Analyzing Threats To Water Resources

Access to clean, fresh water is vital for all humans, but in many parts of the world, getting water is not as simple as turning on the tap. Contaminated water, especially in impoverished areas, kills millions of people a year, while warming oceans, Arctic melt, and disappearing rainforests are a threat to the environment. This book shows how humans use water and how we can help preserve it in the wake of these threats. Statistics and fact boxes help readers understand various issues related to water, from drought and flooding to desalination and pollution.

Water risks, including the lack of access to fresh water for personal and industrial use, droughts, floods, and water contamination, are problems that are not new, yet, they are amplifying in the face of climate change, population growth, and rapid economic development. Properly identifying, measuring, and managing these risks as well as taking advantage of related mitigation opportunities is essential for the future well-being of firms across various industries, investors who invest in these firms, local and federal governments, and ultimately our society as a whole. This edited book sheds light on this topic by examining the unique measurement and modelling challenges associated with either the scarcity or overabundance of water and their interaction with finance and society. Specifically, it explores approaches to assess and operationalize water risk, examines the vulnerability of institutions and markets, and discusses strategies for risk mitigation.

Water risks and security are a major global hazard in the 21st century and it is essential that water professionals have a solid grounding in the principles of preventative risk management. This second edition of the key textbook, Risk Management for Water and Wastewater Utilities, extends beyond first principles and examines the practicalities of resilience and vulnerability assessment, strategic risk appraisal and the interconnectedness of water utility risks in a networked infrastructure. It provides an up-dated overview of tools and techniques for risk management in the context of the heightened expectations for sound risk governance that are being made of all water and wastewater utilities. Risk Management for Water and Wastewater Utilities provides a valuable starting point for newly appointed risk managers in the utility sector and offers MSc level self-paced study with self-assessment questions and abbreviated answers, key learning points, case studies and worked examples.

Analytical Methods and Approaches for Water Resources Project Planningis part of a larger study that was conducted in response to a request from the U.S. Congress in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 for the National Academy of Sciences to review the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's peer review methods and analytical approaches. This report reviews the Corps' analytical procedures and planning methods, largely in the context of the federal Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies, also known as the Principles and Guidelines or "P and G" (P&G), as well as the Corps' Planning Guidance Notebook (PGN).

In order to confront the increasingly severe water problems faced by all parts of the country, the United States needs to make a new commitment to research on water resources. A new mechanism is needed to coordinate water research currently fragmented among nearly 20 federal agencies. Given the competition for water among farmers, communities, aquatic ecosystems and other users-as well as emerging challenges such as climate change and the threat of waterborne diseases-Confronting the Nation's Water Problems concludes that an additional $70 million in federal funding should go annually to water research. Funding should go specifically to the areas of water demand and use, water supply augmentation, and other institutional research topics. The book notes that overall federal funding for water research has been stagnant in real terms for the past 30 years and that the portion dedicated to research on water use and social science topics has declined considerably.