Search Results (4,152)

Despite the widespread perception of Chilean Patagonia as water-abundant, the region exhibits marked climatic and landscape heterogeneity. This study evaluates relative water availability across Coyhaique Province (12,712 km²), where projections indicate a trend toward warmer and drier conditions. The province has a marked west–east gradient: humid valleys in the west contrast with much drier areas to the east, where most of the population and development are concentrated. To identify water stress hotspots, we combine spatially explicit water yield estimates derived from the InVEST Seasonal Water Yield model with an anthropization index used as a proxy for water demand, constructing a relative Water Stress Index. The results indicate that water stress increases toward the east, driven by the combined influence of climate variables and anthropogenic pressure. These results indicate that the characterization of Patagonia as uniformly water-rich does not hold at the provincial scale, and highlight the limitations of coarse regional assessments in capturing intra-regional hydrological heterogeneity. The spatial pattern of water stress revealed here exposes a mismatch between the resolution at which hydrological heterogeneity operates and the scale at which prevailing water governance frameworks are formulated, underscoring the need for bottom-up, fine-resolution diagnostics that incorporate local hydrological variability into water planning and governance. The province-scale analysis presented here provides a representative case study for Aysén and illustrates the broader relevance of spatially explicit diagnostics in contexts where regional indicators mask local water stress. Strengthening monitoring networks, protecting headwater catchments, and promoting a decentralized approach to water management remain essential to reduce the risk of human-driven water scarcity. Full article

The mountainous southwest of Saudi Arabia exhibits complex, highly seasonal precipitation driven by Indian Ocean monsoon inflows and orographic lifting. To characterize storm hyetographs, cluster analysis was applied to 8972 rainfall events recorded at 151 gauges. Two primary clusters emerged: one with early, intense peaks and another with later peak intensities, broadly reflecting windward versus leeward storm behavior. A locally derived hyetograph profile (AI) was constructed from the cluster centroids and benchmarked against standard design-storm distributions (Uniform, SCS Type II, Huff quartiles). Across fit metrics—cumulative RMSE, Kolmogorov–Smirnov distance, and cosine-intensity similarity—the AI distribution provided the best match for ~46% of storms, markedly outperforming canonical profiles (Uniform and SCS Type II each best-fit only ~11–12%). These results indicate that region-specific rainfall distributions more accurately represent precipitation patterns than conventional profiles, and that tailored hyetographs can improve hydrologic modeling and water-resources assessments in this climatically heterogeneous region. Full article

The primary aim of this study is to identify the driving mechanisms behind long-term water-level changes and drought–flood transitions in Dongting Lake. To achieve this, we employed methods including the Improved Standardized Water Level Index (ISWI), Mann–Kendall test, Sen’s slope estimator, and a random forest–SHAP model to analyze hydro-meteorological data from 1992 to 2023. The results demonstrate a significant overall decline and spatial heterogeneity in water levels, alongside a systemic shift in the regional pattern from flood-dominated conditions to frequent droughts with intense drought–flood abrupt alternations. Crucially, during the critical autumn water recession period, runoff anomalies from the Yangtze River’s three outlets emerged as the dominant factor driving water-level changes, far exceeding the influence of local precipitation. Furthermore, a recent downward shift in the water level–discharge relationship indicates that under identical inflow conditions, water levels are now 1.5 to 2.0 m lower than in previous decades. These general findings highlight that critical-period inflow reductions and altered boundary hydrodynamic conditions mutually amplify low-water-level risks, providing a scientific reference for adaptive water resource management in complex river-connected lakes. Full article

Transboundary river basins (TRBs) sustain billions of livelihoods, yet they face enduring systemic challenges of cooperative water governance. Although collaborative governance models consistently yield acceptable outcomes, adversarial dynamics and zero-sum approaches continue to dominate transboundary water management. This systematic review synthesizes the peer-reviewed literature (2000–2026) to evaluate how four major governance dimensions—and the cross-cutting integration of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus—shape the effectiveness of water diplomacy in international basins. Socio-economic analysis reveals that benefit-sharing arrangements grounded in joint investment outperform zero-sum volumetric allocation, though implementation remains constrained by institutional fragmentation and governance lock-in. Power relations analysis demonstrates that material, institutional, knowledge-based, and narrative-framing asymmetries systematically define the range of achievable agreements and the reliability of cooperative commitments, with case analysis from the Nile, Mekong, Tigris–Euphrates, and Central Asian basins showing that comparable hydrological conditions yield divergent diplomatic outcomes depending on how power is distributed. Stakeholder engagement findings indicate that formal participatory mechanisms frequently produce symbolic rather than substantive inclusion, particularly where structural imbalances limit procedural access. Gender analysis provides that women’s inclusion improves agricultural productivity, water-use efficiency, and adaptive capacity—functioning as a governance variable with measurable system-performance effects rather than solely an equity objective. The WEF nexus operates as the integrative mechanism binding these dimensions, reframing diplomacy from volumetric allocation toward adaptive benefit arrangements that coordinate interdependent services across sectors. This review concludes that effective transboundary governance emerges from the concurrent integration of socio-economic benefit-sharing, power-responsive institutions, meaningful stakeholder participation, gender equity, and nexus-based coordination in global TRBs. Full article

This study advances research on river extreme events by applying the peaks-over-threshold (POT) approach to Lithuanian rivers. Extreme flow regimes were analysed for three rivers representing distinct hydrological regions and one large river. Results from the annual maximum series and three POT samples (POT1, POT2, and POT3) demonstrated the added value of the POT approach, as it enabled substantially more information on flood magnitude, frequency, and seasonality to be extracted from a single daily discharge time series. Trend analysis and seasonal flood frequency assessment revealed pronounced differences among rivers in regions with contrasting runoff-generation processes. Overall, the POT approach provided a more comprehensive characterisation of extreme flow behaviour, particularly for rivers susceptible to frequent flash flooding. Full article

Landslides are one of the most common natural hazards in China, and the efficient screening of important factors is crucial for landslide susceptibility mapping. Taking the Zigui–Badong section of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) as the study area, this research initially selected 25 evaluation factors based on topography, geology, hydrology, remote sensing images, and previous studies. Thirteen key factors were obtained through analysis. Three machine learning models—RF, DT, and XGBoost—were then used for landslide susceptibility mapping, with SHAP and LIME employed to interpret the models. Finally, a scoring method was used to rank the six sets of results and compare them with those from the traditional AUC-based Recursive Feature Elimination (AUC-RFE) method. The results showed that the core factor sets screened by interpretable methods outperformed those from AUC-RFE. To further obtain accurate core factor sets, two additional interpretable methods—PI and Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM)—were integrated, ultimately identifying a core factor set consisting of eight factors including Elevation, Slope Height, and Aspect. This set achieved an AUC value of 0.931, only 0.003 lower than that of the 13 filtered factors. The screening method proposed in this paper can significantly improve the efficiency of factor acquisition, reduce the difficulty of factor acquisition, and provide a new approach for the selection of key factors in landslide susceptibility assessment. Full article

Uranium is a resource with exceptionally high energy density, releasing substantially more energy per unit mass than conventional fossil fuels. In uranium mining, in situ leaching offers significant advantages over open-pit and underground mining, including reduced environmental impact, lower operational costs, enhanced safety, and improved controllability. Within the in situ leaching framework, acid leaching faces limitations in high-carbonate ore bodies, while alkaline leaching is unsuitable for deposits rich in pyrite and other sulfide minerals due to side reactions and precipitate formation that hinder leaching efficiency. In contrast, CO₂-O₂ leaching, as a neutral leaching approach, exhibits broader applicability across diverse ore types and geological settings. Incorporating CO₂ into the leaching process also enables carbon utilization, offering a potential pathway to cleaner uranium extraction aligned with carbon reduction and sustainable energy goals. This review systematically examines the geochemical principles, as well as hydrological and transport phenomena governing CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching. Recent technological advances are summarized, including progress in reaction kinetics and leaching efficiency, leaching solution design and control, and reservoir modification. Furthermore, the techno-economic implications of CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching are critically assessed, with particular emphasis on operational cost structures and the evolution of techno-economic analysis methodologies. On this basis, key challenges and future directions are identified. This work aims to support the future large-scale and economically efficient deployment of CO₂-O₂ in situ leaching for uranium resource development. Full article

Against the background of a warming and humidifying climate on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, increasing attention has been paid to the sustainability of water resources and ecosystems in the Qinghai Lake Basin. Investigating the characteristics of precipitation stable isotopes and moisture sources provides critical insights into the driving mechanisms of the regional hydrological cycle. In this study, precipitation samples collected at the Qinghai Lake Wetland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station from June 2023 to October 2024 were analyzed for hydrogen (δ²H) and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) stable isotopes. The temporal variations of δ²H, δ¹⁸O, and deuterium excess (d-excess) were characterized, and their relationships with air temperature and precipitation amount were examined. In addition, a backward trajectory model was employed to identify the moisture sources of precipitation during the observation period. The results indicate that: (1) precipitation stable isotopes and d-excess exhibit pronounced seasonal variability, characterized by enrichment in summer and depletion in spring and autumn; (2) the Local Meteoric Water Line (LMWL) for the basin is defined as δ²H = 8.15δ¹⁸O + 38.71 (R² = 0.93), with both slope and intercept exceeding those of the Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL); (3) precipitation isotopes show a discernible temperature effect but are jointly controlled by multiple moisture sources and meteorological factors; and (4) backward trajectory analysis combined with d-excess values reveals that precipitation moisture is primarily derived from westerly transport, while locally recycled moisture and continental air masses also exert significant influences. Overall, these findings reveal the multi-source driving mechanisms of the regional hydrological cycle and provide critical scientific support for understanding hydrological processes in alpine inland basins and their responses to future climate change, thereby contributing to the sustainable management of regional water resources. Full article

Rail-trail corridors in the agricultural Midwest exhibit layered ecological conditions influenced by the material legacy of railroad infrastructure and contemporary land use pressures. This study uses a mixed-methods approach integrating GIS analysis, field documentation, and open-response surveys with trail managers to characterize the structural and ecological heterogeneity of two rail-trails within the Corn Belt. Spatial methods quantify variation in right of way width, land cover context, connectivity, and patterns of fragmentation, revealing that corridors shift in response to agricultural edges, successional woodlands, riparian zones, and urban conditions. Field visits and on-site sketching provide fine-grained insight into vegetative structure, topography, and edge dynamics, while the thematic analysis of survey responses highlights how management regimes, resource limitations, invasive species, and adjacent land uses shape ecological patterns along the trail. Together, these methods support the development of a typology of rail-trails based on their vegetative, hydrological, and disturbance patterns. We argue that design and management should work with the nuance of the corridors, noting the potential for landscape experimentation. Novel design approaches can support the performance of rail-trails as ecological infrastructure while enabling meaningful human–environment interactions within the right of way. Full article

Urban cities have been intensely prone to floods during extreme rainfall events and water scarcity issues during dry periods in recent years. In this context, identifying rainwater harvesting potential (RWHP) regions in urban environments provides a sustainable approach to mitigate both urban flooding and water security, thereby improving urban stormwater management. Geospatial mapping of RWHP has tried to consider various hydrometeorological, topographical and other geospatial datasets, but integrating socio-economic factors over urban environments has not been explored much. The present study integrated remote sensing and hydrological-based information, such as slope, soil type, drainage density, geomorphology, topographic wetness index (TWI), land use land cover (LULC), rainfall, runoff coefficient, proximity to roads, and proximity to settlements for geospatial mapping of RWH potential zones for Hyderabad city using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and weighted overlay analysis (WOA). The resulting RWH potential map indicates that 80.20% of the area falls within the “low” potential category, 17.53% as “moderate”, 2.0% as “very low”, and only 0.25% as “high” potential, mainly in the southeastern portion near the Hussain Sagar outlet. These categories are spatially verified using Sentinel-2 LULC and Google Earth imagery to assess the qualitative plausibility of the mapped RWH potential zones. Northwestern areas, with loamy soils and mild slopes, demonstrate suitability for rooftop collection and percolation structures, highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed modelling framework for sustainable stormwater management for urban environments. Full article

This study evaluates deterministic flood fatality models using a harmonised dataset of river and flash flood events in Europe (1980–2024). The objective is to quantify differences across data sources and critically assess the applicability of commonly used prediction models for hydrological floods, with particular emphasis on flash floods, which remain poorly represented in existing methodologies. The analysis integrates large-scale databases on flood fatalities (HANZE, EM-DAT) with detailed event-based studies containing hazard and other indicators, enabling a combined evaluation from different sources. Three model groups are assessed by comparing predicted and observed fatalities: Damage–Fatality, Depth–Fatality, and Depth–Velocity–Fatality approaches. Results confirm discrepancy between exposure and mortality: river floods dominate in terms of affected population (87%) and economic losses (71%), whereas flash floods account for nearly half of all fatalities despite affecting only 13% of people. All evaluated models show significant limitations for prediction of flash floods fatalities; single-parameter approaches perform poorly, while multi-parameter models remain highly sensitive to uncertain hydraulic inputs. The study demonstrates that current methods are not transferable to flash flood conditions and highlights the need for integrated, multi-variable approaches supported by consistent and high-quality datasets. The main contributions of the study are the first systematic validation of widely used models against historical river and flash flood events, revealing their uncertainties, and a comprehensive assessment of their robustness and sensitivity to key input indicators. Full article

The power system is the backbone of the energy network, and overhead lines are its vital structures. Weather threats may jeopardise the reliability of lines and make them a weak link. In particular, heavy rainfall episodes can cause failures, especially in mountain areas. Current climate changes may exacerbate the effects on the ground, intensifying rainfall episodes and increasing the frequency of extreme events. In this context, debris flows triggered by rather intense precipitation and characterised by fast kinematics can destroy pylons and electric connections, affecting the infrastructures not only in the upper ridges but also downstream across the fan apex, where powerlines are much more distributed. This study presents an in-depth back-analysis of two debris flow events triggered in concomitance with a heavy cloudburst that occurred in Talamona (Sondrio Province, Italy) in July 2008 and in Campo Tartano (Sondrio Province, Italy) in April 2024. These events hit onsite powerlines, causing blackouts and showing the potential vulnerabilities of the local electricity system. An analysis of rainfall-induced landslide failure is carried out using the numerical model CRHyME (Climatic Rainfall Hydrogeological Modelling Experiment) and MIST-DF (Modelling Impulsive Sediment Transport—Debris Flow) with the aim of reconstructing the dynamics of the first (i.e., Talamona) geo-hydrological event. Powerline vulnerability is also investigated against debris flow dynamics, discussing possible strategies to reduce pylon exposure and to increase the resilience of the local electro-energetic network. Since, under climate change scenarios, heavy rainfall episodes are projected to intensify, an alternative approach based on rainfall-threshold curves is presented and applied to both cases of study. The latter, already implemented for civil protection purposes, could be useful in early-warning procedures against potential debris flow hazards. For both methodologies, the findings from the study confirm the strength of the approaches and foster their application in different situations (back-analysis and early warning) to reduce powerlines’ geo-hydrological risks. Full article

At around 8:40 a.m. on 17 July 2024, the Wanshuitian landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) experienced a deformation failure characterized by thrust load-caused deformations and high-speed sliding. Using geological surveys and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography, this study divided the Wanshuitian landslide area into five zones: sliding initiation (A1), secondary disintegration (A2), main accumulation (B1), right falling (B2), and left falling (B3) zones. Through monitoring data analysis and GeoStudio-based numerical simulations, this study revealed the mechanisms behind the landslide failure mode characterized by slope sliding approximately along the strike of the rock formation under the coupling effect of hydrological and geological conditions. The results indicate that factors inducing the landslide failure include the geomorphic feature of alternating grooves and ridges, the lithologic assemblage characterized by interbeds of soft and hard rocks, the slope structure with well-developed joints, and the sustained heavy rains in the preceding period. In the Wanshuitian landslide area, mudstone valleys are prone to accumulate rainwater, which can infiltrate directly into the weak interlayers of rock masses and soften the rock masses. Multi-peak rain events with a short time interval serve as a critical factor in groundwater recharge. Within 17 days preceding its failure, the Wanshuitian landslide experienced a superimposed process of heavy and secondary rain events with a short interval (four days). Rainwater from the first heavy rain event failed to completely discharge during the short interval, while the secondary rain event also caused rainwater accumulation. These led to a continuous rise in the groundwater table, a constant decrease in the shear strength of the slope, and ultimately the landslide instability. Since the landslide sliding in the dip direction of the rock formation was impeded, the main sliding direction of the landslide formed an angle of 88° with this direction. This led to a unique failure mode characterized by slope sliding approximately along the strike of the rock formation. Based on these findings, this study proposed characteristics for the early identification of the failure of similar landslides, aiming to provide a robust scientific basis for the monitoring, early warning, and prevention and control of the failure of similar landslides. Full article

Socio-environmental conflicts in mining regions are often examined through political, economic, or social lenses, while the role of land-system transformation remains less integrated into quantitative analysis. This study examines the co-evolution of socio-environmental conflict and territorial change in Las Bambas (Apurímac, Peru) as a socio-territorial process. Annual conflict records from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office (2007–2024) were combined with annual land-cover data from MapBiomas. Yearly conflict influence zones were reconstructed from reported affected communities and geographic features using buffered spatial entities and concave hull polygons. Clustering methods (K-medoids, DBSCAN, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering) and FP-Growth association rule mining were applied to 23 unique conflicts consolidated from the original records and encoded with 10 root causes. The most intense conflict phases were accompanied by measurable landscape transformations, including the emergence of mining-related land cover from 2012 onward, sustained loss of high-Andean natural vegetation, expansion of agricultural mosaics, urban growth along the Apurímac–Cusco corridor, and hydrological alterations in wetlands and headwaters. Three conflict typologies were identified, with unfulfilled company commitments emerging as the most recurrent co-occurring grievance. The dynamic polygon approach offers a replicable framework for linking conflict records with land-system change in extractive regions. Full article

Surface water systems are increasingly exposed to multiple pressures generated by climate variability, intensified water resource exploitation, and evolving geopolitical dynamics. This study provides a novel contribution by identifying critical threshold effects and non-linear interactions that influence nitrate concentrations through an integrated information systems framework. It develops an integrated information-system-based analytical framework that combines hydrological, climatic, geopolitical, and strategic indicators to shape the broader contextual framework within which hydrological and climatic pressures operate, rather than serving as direct predictors. Considering the nitrate concentration in rivers as a key parameter of water quality, the paper goes beyond univariate analysis of nitrite concentration, examining its relationship with four explanatory variables: the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+), the number of heat stress days (Heat_Stress), the Geopolitical Risk Index (GPR), and a proxy variable representing the presence of strategic infrastructure (Nuclear_State) using a Reduced Error Pruning Tree (REPTree) decision tree algorithm with 10-fold cross-validation. The results indicate that climatic stress emerges as the primary predictor, with a critical threshold of approximately 7.83 heat stress days, beyond which nitrate concentrations increase significantly. Under conditions of high climatic stress and intensive water exploitation (WEI+ ≥ 67.39), predicted nitrate levels exceed 20 mg/L and can reach extreme values of up to 58.82 mg/L. In contrast, low hydrological pressure (WEI+ < 0.39) combined with moderate climatic stress is associated with very low nitrate concentrations, around 2.75 mg/L. The model demonstrates strong predictive performance, with a correlation coefficient of 0.976, a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.593, a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 2.046, and a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) area exceeding 0.94 for classification tasks. While geopolitical and strategic variables do not act as direct predictors, they contribute to shaping the contextual framework influencing water resource management and environmental vulnerability. Overall, the study highlights the non-linear and systemic nature of water quality dynamics and demonstrates the effectiveness of decision tree-based models within integrated information systems for supporting environmental monitoring and decision-making under conditions of climate stress and geopolitical uncertainty. Full article