Water Right Prices in the Rio Grande: Analysis and Policy Implications

Climate change, water supply limits, growing environmental values of water and worldwide population growth continue to raise the scarcity of water. These challenges have intensified the transfer of water from farms to cities. Water right transfers are an important international institution to stretch water supplies. In North America's Rio Grande Basin water right transfers are an especially important institution for meeting the growth in urban demands. Despite the importance of water right transfers as a social institution, sellers face uncertainty on the asking price, while buyers face similar uncertainty on the offer price. Weak information on water right prices stymies water transfers while limiting the future resilience of water transfers to address climate change and the need to cope with change in water supplies and demands. This paper describes the development of a database on water right prices using observed transactions from 1980 to 2007. An empirical model was developed using the data to identify important factors influencing those prices. Five water right price predictors were found to be significant: total regional urban water use, priority date of the water right, quantity of water rights offered for sale, regional reservoir storage volume, and regional farm income. Depending on the future status of food scarcity and urban water conservation programmes, water right prices in the basin could grow from zero to 27% over 2010–2020.     

Economic Costs of Sustaining Water Supplies: Findings from the Rio Grande

Water claims in many of the world??s arid basins exceed reliable supplies. Water demands for irrigation, urban use, the environment, and energy continue to grow, while supplies remain constrained by unsustainable use, drought and impacts of climate change. For example, policymakers in North America??s Upper Rio Grande Basin face the challenge of designing plans for allocating the basin??s water supplies efficiently and fairly to support current uses and current environments. Managers also seek resilient institutions that can ensure adequate supplies for future generations. This paper addresses those challenges by designing and applying an integrated basin-scale framework that accounts for the basin??s most important hydrologic, economic, and institutional constraints. Its unique contribution is a quantitative analysis of three policies for addressing long term goals for the basin??s reservoirs and aquifers: (1) no sustainability for water stocks, (2) sustaining water stocks, and (3) renewing water stocks. It identifies water use and allocation trajectories over time that result from each of these three plans. Findings show that it is hydrologically and institutionally feasible to manage the basin??s water supplies sustainably. The economic cost of protecting the sustainability of the basin??s water stocks can be achieved at 6?C11 percent of the basin??s average annual total economic value of water over a 20?year time horizon.     

Urban Water Management in Developing Arid Countries

Urbanization, industrialization and rapid population growth in developing countries of the Arabian Peninsula are putting increasing pressure on local water authorities and water planners to satisfy the growing urban water and sanitation demands. In the Arabian Peninsula, water resources are limited, average rainfall is low and the seawater and brackish water desalination in addition to limited groundwater resources are the major water supply sources. The population increased from about 17.688 million in 1970 to 38.52 million in 1995 and is expected to reach 81.25 million in 2025. The urban population is expected to rise from 60% in 1995 to more than 80% in 2025. The domestic water demand is expected to rise from 2863 million cubic metres (MCM) in 1990 to about 4264 MCM in 2000 and 10580 MCM in 2025. In Saudi Arabia, the population increased by 143.6% between 1970 and 1995; and it is expected to reach about 40.426 million in 2025, with about 80% urban population. The domestic water demand in the Kingdom is expected to be about 2350 MCM in 2000 and 6450 MCM in 2025. Specialized agencies have been established for water production and distribution, and for wastewater collection, treatment and reuse. Special legislation has been introduced to manage water demands and to protect the interests of the community and its natural resources. Fifty-seven costly desalination plants have been constructed in the Peninsula on the Gulf and Red Sea coasts, as well as water transmission lines to transport the desalinated water to coastal and inland major cities. The seawater desalination unit cost is about US$0.70/m 3 for a large desalination plant with energy priced at world prices. More than $30 billion has been invested on water and sanitation projects. Present desalination production is about 46% of the total domestic demand, and the rest is pumped from deep and shallow aquifers. In general, fragmented legislation and institutional arrangements and low water charges have indirectly resulted in over-usage of domestic water, production of excessive quantities of wastewater, significant leakage, and enhancement of shallow water-table formation and rise in some cities. Facing the challenges of satisfying the growing urban water demands requires several essential measures such as: (a) introduction of new technologies to reduce water demands, and losses, and to enhance wastewater recycling and water conservation; (b) the updating of legislation to coordinate both responsibilities and actions among different water agencies; (c) the introduction of a strong and transparent regulatory framework to adopt different forms of water supply privatization, to reduce the costs of building, operation and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities, and to improve the level of services and billing, leakage and wastewater collection and treatment; (d) an increase in water tariffs to reflect the actual value of the water, and to enhance the awareness of public as to the value of water; and (e) development of short-term and long-term national water plans based on realistic water demand forecasting.     

城乡一体化视角下的云南农村水利建设问题及对策

云南农村水利建设存在区域发展不平衡、投资机制及模式不合理、干旱综合治理措施不完善、农民自我管理不足等问题,同时也面临着人口自然增长、城镇化、旅游发展等带来的供水压力及"空心村"带来的挑战。建议实施贫困地区、山区水利优先发展战略,完善政府主导下的城乡一体化水利投资机制、干旱治理机制、水资源调配与发展机制以及农民参与水利工程管理机制,建立"空心村"水利发展特殊干预制度。     

Applicability of Adapted Reservoir Operation for Water Stress Mitigation Under Dry Year Conditions

This paper introduces the conjunctive use of a deterministic water quality model and water balance criteria for supporting the assessment of simulation and to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed operation strategies. By this, the applicability of enhanced reservoir operation strategies addressing both water quality as well as water quantity aspects under water deficit conditions in dry years can be shown. Arguments will be developed to address stakeholders and decision makers in the context of a more conservative past operation regime. Results are presented for the Kaparas reservoir, which is located in the lower Amu Darya River, on the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As being one out of four large reservoirs of the Tuyamuyun Hydro Complex (THC), the Kaparas reservoir could be increasingly used for drinking water supply for the lower Amu Darya region. The results for the dry year 2001 indicates that the combination of simulation together with practical assessment criteria confirm the applicability of adapted operation rules for THC reservoirs and ways can be found to supply the local population (of the lower Amu Darya region) with more potable water of higher quality even subject to a parallel reduction of water deficits. Future aggravation of water stress due to increasing population growth and water quality deterioration will require a more comprehensive consideration of water quality aspects in many arid and semi arid regions. The experience gained during this study emphasizes the fact that classical deterministic water quality models provide effective tools to address even more complex water quality problems under water stressed conditions, provided processing of results is performed, to support the decision making process.     

Conjunctive Operation of Reservoirs and Ponds Using a Simulation-Optimization Model of Irrigation Systems

Water resource management in arid agricultural irrigation regions is a great challenge for managers and decision makers. In some of those regions, many ponds have been built to ensure an adequate water supply for irrigation. Therefore, reservoirs and ponds should be managed conjunctively to minimize shortages of water. In this study, a new integrated mathematical model of conjunctive, or integrated, operation of reservoirs and ponds to maximize the water supply has been proposed for a reservoir-pond irrigation system. This objective has been achieved via the use of two models: an optimal model, which is used to determine the optimal discharge of reservoirs, and a simulation model, which considers the regulatory role of ponds and reservoirs and simulates their water supply to the irrigation system. An adaptive genetic algorithm has been employed in this study to solve the nonlinear and multi-dimensional reservoirs optimization problem. This methodology has been applied to the Yarkant River Basin to demonstrate its applicability, and three scenarios are presented. The main objective of the simulation-optimization model in the Yarkant River Basin is to minimize shortages in meeting irrigation demands for nine sub-irrigation systems subject to the constraint of ecological water transfer to the Tarim River. The optimizing effect of the model was particularly prominent under the third scenario, i.e., the XBD, MMK, and ART Reservoirs and 16 ponds conjunctively operated to meet the water demand of the YKB. The frequency of success (FS) in meeting agricultural water demands reaches up to 75%, and the value for ecological demand is 50.98%. The results demonstrate the importance of the conjunctive combined use approach for management of water resources in irrigation system of arid regions.     

碳中和愿景下城市供水面临的挑战、安全保障对策与技术研究进展

随着我国人口逐渐增多、经济迅猛发展、生活水平不断提高、城市化进程逐渐加速,城市面积扩大并发展成城市群,对水资源的需求持续增加.与此同时,工业、农业生产、人类活动等途径进入环境中的各类污染物总量也在增加、成分更加复杂,这些污染物最终进入城市水体.为满足水质要求,城市供水系统能源消耗逐渐增加,产生较多的碳足迹.一些城市群为...     

鄱阳湖区及五河地区水量应急调度方案研究

鄱阳湖地区是江西省社会经济较为发达的地区,但近年来由于气候原因,上游来水偏枯,导致供水矛盾突出,几乎年年发生旱灾。为了保障鄱阳湖区枯季城镇生活、工业生产、农业灌溉用水,分析了湖区取水设施的建设情况,用水需求,制定了3级预警水位。在此基础上,选取流域内7座主要水库开展了鄱阳湖应急补水研究,制定了应急补水调度方案,方案的运用将有助于缓解鄱阳湖枯季干旱缺水问题。     

河南省典型枯水年水资源脆弱性评价及贡献因子识别

水资源脆弱性评价是水安全的重要度量方式,水资源安全是区域可持续发展的基础。以河南省18个市区为研究单元,从自然条件、社会经济、供用耗水等3个子系统选取指标建立评价体系,运用熵权法、线性加权法求解其典型枯水年水资源脆弱性,从城市、区域、全省角度分析水资源子系统指数、脆弱性指数,并采用贡献度模型识别了水资源脆弱性主要贡献因子,以期为河南省水资源管理提供科学依据。结果表明:（1）整体上看,3个子系统水资源脆弱性指数大小排序为自然条件>供用耗水>社会经济;城市和区域的水资源子系统指数、脆弱性指数存在一定的差异,且有自西南向东北逐渐增大的趋势;全省水资源为Ⅲ级中等脆弱性。（2）18个市区及全省水资源脆弱性3个子系统贡献度排序为自然条件>供用耗水>社会经济;水资源脆弱性的主要贡献因子集中在自然条件子系统的4个指标。此外,社会经济子系统中的亩均化肥折纯量和供用耗水子系统中的人均综合用水量、亩均灌溉用水量也是主要贡献因子。最后,提出“多渠道供水,提高供水侧能力”“合理扩张城镇、优化人口经济结构,提高城市水平”“提高用水效率,节约用水”的差异化“降脆”策略,以实现水资源可持续发展。     

Historical climate and stream flow trends and future water demand analysis in the Calgary region, Canada.

The city of Calgary has been one of fastest growing cities in Canada in recent years. Rapid population growth and a warming climate trend have raised concerns about sustainable water supply. In this study, historic climate, stream flow and population data are analyzed in order to develop models of future climate trends and river-water resource availability. Daily water demands for the next 60 years were projected using the relationship between daily maximum temperature and water demand under simulated climate and population growth scenarios. To maintain sustainable growth Calgary will require water conservation efforts that reduce per capita water use to less than half of the current level over the next 60 years, an interval when the civic population is expected to be doubled.     

Total Urban Water Cycle Models in Semiarid Environments��Quantitative Scenario Analysis at the Area of San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Systems view thinking and holistic urban water cycle concepts are increasingly called upon for integrated analysis of urban water systems to mitigate water stress in large urban agglomerations. However, integrated analysis is frequently not applied due to the inherent complexity, limitations in data availability and especially the lack of guidelines and suitable software tools. The paper presents the application of the total urban water balance model UVQ to the City of San Luis Potosi (1.2 Mio inhabitants) under the arid conditions of Northern Mexico. UVQ is a lumped parameter model which describes water and contaminant flows from source to sink in urban areas and includes all water types such as rainwater, imported water, surface runoff, wastewater and groundwater. The results were especially useful for spatially explicit groundwater recharge calculation in urban areas. A range of urban water scenarios, including different supply strategies and the effect of externalities such as demand change, were simulated and compared to a calibrated baseline scenario. The analysis demonstrated that shallow urban groundwater resources can substantially mitigate problems of water scarcity and overexploitation of deep aquifers if appropriate water quality protection or fit-for-use paradigms are put into place. The modelling exercise delivers relevant information for the decision making process and identifies the most relevant shortcomings in current monitoring systems. This represents a key step on the path to water sensitive and sustainable urban development, including the urban aquifers which have been neglected in the management policy of most cities of the Mexican arid zone.     

Economic Aspects of Soil Conservation Programs in Less-Developed Countries (LDCs)

ABSTRACT

This article evaluates the prospects for rainfall-runoff water harvesting as a means of increasing water supplies in Greater Amman and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Rain/all-runoff water harvesting is a small-scale water conservation approach for catching/storing rainfalls and certain runoff waters in a localized area. before the waters enter the usual hydrologic cycle. Generally the methods are small basic impounding concepts as compared with larger-scale river dams and reservoirs. Catchment of rainfall drainage from a building roof with tank storage is the commonest practice. This is an age-old practice used to sustain populations, mostly in arid areas of the world, but also in areas where water distribution systems are unavailable. In the following text, water harvesting yields are calculated for residential roofs and for the potential from commercial and industrial areas. as of 1990 and projected to 2005. The results show that rainfall-runoff water harvesting is an increasingly attractive consideration in arid areas facing acute water supply shortages, for both villages and urban centers.     

Rainwater harvesting to alleviate water scarcity in dry conditions: A case study in Faria Catchment, Palestine

In arid and semi-arid regions, the availability of adequate water of appropriate quality has become a limiting factor for development.This paper aims to evaluate the potential for rainwater harvesting in the arid to semi-arid Faria Catchment, in the West Bank, Palestine.Under current conditions, the supply-demand gap is increasing due to the increasing water demands of a growing population with hydrologically limited and uncertain supplies.By 2015, the gap is estimated to reach 4.5×106 m3.This study used the process-oriented and physically-based TRAIN-ZIN model to evaluate two different rainwater harvesting techniques during two rainfall events.The analysis shows that there is a theoretical potential for harvesting an additional 4 × 106 m3 of surface water over the entire catchment.Thus, it is essential to manage the potential available surface water supplies in the catchment to save water for dry periods when the supply-demand gap is comparatively high.Then a valuable contribution to bridging the supply-demand gap can be made.     

Utilising integrated urban water management to assess the viability of decentralised water solutions

Cities worldwide are challenged by a number of urban water issues associated with climate change, population growth and the associated water scarcity, wastewater flows and stormwater run-off. To address these problems decentralised solutions are increasingly being considered by water authorities, and integrated urban water management (IUWM) has emerged as a potential solution to most of these urban water challenges, and as the key to providing solutions incorporating decentralised concepts at a city wide scale. To incorporate decentralised options, there is a need to understand their performance and their impact on a city's total water cycle under alternative water and land management options. This includes changes to flow, nutrient and sediment regimes, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts on rivers, aquifers and estuaries. Application of the IUWM approach to large cities demands revisiting the fundamental role of water system design in sustainable city development. This paper uses the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) to expand a logical definition for the aims of IUWM, and discusses the role of decentralised systems in IUWM and how IUWM principles can be incorporated into urban water planning.     

Comparative Evaluation Of Surface Water Availability,Wastewater Reuse And Desalination In Saudi Arabia

ABSRTACT

There is a growing concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to exploit water resources of acceptable quality to meet demands in domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. The agricultural water need, which constitutes approximately 84% of the total demand, was estimated to be 7430 million cubic meters in 1985. The annual domestic and other demands amounted to 1400 million cubic meters for 1985. Various alternative supplies to meet these demands are surface water, renewable groundwater resources, reclaimed wastewater, desalinated water, and non-renewable groundwater. Due to excessive withdrawal of water from deep aquifers, considerable drawdown has recently been noticed.

This paper reviews the existing and future trends in developing surface water resources, reclamation of waste-water from various towns and cities and its use, and the role of desalination plants in the coastal regions of the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. These alternatives are evaluated and compared in economic terms. Cost-capacity relationships are developed for various alternatives which will be used in developing long-term plans for optimum allocation of available resources in different parts of the Kingdom.     

赣江中下游河道枯水期水量调度探讨

近年来,赣江中下游枯水流量不断刷新历史最低纪录,给沿江城市经济生活带来较大影响,有必要研究利用中上游水库枯季向赣江中下游河道补水问题。在分析赣江中下游河道径流频率的基础上,确定了分别对应特大干旱、严重干旱、中度干旱和轻度干旱的4个枯水预警等级,再结合城市用水情况、上游水库建设情况,提出了赣江中下游用水户枯季供水优先级和4级枯季供水预警响应预案。预案的提出为应对枯水季节赣江中下游沿江城市应急供水打下了基础。     

黔中水利枢纽工程低温水的环境保护措施

黔中水利枢纽工程是集灌溉、城市供水、发电、县城和乡镇供水、人畜饮水为一体的综合利用项目.由于水源工程的拦河大坝高达162.7 m,水库蓄水后将形成分层型水温结构,低于水库水面14m以下的库水将对灌区一定范围的农作物生长产生不利影响.黔中水利枢纽工程在大坝设计中采取了分层取水方案,为解决具有较大消落深度的大中型水库低温水...     

Spatial Optimisation Technique for Planning Groundwater Supply Schemes in a Rapid Growing Urban Environment

Uneven distribution of domestic water in space and time is a major concern in many fast growing cities due to improper planning and lack of scientific approach. This problem is much severe where the maximum domestic water requirements are met from the groundwater resources. Optimising a single groundwater pumping scheme may be an easy task using simple linear programming technique but, if the number of pumping schemes and constraints are more, solutions for identifying such groundwater schemes are more difficult and laborious using conventional methods as the constraints varies in space and time. In this paper, a new technique was developed to identify new groundwater pumping schemes to meet the present and future domestic water requirements in space and time by integrating spatial optimisation technique with the groundwater model. The approach considers the possible optimum rate of groundwater pumping, minimising the cost of water supply scheme and having minimum impact on the downstream side groundwater table using high resolution satellite data (IKONOS), Geographical Information System (GIS) tools and optimisation techniques. Dehradun, which is one of the fast growing cities in India, was considered as a study area to demonstrate the proposed new technique. Domestic water demand for next two decades (up to 2,031) was forecasted and compared with the existing supplies. Nearly 48 additional groundwater pumping schemes were identified to cater the present and future demands. Its impact on the groundwater table was also studied using groundwater modelling technique.     

Climate Change and Water Resource Availability: An Impact Assessment for Bombay and Madras,India

ABSTRACT

Global climate change associated with rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases may alter regional temperature and precipitation patterns. Such changes could threaten the availability of water resources/Or rapidly growing Third World cities, many of which are already experiencing severe water supply deficiencies. This paper investigates the potential impacts of climate change on water resource availability for two Indian cities, Bombay and Madras. The paper begins by discussing future trends for population growth and water demand in each city. Nat, using climate change scenarios based on three general circulation models (GCMs), the paper assesses how climate change may affect water availability in the two urban regions. The assessment is conducted through the use of a monthly dryness index measuring potential evapotranspiration and precipitation. For each region, the dryness index under “normal” climatic conditions is compared with indexes created using GCM scenarios. The results of this assessment indicate that, unless large increases in regional precipitation accompany climate warming, higher rates of evapotranspiration will mean reduced water availability for both cities. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for water management in Third World cities.     

Factors determining informal tanker water markets in Chennai,India

Many developing world cities have seen the emergence of informal markets where private tanker truck operators transport water extracted from peri-urban wells to urban consumers. This study adopted a systems-modelling approach to analyzing the informal tanker market in India. The results indicate that the demand for tanker supply was caused by lack of groundwater availability in private wells as well as unreliable piped supply. The study shows that two groundwater factors are relevant: depth to water and aquifer productivity. Together, these could explain the difference in spatial, temporal and consumer-specific variations in tanker dependence.