in different ecosystem pools. Cuatro Cienegas represents an exceptional place, since the plants are not the base of the food web, they are the microbial community, that recycle the elements essential for life. In this book we describe how this is an analog of early Earth.

This book is a compilation of papers examining the impacts of global change (GC) on water resources systems. Mainly focusing on groundwater resources in Western Mediterranean countries, it shows that this topic is one of the most important challenges facing society. The papers explore developments in both Southern Europe and North Africa, where major impacts on the sustainability, quantity, quality, and management of water resources are expected to emerge. Although most global change publications focus on surface water, the number of research papers addressing global change and groundwater has grown rapidly in recent years. Continuing that welcome trend, this book gathers the main findings presented at the "Congress on Groundwater and Global Change in the Western Mediterranean" (Granada, Spain, November 6-9, 2017), which brought together researchers and technicians interested in groundwater issues affecting this geographic area.

The present book describes in detail all aspects of rainwater harvesting, including the basic concepts, procedures, opportunities and practice of rainwater harvesting mainly focusing its application in buildings of various occupancies and sizes. It provides a user-friendly methodology for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of rainwater harvesting infrastructure, in buildings and its premise, as a supplement to conventional water supplies. It highlights the application of plumbing technology, which is an important aspect of rainwater harvesting in buildings. It also includes global rainfall scenario and brief notes on all the elements of rainwater harvesting used in buildings. It is a valuable reference resource for policy and decision-makers, as well as for engineers, architects and students.

The focus of this work is the development of models to estimate evapotranspiration (ET), investigating the partitioning between soil evaporation and plant transpiration at field and regional scales, and calculating ET over heterogeneous vegetated surfaces. Different algorithms with varying complexities as well as spatial and temporal resolutions are developed to estimate evapotranspiration from different data inputs. The author proposes a novel approach to estimate ET from remote sensing by exploiting the linkage between water and carbon cycles. At the field scale, a hybrid dual source model (H-D model) is proposed. It is verified with field observations over four different ecosystems and coupled with a soil water and heat transfer model, to simulate water and heat transfer in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. At the regional scale, a hybrid dual source scheme and trapezoid framework based ET model (HTEM), using remote sensing images is developed. This model is verified with data from the USA and China and the impact of agricultural water-saving on ET of different land use types is analyzed, in these chapters. The author discusses the potential of using a remote sensing ET model in the real management of water resources in a large irrigation district. This work would be of particular interest to any hydrologist or micro-meteorologist who works on ET estimation and it will also appeal to the ecologist who works on the coupled water and carbon cycles. Land evapotranspiration is an important research topic in hydrology, meteorology, ecology and agricultural sciences. Dr. Yuting Yang works at the CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, Australia.

Following the events of 9/11, the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency created the Water Protection Task Force (WPTF), which identified water and wastewater systems as a major area of vulnerability to deliberate attack. The WPTF suggested that there are steps that can be taken to reduce these vulnerabilities and to make it as difficult as possible for potential saboteurs to succeed. The WPTF recommended that be scrutinized with renewed vigor to secure water and wastewater systems against these possible threats. It also recommended that water and wastewater systems have a response plan in place in the event an act of terrorism occurs. The WPTF identified water distribution networks as an area of special vulnerability and highlighted the need for rapid on-line detection methods that are accurate and have a wide detection range. As a result of these recommendations novel technologies from various fields of science and engineering are now addressing water security issues and water and wastewater utilities are looking for innovative solutions. Once such technologies are available, there will be a rapid implementation process that will present many business opportunities for the private sector. However, in addition to terrorist threats water and wastewater systems are inherently vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. This volume will address the problems associated with both intended terrorist attacks and natural disasters affecting water or wastewater systems. The book is divided into parts based on the kinds of threats facing water and wastewater systems: (1) a direct attack on water and wastewater infrastructure storage reservoirs, and distribution and collection networks; (2) a cyber attack disabling the functionality of the water and wastewater systems or taking over control of key components which might result in system failures; and (3) a deliberate chemical or biological contaminant injection at one of the water distribution system's nodes. It will examine unique plans, technological and managerial innovations for protecting such systems, and includes descriptions of projects that were implemented to respond to natural disasters. Case studies are presented that discuss existing projects and evaluate their performance, with an emphasis on providing guidelines and techniques that can be implemented by water and wastewater planners and managers to deal with natural and manmade disasters should they occur.

The central theme of this book is focused on the analyses and the results which emerged from the international research project BRAHMATWINN sponsored by European Commission (EC) and conducted during 2006 - 2009. The book highlights the achievements of BRAHMATWINN to carry out a harmonised integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach as addressed by the European Water Initiative (EWI) in headwater river systems of alpine mountain massifs. The latter are already impacted from climate change, and the BRAHMATWINN project established transfer of professional IWRM expertise, approaches and tools based on case studies carried out in twinning European and Asian river basins. The project addresses all important IWRM issues in a balanced way, including conflict resolution in the trans- boundary Danube and Brahmaputra River Basins in Europe and South Asia respectively. This book will be useful to researchers, professionals, managers and decision makers associated with study and application of sustainable integrated land and water resources management (ILWRM) in the backdrop of climate change.

The ongoing thread in this volume of Physics of Lakes is the presentation of different methods of investigation for processes taking place in real lakes with a view to understanding lakes as components of the geophysical environment. It is divided into three parts. Part I is devoted to numerical modeling techniques and demonstrates that (i) wind-induced currents in depth-integrated models can only adequately predict current fields for extremely shallow lakes, and (ii) that classical multi-layered simulation models can only adequately reproduce current and temperature distributions when the lake is directly subjected to wind, but not the post-wind oscillating response. This makes shock capturing discretization techniques and Mellor-Yamada turbulence closure schemes necessary, as well as extremely high grid resolution to reduce the excessive numerical diffusion. Part II is devoted to the presentation of principles of observation and laboratory experimental procedures. It details the principles of operation for current, temperature, conductivity and other sensors applied in the field. It also discusses the advantages and limitations of common measuring methods like registration from stationary or drifting buoys, sounding and profiling from a boat, etc. Questions of data accuracy, quality, and reliability are also addressed. The use of laboratory experiments on a rotating platform is based on an exposition of dimensional analysis and model theory and illustrated using Lake Constance as an example. Part III gives an account of the dynamics of lake water as a particle-laden fluid, which, coupled with the transport of the bottom sediments, leads to morphodynamic changes of the bathymetry in estuarine and possibly whole lake regions. An elegant spatially one-dimensional theory makes it possible to derive analytic solutions of deltaic formations which are corroborated by laboratory experiments. A full three-dimensional description of the evolution of the alluvial bathymetry under prescribed tributary sediment input indicates a potential subject for future research.

This book aims to come up with views to address the queries of planners, policymakers, and general people for water resources management under uncertainty of climate change, including examples from Asia and Europe with successful adaptive measures to change the challenge of climate change into opportunities. The availability of clean water is a major global challenge for the future due to a rapidly growing population and urbanization where further stress in water resources is expected due to the impact of climate change. The wide range of impacts includes for example changes in hydrology, moisture availability, spatial and temporal variations in magnitude of stream flow, and dwindling of water levels with adverse effect on wetlands and ecosystem. As a consequence, water management has become a serious issue and was identified as a global societal challenge, and climate change forecasting has become one of the key issues in recent research on sustainable water resources management.

This book presents the most recent innovations, trends, concerns and practical challenges, and solutions in the field of water resources for arid areas. It gathers outstanding contributions presented at the International Water Conference on Water Resources in Arid Areas (IWC 2016), which was held in Muscat, Oman in March 2016. The individual papers discuss challenges and solutions to alleviate water resource scarcity in arid areas, including water resources management, the introduction of modern irrigation systems, natural groundwater recharge, construction of dams for artificial recharge, use of treated wastewater, and desalination technologies. As such, the book provides a platform for the exchange of recent advances in water resources science and research, which are essential to improving the critical water situation

This book presents major hydrological, physicochemical and biological processes determining the formation of hydro-physical properties and chemical composition of terrestrial surface water. Generalized hydro-physical, hydro-chemical and hydro-biological parameters affecting surface water quality, in particular in the Ukraine, are provided. Furthermore, a general description of the anthropogenic factors affecting the process of forming natural water's properties is presented. This volume is of interest to ecologists, and scientists, lecturers and students in higher educational institutions investigating patterns of formation of water properties and working on the development of methodologies to model and assess surface water quality, and water quality classifications.

This book presents results of scientific studies ranging from hydrological modelling to water management and policy issues in the Nile River basin. It examines the physical, hydrometeorological and hydrogeological description of the basin along with analysis in understanding the hydrological processes of the basin under the changing land-use stemming from population pressure and increased natural resources tapping. The book discusses the increased impact of climate change on the river flows, and such issues as water availability and demand, management and policy to offset the imbalance between demand and available resources.

This book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, water resources mangers, policy makers as well as graduate and undergraduate students. It is a useful reference text for ecohydrology, arid zone hydrology, hydrology of transboundary rivers and similar courses.

Water balance studies for large and small river basins are the subject of this book. Here, the specific focus is on the soil and water assessment tools (SWAT) model coupled with geographic information system (GIS) remote sensing data for a comprehensive study. Some books available in the market provide an overview of different hydrological models for water balance but not specifically for the SWAT model. This book effectively utilizes the SWAT model to study the water balances in small and large catchments with consistent competence and excellent accuracy for yearly and monthly water balance modules along with suspended sediment yield over several slope classes of the catchments. The approach is new and has been successfully utilized, as discussed in a case study on the Taleghan Catchment in Iran. These implementation models may assist as advantageous techniques for incorporated management of catchments in the direction of sustainable development. This book will help readers who wish to study all the changes related to those in water balances.

The Mekong is the most controversial river in Southeast Asia, and increasingly the focus of international attention. It flows through 6 counties, China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The 4 downstream countries have formed the Mekong River Commission to promote sustainable development of the river and many of their people depend on it for their subsistence ? it has possible the largest freshwater fishery in the world, and the Mekong waters support rice agriculture in the delta in Viet Nam (which produces about 40% of that country's food) as well as in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
China is now building the first large mainstream dam on the river, and has proposals for several more. These dams are likely to affect the downstream countries. Several of the downstream countries also have plans for large scale hydropower and irrigation development which could also impact the river.
This book will provide a solid overview of the biophysical environment of the Mekong together with a discussion of the possible impacts, biophysical, economic and social, of some possible development scenarios. It is intended to provide a technical basis which can inform the growing political and conservation debate about the future of the Mekong River, and those who depend on it. It is aimed at river ecologists, geographers, environmentalists and development specialists both in the basin and (especially) outside for whom access to this material is most difficult.
This book will be the first comprehensive treatment of the Mekong system

Key Features
*The first comprehensive overview of all aspects of the Mekong River system.
*Deals with a regionally critical ecosystem and one under threat.
*The Mekong supports the world's largest freshwater fishery and provides water underpinning a major regional rice paddy system.
* Presents the authoritative findings of the Mekong River Commission's research for a wider audience for the first time outside of limited distribution reports

The Malaga Symposia Series provides an international forum for scientific debate on the progress made in research into karst environments. The 2010 meeting of the 4th International ISKA presents 80 papers in four key areas: karst hydrogeology and investigations, karst landscape and ecosystems, human interaction with karst environments, and engineering geology in karst areas. This book will be a useful edition to the libraries of consultants, scientists, lecturers, and policy makers concerned with the special issues of karst terrains.

Urban subsurface resources and particularly urban groundwater are vulnerable to environmental impacts, and their rational management is of major importance. In this book a multidisciplinary team of specialists and scientists presents innovative process-oriented approaches to the sustainable use of these resources. The included case studies from northwestern Switzerland describe representative environments and are relevant for urban areas in general. They illustrate the protection of groundwater; river restoration; engineering and hydrogeological questions related to urban infrastructure and management concepts; as well as monitoring, modeling and remediation strategies for contaminated sites; problems caused by karst in urban environments; the use of shallow geothermal energy; and natural hazards such as flood events and earthquakes.

It is demonstrated that modern quantitative earth sciences can contribute significantly in finding solutions concerning the sustainable use of subsurface resources in urban environments.

The book is an invaluable source of information for hydrogeologists, geologists, urban planners, water supply engineers, and environmental agencies.

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The book provides a review of experimental methods and presents the worldwide newest literature regarding chemical substances fluxes via submarine groundwater discharge (SGD). Thus, the book characterizes both the distribution of chemicals in groundwater impacted areas in the Baltic Sea and their fluxes via SGD to the Baltic Sea. This book presents the state of art regarding the SGD and detailed studies on SGD characterization in the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is an example of a region highly influenced by a variety of human activities that affect the ecosystem. It is shown that SGD has been proven to be one of the important sources introducing dissolved substances into the Baltic Sea. The loads of chemical substances delivered to the Baltic sea with SGD have not been quantified so far.

This book offers the guidelines on long-term confinement of fine particulate waste products in a safe and environmentally acceptable location. It seeks to present the state of the art, drawing on combined experience from within the European Union (EU), on good international practice where relevant and on lessons learnt from recent untoward incidents. These guidelines have been developed in parallel with the development of the European Standard on Earthworks (prEN 16907) and the contents have been influenced by the well-publicised need for guidance to all stakeholders on both technical and regulatory aspects of the permitting, design and construction of extractive waste facilities in Europe. The Extractive Waste Directive (EWD) imposes a duty on all operators and regulators to ensure the competent design, operation and closure of such facilities. However, though some guidance has been published on a limited number of related technical elements, the relevance of these contributions has been diminished by the lack of an integrated approach. It is now evident to both regulatory bodies and operators alike that a unified and comprehensive document providing guidance to all stakeholders is required if the future of mining within the EU is to be assured and further untoward incidents avoided. These guidelines seek to address all technical stages of the development of a hydraulic fill project in the context of the EWD, with an emphasis on waste and facility characterisation and on the risk-based assessments which underwrite them. They are intended for use by all stakeholders involved in those European industries which involve the generation, transport and storage of fine particulate waste products requiring long-term confinement in a safe, stable and environmentally acceptable location.

Biologists have made significant advances in our understanding of the Earth's shallow subtidal marine ecosystems, but the findings on these disparate regions have never before been documented and gathered in a single volume. Now, in Food Webs and the Dynamics of Marine Reefs, Tim R. McClanahan and George M. Branch fill this lacuna with a comparative and comprehensive collection of nine essays written by experts on specific aquatic regions. Each essay focuses on the food webs of a respective ecosystem and the factors affecting these communities, from the intense and direct pressure of human influence on fisheries to the multi-vector contributors to climate change. The book covers nine shallow water marine ecosystems from selected areas throughout the world: four coral reef systems, three hard bottom systems, and two kelp systems. In summarizing their organization, human influence on them, and recent developments in these ecosystems, the authors contribute to our understanding of their ecological organization and management. Food Webs and the Dynamics of Marine Reefs will be a useful tool for all benthic marine investigators, providing an expert, comparative view of these aquatic regions.