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Water
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Water Resources Management and Social Issues
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Water Resources Management and Social Issues

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Resources Management, Policy and Governance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 15750

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Interests: water quality/quantity management; simulation and optimization; allocation; trading discharge permit; conflict resolution; game theories; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water resources management is a multidisciplinary problem involving, among others, social, political, and economic issues. Based on water scarcity, population growth, climate change, and various polluting resources, water resources management has in recent years become an important problem with multidimensional complexity around the world.

The socio-hydrology concept has an essential role in future research in terms of addressing the challenges of coupling human behavior and water systems, such as surface water, groundwater, transboundary resources, inter-basin transfer, reservoirs, etc. To improve the concept, it is necessary to consider further issues such as the power of actors, economic motivation and goals, and hydropolitics.

In this view, stakeholders and their utility have major roles in managing water systems; they also have conflicting goals, and therefore, a solution is required to apply conflict resolution or game theories. In other words, justice in water allocation among water users (i.e., agricultural, municipal, industrial, and environmental water use) should be considered for achieving sustainable water quality/quantity management. The behavior of users and agents in water resources management is a challenge where mathematical models could be adopted.

This Special Issue invites papers and research on systematic and dynamic water resources management following social behavior, water quality and quantity allocation, economic targets, solving conflicts, water justice, and environmental sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water allocation
  • hydropolitics
  • socio-hydrology
  • game theory
  • justice
  • water right
  • waste load allocation
  • water economics
  • sustainable environment

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 6141 KiB  
Article
Research on Evolutionary Game Analysis of Spatial Cooperation for Social Governance of Basin Water Pollution
by Minghao Bai, Meilin Chen, Liyuan Zhang, Yeqing Duan and Shenbei Zhou
Water 2022, 14(16), 2564; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14162564 - 20 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1581
Abstract
Given that the two institutional arrangements of government regulation and market allocation cannot effectively solve the conflict between individual and collective interests in the process of water pollution control, this work presents a useful attempt on the third institutional arrangement of environmental governance—social [...] Read more.
Given that the two institutional arrangements of government regulation and market allocation cannot effectively solve the conflict between individual and collective interests in the process of water pollution control, this work presents a useful attempt on the third institutional arrangement of environmental governance—social governance—to overcome the dilemma. Based on common pool resource theory and multi-person prisoner game analysis framework, it incorporates environmental damage function, spatial network structure, and strategy update based on a learning mechanism into the analysis framework. In addition, it constructs a set of spatial cooperative evolution game models of basin water pollution social governance, so as to test the guarantee effect of the spontaneous collective action conditions of basin polluters on the long-term survival of the new system. This work adopts the Monte Carlo numerical simulation method to conduct the simulation experiment research. The experimental results show it is possible to successfully form collective actions entirely dependent on emitters, which yet requires a large initial scale of cooperation, that is, a majority of the emitter group autonomously abides by credible commitments. In this process, transparent full information and active organizational mobilization have a positive effect on the collective action development. The organic combination can better guide emitters to abide by credible commitments to achieve the optimal collective interests. The study results can provide a theoretical and practical reference for the social governance mechanism at a large-scale basin. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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12 pages, 1203 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Urban Agriculture on Water Security: A Spatial Approach
by Menglu Sun and Takaaki Kato
Water 2022, 14(16), 2529; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14162529 - 17 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1411
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the influence of agricultural development under urbanization on agriculture water supply internalization. Water supply internalization is the process of measuring water security to estimate the degree of water supply sustainably by region inside. According to water users, Water [...] Read more.
This study aimed to examine the influence of agricultural development under urbanization on agriculture water supply internalization. Water supply internalization is the process of measuring water security to estimate the degree of water supply sustainably by region inside. According to water users, Water supply internalization could be divided into Agriculture and urban water supply internalization. Agriculture and urban water supply internalization are calculated in this study. This study employed a spatial model to analyze agricultural water supply internalization and its influencing factors. The results showed that the agriculture development associated with agricultural population and crop typology impacts agricultural water supply internalization. Urban water supply internalization increases lead to an increase in agricultural water supply internalization. The agricultural population’s spatial agglomerations lead to increased agricultural water supply internalization. Agricultural population’s spatial agglomerations mean neighborhood city agriculture population share similar trend. Agricultural and urban water supply internalization have spatial autoconnection. The study area consisted of 30 cities in four provinces in North China: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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19 pages, 627 KiB  
Article
Hydroelectricity, Environmental Governance and Anti-Reflexivity: Lessons from Muskrat Falls
by Mark C. J. Stoddart and Cole Atlin
Water 2022, 14(13), 1992; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14131992 - 21 Jun 2022
Viewed by 2440
Abstract
Hydroelectric projects are often pursued on the promise of economic development and environmental co-benefits as a source of low-carbon energy. We analyse the case of the Muskrat Falls hydropower mega-project (located in Labrador, Canada) to understand why this project failed to live up [...] Read more.
Hydroelectric projects are often pursued on the promise of economic development and environmental co-benefits as a source of low-carbon energy. We analyse the case of the Muskrat Falls hydropower mega-project (located in Labrador, Canada) to understand why this project failed to live up to its promised benefits, but instead delivered a double disaster of economic cost and environmental risk. The key concepts of anti-reflexivity and deep stories help us understand why the project assumed an aura of inevitability in political and public discourse until it was too late to change course. Drawing on publicly available data and secondary sources, we identify the constellation of social forces that maintained political anti-reflexivity about the economic and environmental risks of the project and led to a double economic and environmental disaster. Our analysis identifies vital lessons for countering anti-reflexivity and improving environmental governance related to energy mega-projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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28 pages, 6728 KiB  
Article
Inter-Annual and Seasonal Variability of Flows: Delivering Climate-Smart Environmental Flow Reference Values
by Sergio A. Salinas-Rodríguez, Nick C. van de Giesen and Michael E. McClain
Water 2022, 14(9), 1489; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091489 - 6 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2162
Abstract
Environmental flow (eflow) reference values play a key role in environmental water science and practice. In Mexico, eflow assessments are set by a norm in which the frequency of occurrence is the managing factor to integrate inter-annual and seasonal flow variability components into [...] Read more.
Environmental flow (eflow) reference values play a key role in environmental water science and practice. In Mexico, eflow assessments are set by a norm in which the frequency of occurrence is the managing factor to integrate inter-annual and seasonal flow variability components into environmental water reserves. However, the frequency parameters have been used indistinctively between streamflow types. In this study, flow variability contributions in 40 rivers were evaluated based on hydrology, climate, and geography. Multivariate assessments were conducted based on a standardized contribution index for the river types grouping (principal components) and significant differences (one-way PERMANOVA). Eflow requirements for water allocation were calculated for different management objectives according to the frequency-of-occurrence baseline and an adjustment to reflect the differences between river types. Results reveal that there are significant differences in the flow variability between hydrological conditions and streamflow types (p-values < 0.05). The performance assessment reveals that the new frequency of occurrence delivers climate-smart reference values at least at an acceptable level (for 85–87% of the cases, r2 ≥ 0.8, slope ≤ 3.1), strengthening eflow assessments and implementations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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32 pages, 16238 KiB  
Article
Hydrological Response of the Wami–Ruvu Basin to Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes and Its Impacts for the Future
by Jamila Ngondo, Joseph Mango, Joel Nobert, Alfonse Dubi, Xiang Li and Heqin Cheng
Water 2022, 14(2), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14020184 - 10 Jan 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3223
Abstract
The evaluation of the hydrological responses of river basins to land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes is crucial for sustaining water resources. We assessed the impact of LULC changes (1990–2018) on three hydrological components (water yield (WYLD), evapotranspiration (ET), and sediment yield (SYLD)) of [...] Read more.
The evaluation of the hydrological responses of river basins to land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes is crucial for sustaining water resources. We assessed the impact of LULC changes (1990–2018) on three hydrological components (water yield (WYLD), evapotranspiration (ET), and sediment yield (SYLD)) of the Wami–Ruvu Basin (WRB) in Tanzania, using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The 1990 LULC imagery was used for SWAT simulation, and imagery from 2000, 2010, and 2018 was used for comparison with modelled hydrological parameters. The model was calibrated (1993–2008) and validated (2009–2018) in the SWAT-CUP after allowing three years (1990–1992) for the warm-up period. The results showed a decrease in WYLD (3.11 mm) and an increase in ET (29.71 mm) and SYLD (from 0.12 t/h to 1.5 t/h). The impact of LULC changes on WYLD, ET, and SYLD showed that the increase in agriculture and built-up areas and bushland, and the contraction of forest led to the hydrological instability of the WRB. These results were further assessed with climatic factors, which revealed a decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperature by 1 °C. This situation seems to look more adverse in the future, based on the LULC of the year 2036 as predicted by the CA–Markov model. Our study calls for urgent intervention by re-planning LULC and re-assessing hydrological changes timely. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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Review

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26 pages, 1949 KiB  
Review
Groundwater Management and Allocation Models: A Review
by Khadijeh Norouzi Khatiri, Banafsheh Nematollahi, Samira Hafeziyeh, Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan, Mohammad Reza Nikoo and Ghazi Al-Rawas
Water 2023, 15(2), 253; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15020253 - 6 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3746
Abstract
Effective groundwater management and allocation are essential from economic and social points of view due to increasing high-quality water demands. This study presents a review and bibliometric analysis of the popular techniques in groundwater management and allocation models, which have not yet been [...] Read more.
Effective groundwater management and allocation are essential from economic and social points of view due to increasing high-quality water demands. This study presents a review and bibliometric analysis of the popular techniques in groundwater management and allocation models, which have not yet been captured in the literature, as our knowledge allows. To this extent, the literature on this state-of-the-art is categorized based on four primary sectors intervening in efficient groundwater management. The first sector discusses the simulation and surrogate models as the central groundwater predictive models, wherein quantitative and qualitative groundwater models are scrutinized. The second section is dedicated to applying different classic and smart optimization models, followed by a summary of state-of-the-art works on applying accurate and heuristic optimization models in groundwater management. Third, uncertainty analysis techniques in conjunction with groundwater modeling are studied as analytical tools, approximation methods, and simulation methods to identify the most exciting subject fields. The fourth section reviews decision-making models coupled with groundwater models as multi-criteria decision-making, social choice, and game-theory models. Finally, a summary of this review and goals for future studies are presented. Additionally, several new ideas are recognized, advising scholars to find critical gaps in the field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Resources Management and Social Issues)
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