Special Issue "Hydrology of Semi-Arid Regions, Natural Resources and their Sustainability"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Maria João Simas Guerreiro
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Engenharia Civil, University Fernando Pessoa, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal
Interests: water resources management; semiarid regions hydrology; hydrologic processes; climate change; hydrologic modeling; water quality
Prof. Eunice M. Maia de Andrade
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Engenharia Agrícola, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, 59 625 900 Mossoró, RN, Brasil
Interests: soil and water conservation; semiarid regions hydrology; climatology; environmental resilience; eco-hydrology; erosion; tropical dry forest

Special Issue Information

Dear Collegues, 

Semi-arid regions show high rainfall spatial and temporal variability and an aridity index between 0.2 and 0.5. These regions represent 15% of the total land area, and are home to 14% of the global population. Anthropogenic activities and climate change pose a challenge for extreme hydrologic events management, and inflict a continuous pressure on natural resources—soil degradation, erosion, salinity, and low soil organic carbon content—to attend the demand for goods and services, threatening the livelihoods of the population and causing migration. Some questions need to be addressed: How can we use eco-hydrology to mitigate the effects of water scarcity in a semi-arid environment? How do the regional effects of climate change impact the hydrologic response in semi-arid regions? What are the main features of the coevolution of humans and water in drylands? How can we improve social development under the uncertainties of a dry ecosystem? How can we improve ecosystem services and hydrologic resilience? What are the main bidirecional feedbacks observed in the human–water system in drylands? Knowledge of the ecosystem response (sensitivity, vulnerability, and resilience) to hydrologic processes’ interdependence, soil matrix, vegetation dynamics, and other system components, may support decision making on natural resource management towards resilience and sustainability under a changing climate.

Semi-arid regions experience pressure on their natural resources and fragile ecosystems. Climate change and population growth may compromise products and ecosystem services, either by destroying forests, degrading soil and water quality, and/or challenging food safety. Mitigation actions for semi-arid regions shall focus on improving resilience to water scarcity to attend to changing ecosystems and anthropogenic demands for ecosystem services.

This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality research papers on the interdisciplinary fields of hydrology, natural resources and sustainability to support decision making towards the provision of ecosystem services to improve livelihood in semi-arid regions.

Prof. Maria João Simas Guerreiro
Prof. Eunice M. Maia de Andrade
Guest Editors

Keywords

  • eco-hydrology
  • social hydrology
  • environmental services
  • sustainable development
  • climate action
  • rural development
  • dry environment

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Impact of Social and Economic Development on Sediment Load of the Yellow River
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7976; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147976 - 16 Jul 2021
Viewed by 373
Abstract
Approximately 90% of the sediment yield of the Yellow River is derived from the Loess Plateau. In this paper, the Loess Plateau was used as the research object. To investigate the influence of economic and social development on reducing sediment load of the [...] Read more.
Approximately 90% of the sediment yield of the Yellow River is derived from the Loess Plateau. In this paper, the Loess Plateau was used as the research object. To investigate the influence of economic and social development on reducing sediment load of the Yellow River, a mathematical method was employed with hydrological and sediment data from three hydrological stations (Toudaoguai and Sanmenxia at the Yellow River, and Ganguyi at the Yan River) as well as per capita GDP data from the Yan River basin. The results showed that the reduction in runoff in the reaches between the Toudaoguai and Sanmenxia stations accounted for 39.3% of the decrease in the sediment load of the Yellow River, and the other 60.7% of the decrease may have resulted from economic and social development. Using the Yan River basin as an example, there was an inverse relationship between per capita GDP and sediment delivery during the period from 1984 to 2018. Grey relational analysis revealed a relatively high relation between the sediment load of the Yan River and the number of rural laborers transferred from the area, the afforestation area, and the tertiary industry value of Yan’an city. Thus, economic development and social transformation are highly related to sediment delivery in the basin, which may result in a decrease in sediment delivery to some extent. Full article
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Article
Modelling Small-Scale Storage Interventions in Semi-Arid India at the Basin Scale
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6129; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116129 - 29 May 2021
Viewed by 693
Abstract
There has been renewed interest in the performance, functionality, and sustainability of traditional small-scale storage interventions (check dams, farm bunds and tanks) used within semi-arid regions for the improvement of local water security and landscape preservation. The Central Groundwater Board of India is [...] Read more.
There has been renewed interest in the performance, functionality, and sustainability of traditional small-scale storage interventions (check dams, farm bunds and tanks) used within semi-arid regions for the improvement of local water security and landscape preservation. The Central Groundwater Board of India is encouraging the construction of such interventions for the alleviation of water scarcity and to improve groundwater recharge. It is important for water resource management to understand the hydrological effect of these interventions at the basin scale. The quantification of small-scale interventions in hydrological modelling is often neglected, especially in large-scale modelling activities, as data availability is low and their hydrological functioning is uncertain. A version of the Global Water Availability Assessment (GWAVA) water resources model was developed to assess the impact of interventions on the water balance of the Cauvery Basin and two smaller sub-catchments. Model results demonstrate that farm bunds appear to have a negligible effect on the average annual simulated streamflow at the outlets of the two sub-catchments and the basin, whereas tanks and check dams have a more significant and time varying effect. The open water surface of the interventions contributed to an increase in evaporation losses across the catchment. The change in simulated groundwater storage with the inclusion of interventions was not as significant as catchment-scale literature and field studies suggest. The model adaption used in this study provides a step-change in the conceptualisation and quantification of the consequences of small-scale storage interventions in large- or basin-scale hydrological models. Full article
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