abstract: The worldwide supply of potable fresh water is ever decreasing. While 2.5% of Earth's water is fresh, only 1% is accessible. Of this water, the World Health Organization estimates that only one-third can be used to meet our daily needs while the other two-thirds are unusable due to contamination. As the world population continues to grow and climate change reduces water security, we must consider not only solutions, but evaluate the perceptions and reactions of individuals in order to successfully implement such solutions. To that end, the goal of this dissertation is to explore human attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors around water issues by conducting cross-cultural comparisons of (1) water risks and solutions, (2) wastewater knowledge and acceptance, and (3) motivators for willingness to use treated wastewater. Previous research in these domains has primarily focused on a single site or national context. While such research is valuable for establishing how and why cultural context matters, comparative studies are also needed to help link perceptions at local and global scales. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach grounded in anthropological methods and theory, I use interview data collected in a range of international sites as part of the Arizona State University's Global Ethnohydrology Study. With funding from National Science Foundation grants to the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC) and the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP LTER), this dissertation explores cross-cultural perceptions of water threats and management strategies, specifically wastewater reclamation and reuse, in order to make recommendations for policy makers and water managers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2016

Submitted by Lucienne Costa (lucienneferreira@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-04-13T17:55:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JOÃO DEHON DE ARAÚJO PONTES FILHO – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2018.pdf: 3164932 bytes, checksum: ca3f762e9350a916f6bb046e39613cd8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-13T17:55:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JOÃO DEHON DE ARAÚJO PONTES FILHO – DISSERTAÇÃO (PPGECA) 2018.pdf: 3164932 bytes, checksum: ca3f762e9350a916f6bb046e39613cd8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-07 / Grande parcela dos escassos recursos hídricos do semiárido brasileiro estão armazenados nos aquíferos aluviais, servindo como importante fonte para o abastecimento de comunidades rurais e a irrigação de pequeno porte, diante da intermitência dos rios da região. Apesar da importância desses aquíferos, esgoto doméstico, tratado ou não, é depositado nos leitos secos desses rios, gerando uma recarga não gerenciada desses aquíferos que pode provocar impactos negativos, fato que demanda a criação de estratégias em busca de possibilitar o correto manejo desse sistema. Uma opção é realizar a recarga gerenciada desses aquíferos, aproveitando-se da infraestrutura hídrica existente, formada por barragens associadas aos sistemas de tratamento de esgoto. Para formulação de tal estratégia nesse estudo, buscou-se um local que possuísse características representativas da região. Foram levantados dados litológicos e monitorados o nível estático e a qualidade da água do aquífero, assim como sua relação com a precipitação. Dessa forma, o sistema, formado pelo aquífero do Rio Sucuru, o açude Sumé e o esgoto produzido pela cidade de Sumé-PB, foi estudado e observou-se que a concentração de cloreto, utilizado como traçador para indicar a presença de esgoto, manteve-se elevada na zona urbana, devido à falta de saneamento. Porém, tanto seus valores, como a variação deles ao longo do tempo, vão diminuindo com o transcorrer do fluxo subterrâneo. Ainda, em busca de entender a efetividade do tratamento solo-aquífero na região, comparou-se as análises de nutrientes e de indicador bacteriológico do poço com maior presença de cloreto e do esgoto tratado, obtendo-se resultados melhores para o efluente após passagem pelo solo do que pelo sistema de lagoas de estabilização. Apesar dessa aparente capacidade de tratamento do aquífero para tais parâmetros, o mesmo não possui capacidade de remoção de cloreto, o que mostra a necessidade de realizar recarga com águas de menores concentrações, objetivando garantir seus usos e evitar risco de salinização. Diante disso, a estratégia proposta foi dividida em quatro medidas, duas utilizando o esgoto e duas recursos hídricos superficiais, as quais consideram os desafios financeiros e operacionais que podem surgir, de modo a promover: (i) reuso de águas servidas, (ii) diminuir as perdas por evaporação, e, consequentemente, (iii) aumentar a oferta. Sendo assim, essa proposta de promoção da gestão integrada dos recursos hídricos da região atuará no sentido de atingir os objetivos de desenvolvimento do milênio. / Great amount of scarce water resources from Brazilian semiarid are stored at alluvial aquifers, serving as important source to supply rural communities and small irrigation, due to its intermittent rivers. Despite the importance of this aquifers, wastewater, treated or not, is disposed at dry riverbed, generating an un-managed aquifer recharge that can lead to negative impacts, demanding creation of strategy searching for correct management of this system. One option is to manage recharge this aquifers, taking advantage of hydric works, made by dams, in conjunction with treated wastewater. To formulate this strategy, a site that possess representative characteristics of the region was chosen, in which lithologic data and of water quality and hydraulic heads were monitored, as their relationship with precipitation. Therefore, the system made by Sucuru River, Sumé Dam and wastewater produced by the city of Sumé, in the State of Paraíba, were studied. It was observed that chloride concentration, used as a tracer to indicate wastewater presence due to lack of sanitation, kept high at the urban zone. However, its values and variation with time decrease along the aquifer. Seeking to understand the effectivity of soil-aquifer treatment, the presence of nutrients and bacteriological indicator were compered between the well with highest amount of chloride and the effluent of the wastewater treatment plant and better results were found for the passage of wastewater through the soil than the system composed by stabilization lagoons. Despite this apparent capacity of treatment from the aquifer, it cannot remove chloride, demonstrating the need to use water with less concentration of this parameter in order to secure its uses and avoid salinization hazard. In face of that, the proposed strategy was divided in four measures, two utilizing wastewater and two superficial water resources available and they consider financial and operational challenges that may occur, in order to promote: (i) water reuse, (ii) reduce evaporation losses and, consequently, (iii) increase offer. This proposal to promote integrated management of existing water resources will act to achieve millennium development goals.

Water scarcity is both natural and man-made phenomenon. Water control and uneven distribution of upstream TeestaRiver water makes artificial scarcity in downstream areas which can be minimized at least to the water stress level by balancing distribution and sustainable water use. Tasseled Cap transformation and NDVI methods were used in this study in order to find the magnitude of water scarcity in the downstream areas. NDVI and Tasseled Cap Greenness methods were applied to get proxy for soil moisture values in the form of biomass content and Tasseled Cap Wetness method were used to detect change in soil moisture content from Landsat TM and ETM+ data (1989-2010). System dynamic analysis method was applied to identify temporal and spatial differences between supply and demand of water in the TeestaRiver catchments area in the northwestern part of Bangladesh. It was found that, the vegetation cover and soil moisture content changed and shifted over time. Overall vegetation declined between 1989 and 2010 and soil moisture content also turned down. Moreover, TeestaRiver water is playing an important role for maintaining the balance between water supply and water scarcity in this region. There is a correlation between water scarcity in the downstream and availability of water in the TeestaRiver during dry seasons. / Master's Thesis

The main purpose of this research is to investigate Jordan and Israel's participation in the Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Convenience project from human security point of view. The Red Sea – Dead Sea Water Conveyance project is planned to desalinate water from Red Sea to the Dead Sea and provide fresh water to Jordan, Israel and possibly Palestine. I use a human security approach in this investigation because it has a broader people-centered security perspective. This approach guides the research to consider water related issues and challenges in Jordan and Israel to which the project can be a possible solution. I use qualitative content analysis to investigate the issues identified by Jordan and Israel, and how the project is estimated to address these challenges. I argue that the estimated benefits that the implementation of the project provides for human well-being in Jordan and Israel makes them to participate in this project.

In a populated region with very high potential evapotranspiration, where the rainwater falls only during the winter and mostly in the mountains, the need for sustainable water management and fair distribution is crucial. In the West Bank, Palestine, the main potable water source is a karst mountain aquifer system. Precipitation occurs usually in the form of rainfall in the mountainous regions during winter period and recharges the groundwater systems. The water either reaches the surface as spring water, or is extracted through pumped wells. But the scarcity of drinking water in Palestine is not due to lack of water resources or technical knowledge of water extraction but a direct consequence of Israeli policies, water management, breached water rights and the occupation of Palestinian territories. Because of such restrictions, ground water is not an option to provide more freshwater, instead it is suggested to collect rainwater runoff in reservoirs. In 2011, the first surface water dam was built in Palestine in Al Auja, just north of Ariha. It was built as an experimental project for future dams and is therefore a small earth fill dam which will be expanded to collect water also from an adjacent watershed, much larger than the current one. The purpose of this study is to determine how much bigger the reservoir needs to be to safely store the inflowing rainwater runoff in the future. This was achieved through hydrological modelling using the HEC-HMS software which is a physical based model. The data used in this study were: 25 m DEM, land use data, soil data (both from remote sense and field visit), river network map, precipitation data, location of the gauges and geological formations. Field visits and soil tests were also great contributions of insights and knowledge crucial for the project. Hourly time-series data for precipitation for the winters 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 and monthly evapotranspiration for 2010-2011 were used as input to the model. Water level data in Al Uja reservoir with 20 minutes intervals were used to evaluate the simulations. Simulations were first optimized for the current scenario to find sets of parameters that match the changes in water level in the dam reservoir. This was done both for single rainfall events as well as for the whole seasons. The parameters creating the most matching results were used in additional simulations with the adjacent watershed included. The difference in results between the simulations with the current watershed and the expanded one was used to answer how much more water the reservoir would have received during 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 if the larger watershed were included. The model results reveal that the reservoir should have been able to hold about three times as much water as today. Installation of an inflow meter is suggested for the future along with an evaluation of local climate change in precipitation and evapotranspiration.

Climate change with a warmer climate will place higher demands on the management of drinking water by both municipalities and the population. Municipalities are forced to adapt through both technical and physical measures to cope with water supply. In Sweden, both surface and groundwater are used as drinking water.  The purpose of the study was to map the water strategies of the municipalities Borgholm, Högsby, Hultsfred and Mörbylånga in case of water shortages. Furthermore, the study examines how the management of water shortages differs in the municipalities and how adapted each municipality is to future climates. The study reviewed master plans, VA plans and VA policy and interviews with the municipalities Borgholm, Högsby, Hultsfred and Mörbylånga.  Based on the interviews with the municipalities, it was found that there was a difference between the mainland municipalities and Öland. It showed, for example, that Öland has access to salt water and hence the municipalities on Öland can use saltwater treatment technology, while the municipalities such as Högsby and Hultsfred do not have that possibility. Instead, the mainland municipalities use artificial infiltration to strengthen their groundwater supply. What can also be seen is that almost all municipalities state that they lack a complete waterplan and climate plan. And that future climate change is assumed to be a problem for future drinking water supply.

This dissertation reviews the progress in climate, land, energy and water (CLEW) multi-scale models and proposes a framework for quantitative assessment of multi-sector long-term policies. The so-called CLEW nexus approaches have shown their usefulness in assessing strategies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the contexts of increasing demands, resource scarcity, and climate change. This thesis contributes to existing research by (1) focusing on the palette of feasible long-term sustainable solutions at different scales to face current and future sustainable development challenges; (2) improving understanding of how CLEW models can best advise on sustainable development research and highlighting the strengths and limitations of existing configurations; (3) inquiring what is needed for new tools to be accessible, transferable and successful in informing the final user. This dissertation first reviews a set of models that can meet the needs of decision makers discussing research gaps and critical needs and opportunities for further model development from a scientific viewpoint. Particular attention is given to model accessibility, usability, and community support. The review explores at different scales where and why some nexus interactions are most relevant, finding, for example, that both very small scale and global models tend to neglect some CLEW interactions. This dissertation also presents the Nexus Solutions Tool (NEST): a new open modeling platform that integrates multi-scale energy-water-land resource optimization with distributed hydrological modeling. The new approach provides insights into the vulnerability of water, energy and land resources to future socioeconomic and climatic change and how multi-sectoral policies, technological solutions and investments can improve the resilience and sustainability of transformation pathways while avoiding counterproductive interactions among sectors. Finally, a case study analysis of the Indus River Basin in South Asia demonstrates the capability of the NEST framework to capture important interlinkages across system transformation pathways towards the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The results show how the Indus countries could lower costs for development and reduce soil pollution and water stress, by cooperating on water resources, electricity and food production. / Graduate

This thesis acknowledges the increasingly important issue of global freshwater scarcity. It focuses on water consumption in private households and examines whether social nudging, specifically the focus theory of normative conduct, can serve as a tool to reduce it. This is examined through action research conducted on the island of Gotland, Sweden, in cooperation with the local major housing company GotlandsHem. Despite some limitations, the findings show with a significance of 0.033 that, on average, almost 50 litres of water less were used weekly by each household after two social nudging interventions. This corresponds to 7,472.99 litres for all 151 nudged households. The findings show that the research design represents a way for housing companies to use the focus theory of normative conduct from the field of social nudging to reduce their tenants’ water consumption.

Focus on six structural factors: population growth, climate change, desertification, water scarcity, food security, urbanisation and pollution Review of environmental degradation as a cause of conflict and of conflict prevention as a new task of security policy Dialogue between academia and policy makers in international organisations as well as governmental and nongovernmental institutions In this volume security specialists, peace researchers, environmental scholars, demographers as well as climate, desertification, water, food and urbanisation specialists from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America review security and conflict prevention in the Mediterranean. They also analyse NATO¿s Mediterranean security dialogue and offer conceptualisations on security and perceptions of security challenges as seen in North and South. The latter half of the book analyses environmental security and conflicts in the Mediterranean and environmental consequences of World War II, the Gulf War, the Balkan wars and the Middle East conflict. It also examines factors of global environmental change: population growth, climate change, desertification, water scarcity, food and urbanisation issues as well as natural disasters. Furthermore, it draws conceptual conclusions for a fourth phase of research on human and environmental security and peace as well as policy conclusions for cooperation and partnership in the Mediterranean in the 21st century.

Warming climate will affect communities across Canada. Many of these communities do not have the adaptive capacity to deal with climate change related challenges. Indigenous communities are believed to be disproportionally affected by climate change because of the lack of adequate infrastructure, and historical and political obstacles that limit their overall adaptive capacity. Therefore, climate change data and information are required to understand the full extent to which these communities are exposed to climate risks. Many past studies in the literature have outlined the effects of climate change at large spatial scales. While these studies are important for understanding the broad effects of climate change, they are not useful for community or local adaptation planning. Ultimately, climate change impacts will be felt at a local level. Hence, high resolution climate change impact studies are urgently needed to capture the realities of these effects in greater detail and to provide relevant data and information at local and community levels, in particular for marginalized and Indigenous communities. Using observed meteorological and hydrologic data, high-resolution downscaled future climate simulations, and a process-based hydrologic model, this thesis explored the physical impacts of climate change on the Six Nations of the Grand River (Six Nations) reserve, which is the largest (by population) Indigenous community in Canada and the seventh largest in the United States and Canada. Changing climate conditions and extreme climate trends in the Six Nations reserve were explored using the widely used ETCCDI (Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices) extreme climate indices. Results indicated a warming and wetting trend in Six Nations, with the temperature rising by 3°C to 6°C by the end of the century and changes in seasonal precipitation. Extreme high temperature and precipitation indices will increase, causing potential human health impacts and increased flooding hazards for the community. A warming climate directly impacts the hydrological cycle and patterns. Analysis conducted using the Coupled Groundwater and Surface-Water Flow Model (GSFLOW) found that the McKenzie Creek - an important water provider for Six Nations - is sensitive to climate change due to its reliance on precipitation. Furthermore, study results showed that winter precipitation and streamflow are projected to increase, and snowpack water content is expected to decrease. These changes in streamflow will cause earlier winter-spring flooding events. Furthermore, agricultural production may be affected by reduced spring soil moisture recharge. Additionally, GSFLOW projected little to no change in late spring and summer streamflow which resulted in low water availability (Ptot-ET) during the growing season. Water availability was further examined by assessing future Blue Water (BW) and Green Water (GW) scarcity in the McKenzie Creek watershed. The water footprint method was used to calculate BW and GW scarcity. Study results showed that under current levels of water usage, BW scarcity would be “low” in the future. However, BW scarcity would increase to “significant” levels in the future, if water users started to withdraw more water for consumption, assuming maximum water withdrawal allocation (i.e., 0.47 m3s-1). This level of BW scarcity has the potential to cause ecological degradation and exacerbate water quality issues in the McKenzie Creek watershed. GW scarcity showed a steadily increasing trend throughout the 21st century due to climate warming. Spatial analysis showed that the western portion of the McKenzie Creek watershed may experience slightly higher levels of GW water scarcity in the future because of the lower water holding capacity of the soil. This may cause water users to withdraw more BW resources in western upstream areas, thereby decreasing BW available for downstream communities, including the Six Nations. Such disparity in water use among Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities may affect community relationships and social cohesion in the area. This thesis provides decision makers in Six Nations and more broadly in the McKenzie Creek watershed area with relevant climate change impact data and information that can be used in future climate change adaptation planning, disaster risk mitigation, and water resources management. Moreover, the results highlight the need for a comprehensive climate change vulnerability assessment of the Six Nations. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)