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_NEW: follow the development of the new web-presence wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com print download: http://bit.ly/185cRt9 Sustainable urban water supply represents a key issue today as well as in the near future. Often networks are out of date, leakage or plugging is a common issue and investments need to be considered very careful. In addition, the behaviour, i.e. the demand of the consumers varies strongly. The present issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management (Q04/2014) – Managing the Urban Water Supply - tries to provide an overview of innovative articles addressing the above issues in-depth. As always, a summary of news about the development of the web-portal is given. In the fifth year of its operation the platform is subject to a thorough re-design. This implies that the former _kt75 | mirror ( http://kt75-mirror.blogspot.com/ ) is now integrated into the large information portal http://wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com . Via th...

_NEW: follow the development of the new web-presence wolframscharnhorst.blogspot.com reprint Vulnerability assessment to delineate areas that are more susceptible to contamination from anthropogenic sources has become an important element for sensible resource management and land use planning. This contribution aims at estimating aquifer vulnerability by applying the DRASTIC model as well as utilizing sensitivity analyses to evaluate the relative importance of the model parameters for aquifer vulnerability in Kakamigahara Heights, Gifu Prefecture central Japan. An additional objective is to demonstrate the combined use of the DRASTIC and geographical information system (GIS) as an effective method for groundwater pollution risk assessment. The DRASTIC model uses seven environmental parameters (Depth to water, net Recharge, Aquifer media, Soil media, Topography, Impact of vadose zone, and hydraulic Conductivity) to characterize the hydrogeological setting and evaluate aq...

-- a _kt75 | reprint _NEW: explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here Of all the clean water that our cities consume, roughly half of it flows down our sewers to sewage treatment plants where it is treated and released back to the environment. Conventional sewage treatment plants are designed to clean this water to a degree that can be discharged to rivers or the ocean without major environmental or public health impacts. In many parts of the world, sufficient fresh water supplies are increasingly difficult to source. Water stressed cities now import water, pumped over large distances at a considerable energy cost. Los Angeles, for example, imports 8.9bn litres of water a day to meet the city’s needs. Other cities, such as Ashkelon in Israel, are investing in seawater desalination to produce drinkable water. But this process is also highly energy intensive and its application limited to coastal locations. An al...

-- a _kt75 | reprint _NEW: explore all _kt75 | publications via the news db... and leave your comments here Allowing polluters to buy, sell or trade water-quality credits could significantly reduce pollution in river basins and estuaries faster and at lower cost than requiring the facilities to meet compliance costs on their own, a new Duke University-led study finds. The scale and type of the trading programs, though critical, may matter less than just getting them started. "Our analysis shows that water-quality trading of any kind can significantly lower the costs of achieving Clean Water Act goals," said Martin W. Doyle, professor of river science and policy at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "All other things being equal, regulators should allow trading to occur at the river basin scale as an appropriate first step. Larger spatial scales may be needed later if abatement costs increase," said Doyle, who also serves as director...

-- a _kt75 | double reprint: EN/DE Download: Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q02/2014 . The environmental resources situation is shaped by changes in climatic conditions, coupled with pressures exerted by a rapidly growing global population, its increasing demands and the subsequent impacts on the environment. Current practices across the economy sectors are still not sufficiently ambitious in terms of sustainability ; they fail to ameliorate the stress conditions of vital resources like water. In recent years, the need has been highlighted for governance and management schemes that allocate resources appropriately among users (including the environment) and that promote the efficient use of such resources. The very nature of these needs calls for adequate policy responses. One of these policy responses — applied either separately or in combination with other economic or regulatory instruments — is water pricing . The use of such instruments brings a...

-- a _kt75 | reprint Download: Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q02/2014 . IRAQ depends on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for drinking water, supplying industry and irrigating massive swathes of farmland. The two rivers account for 98% of the country’s surface water. Until recently the government’s greatest concern has been the fact that the source of neither river is in the country. In the past few decades dams and diversions across Turkey and Syria have steadily reduced the quantity of water reaching Iraq. Now Iraq has a greater concern. Both waterways flow through areas of northern Iraq controlled by the Islamic State (IS), an extremist group that grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq and today claims an area the size of Jordan straddling Syria and Iraq. On August 8th America began air strikes against the group, after IS carried out a series of attacks that targeted minorities including Christians and Yazidis and threatened the semi-autonomous nort...

-- a _kt75 | reprint Download: Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q02/2014 . Abstract In 2013 faced with a critical shortage of water, the Iranian government called for water conservation and greater water use efficiency nation-wide. Despite imminent shortages , water use in Iran remains inefficient, with domestic use 70 per cent higher than the global average. Iran has a national population of 75 million people, 12 million of whom reside in the capital; demand for water is rapidly increasing, even as major lakes and groundwater resources begin to shrink. Population growth, more frequent droughts and the effects of climate change are creating the ‘perfect storm’ for future water insecurity. We are left with the question, are the proposed changes too little, too late? Paper (abbrev.) Security in the Middle East continues to focus on the political and geostrategic priorities of regional states, but a greater challenge has now presented itself, in the for...

-- a _kt75 | note Download: Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q02/2014 . The most recent issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management (Q02/2014) is freely available. In continuation of the successful publication of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management the current issue concentrates on a broad range of topics including land subsidence, implications of climate change on ground water regimes, technical developments in the small hydro power sector, etc. Geographically, the Notes once more focus on regions exposed to complicated water supply conditions: Middle-East and Asia. A number of publications tackle the named issues in detail and provide cutting-edge insights on present developments. An important, because seldom considered, region represents the Horn of Africa and the water supply issues encountered there. A comprehensive overview is provided by a dedicated report. As always all reprints are completely refere...

-- a note from _kt75  The Sahelian zone is subject to a significant drought. Missing rainfalls [ 1 ], local and regional conflicts as well as inefficient farming methods number among the key reasons [ 2 ]-[ 4 ]. Actually a fertile grassland located among the dessert in the North and the rain forest in the South, the Sahelian region is highly dependent upon sufficient rain fall [ 5 ], [ 1 ]. However, since the late 1960ies a notable decline in rainfall intensity has been recorded [ 1 ] and thus access to surface water is more and more limited [ 5 ]-[ 7 ]. As pivotal aspect for this development the global warming (climate change) has been detected. In order to tackle and overcome this critical situation in the past years a number of efforts, in particular of technical nature have been launched. One example is the successful installation of solar power operated ground water wells which are well-suited to facilitate decentralised water supply [ 8 ]. The use of ground water in ...

-- a note from _kt75 Cameroon, Namibia, Mozambique - _Grade S+ | outlook: positive Nigeria, Mali, Kongo - _Grade D- | outlook: negative A previous screening of water supply management schemes in Africa revealed preferable conditions for Cameroon, Namibia and Mozambique [ 1 ]. All three countries are characterised by well-organised operative structures both in terms of staff/know-how as well as in terms of infrastructure (_Grade S+ | outlook: positive). Especially Namibia, one of the driest countries in the region, has implemented an excellent and robust water management scheme. Of additional benefit for Namibia might the discovery of another voluminous ground water resource close to the border with Angola [ 2 ]-[ 4 ]. It will pose a challenge to as sustainable as possible use this water deposit. Cameroon, assessed to be one of the most stable countries in the region, participates in the 'Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation' which can assist to ma...

-- a note from _kt75 Worldwide, the most recent history was characterised by a drastic increase in the price of water [ 1 ], [ 2 ]. There exist a number of diverse (partially contradictory) price drivers: investment into (defective) supply and treatment infrastructure, installation of new infrastructure (incl. expansion of existing infrastructure), real and/or artificially induced water scarcity/depletion of natural water resources, failed financial speculations [ 3 ], targeted non-investment into water supply infrastructure to, for example, increase the sales volume of bottled water, etc. In addition to this there exists still a comprehensive lack of awareness on the limited resource water [ 4 ]. The rise of the price of water (along with an increase of the price of water rights) is a common phenomenon [ 5 ]-[ 8 ], but there exist particularly sensitive regions that may face particular increases in water prices: # Near Eeast (incl. Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,...

-- a note from kt75 The third issue of the Quarterly Notes on Sustainable Water Management - Q03/2012 is released. Previous releases of the Notes are available from: http://swm-group.blogspot.ch/p/kt75-mirror-downloads.html . In case of problems request your free copy of the Notes directly from: kt75@gmx.ch kt75 home:  http://kt-75.blogspot.ch/