Giscience For The Sustainable Management Of Water Resources

Water is one of the most critical resources of nature that is necessary for sustaining life for all living things. This volume discusses in detail a selection of geospatial approaches, tools, and techniques for understanding the root causes behind the degradation of our water resources. Satellite remote sensing provides essential data for mapping water resources, hydrology flux measurement, monitoring drought, and flood inundation. With an abundance of informative case studies, this volume discusses the use of the satellite remote sensing and GIS-based systems for managing urban storm water; for flood and soil erosion management; for mapping groundwater zones; for crop production, including measuring soil moisture and aridity; for gauging the impact of climate change; for evaluating glacier change dynamics; for assessing the impact of urban growth on water resources; for measuring the degradation of rivers; and more.

GIS and Geocomputation for Water Resource Science and Engineering not only provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of geographic information systems but also demonstrates how GIS and mathematical models can be integrated to develop spatial decision support systems to support water resources planning, management and engineering. The book uses a hands-on active learning approach to introduce fundamental concepts and numerous case-studies are provided to reinforce learning and demonstrate practical aspects. The benefits and challenges of using GIS in environmental and water resources fields are clearly tackled in this book, demonstrating how these technologies can be used to harness increasingly available digital data to develop spatially-oriented sustainable solutions. In addition to providing a strong grounding on fundamentals, the book also demonstrates how GIS can be combined with traditional physics-based and statistical models as well as information-theoretic tools like neural networks and fuzzy set theory.

Water is the elixir of life and is crucial for sustainable development. Earlier, it was considered to be a limitless or at least a fully renewable natural resource. During the past 20 years, however, there has been tremendous pressure on this precious natural resource mainly due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and the increase in the human population. Together, these have resulted in increasing demand for irrigation, industrial, and household purposes to meet supply-chain requirements. Keeping in mind the scarcity of available water resources in the near future and its impending threats, it has become imperative on the part of scientists in hydrology and allied disciplines such as geography, landscape planning, sustainability science etc. Regional planners and supply chain management experts also must be involved in studying the spatial and temporal nature of the growing demand for water and the future availability for its judicial use and sustainable management. A primary intent of the book is to provide comprehensive scientific knowledge base on water resource management and sustainability. It covers geo-engineering and scientific problems, case studies, and sustainable solutions in the water resources management domain. Additionally and of equal importance, the chapters of the book provide in-depth coverage on water resource vulnerability, water quality, wastewater treatment, application of remote sensing and geographical information systems hydrological modeling and harvesting, climate variability and runoff, sediment discharge and irrigation planning, community participation in water governance, internet of things and machine learning applications for sustainable water resources management. This practical, state-of-the-art reference book is a valuable resource for students, researchers, scientists, policymakers, spatio-temporal designers of water resource systems, various stake holders interested in hydro-climatology and sustainable water resources management.

This book examines water resources, helps understand complexities in water management, and explains the use of geospatial technology. By 2050, the world will have nearly about 9.8 billion population and which is almost 2.5 to 3 billion added to the present population. Only 3% of world water resources are available for human consumption. Even some resources are polluted because of poor management. Water management is important since it helps determine future irrigation prospects. Management of water resources under set policies and regulations. Water is a more valuable commodity and the world is facing acute water shortages because of drought which is attributed to climate change and overuse. Many rivers are drying up, polluted and encroached. Now the challenge is whether future generations will have enough fresh water for living. Geospatial Technology i.e. Remote Sensing (RS) and GIS have gained considerable interest among earth and hydrological science communities for solving and understanding various complex issues and approaches towards water resources development and management. Water can provide sustainability to any region. Sustainability means that meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. These are generally integrated to study a variety of natural resources and their characteristics. Major advancements have been accomplished in integrating remote sensing and GIS and they complement each other. RS is used for acquiring information for GIS. Remote sensing and GIS integration provide information on the spatial variation, extent, and potential and limitations of natural resources, which is essential for planning the strategy for sustainable development. Most hydrological or geomorphological models are developed in a GIS framework and these are helpful for the planning and management of water and decision-makers for sustainable development.

This volume advances the scientific understanding, development, and application of geospatial technologies related to groundwater resource management, mapping, monitoring, and modelling using up-to-date remote sensing and GIS techniques. The book further provides a critical analysis of the debates and discourses surrounding groundwater resources and society, illustrates the relationship between groundwater resources and precision agriculture for societal development, and describes novel, region-specific management strategies and techniques for sustainability with case studies. The book is organized into three parts: (I) Groundwater resources and societal development; (II) Groundwater availability, quality and pollution; and (III) Sustainable groundwater resources management. Each section begins with a short introduction that includes an overview of the papers in that section. Individual chapters focus on the core themes of research and knowledge along with some topics that have received lesser attention. The book will be of interest to water resource planners and decision-makers, academic researchers, policy makers, NGOs, and academic researchers and students in Geography, Geophysics, Hydrology, Remote Sensing & GIS, Agriculture, Soil Science, and Agronomy.

The main focus of this book is sustainable management of water resources in a changing climate. The book also addresses the question of how to define and measure the sustainability of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The sustainability of IWRM is an important issue when planning and/or developing policies that consider the impact of climate change, water governance and ecohydrology in the context of a more holistic approach to ensure sustainable management of water resources. Sustainable IWRM is more about processes, and relatively little systematic or rigorous work has been done to articulate what components are the most essential to ensure the ongoing sustainability of IWRM efforts. The chapters cover topics including global prospective of IWRM; allocation of environmental flows in IWRM; echohydrology, water resources and environmental sustainability; climate change and IWRM; IWRM and water governance including social, economic, public health and cultural aspects; climate change resiliency actions related to water resources management sustainability and tools in support of sustainability for IWRM. This book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, water resources mangers, policy and decision makers, donors, international institutions, governmental and non-governmental organizations, educators, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. It is a useful reference for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), ecohydrology, climate change impact and adaptations, water governance, environmental flows, geographic information system and modeling tools, water and energy nexus and related topics.

It is well known that 55% of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, and this figure is predicted to grow to 68% by 2050, adding more than 2.5 billion people to urban populations. It is also projected that there will be 43 megacities worldwide by 2030, with populations of more than 10 million inhabitants. The United Nations World Water Development Report, 2018, warned that by 2030, the global demand for fresh water is likely to exceed supply by 40%. Added to population growth, climate change has the potential to lead to changes in rainfall regimes, with the potential of increased flooding and drought. Currently, 1.2 billion people are at risk from flooding, but this is predicted to increase to about 1.6 billion, i.e., nearly 20% of the total world population, by 2050. In line with this, replacing deteriorating water management infrastructure that can no longer cope is economically unfeasible, impracticable from a construction point of view, and likely to fail in the long term. To address these issues, approaches are needed that are flexible and have multiple benefits. In its World Water Development Report, 2018, the UN promotes the use of nature-based solutions to some of these problems, with the focus of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (making sure that everyone has access to a safe and affordable supply of potable water and sanitation by 2030) requiring investment in suitable infrastructure across the world. This Special Issue covers the challenges faced in managing urban water in all its forms, from potable supplies to reuse and harvesting, as well as resilient and sustainable approaches developed to address flooding and drought.

Sustainable Water Resources Management presents the most current thinking on the environmental, social, and political dimensions of sustainably managing the water supply at local, regional, or basin levels.