>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The National Water Act of 1998 provides the policy framework for stakeholder participation and the engagement of stakeholders closest to the resource on which they depend to be involved in developing and managing their water resources. Rainwater harvesting presents a viable option for securing water availability in order to increase food production and cash returns from food in the Ehlanzeni District Municipality which is one of the poorest districts in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The study focuses on rural youth (between the ages 18-35 years) in two villages of the Ehlanzeni District, Luphisi and Dwaleni, and seeks to assess the relationship between youth capabilities and food security. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods but with more emphasis on the quantitative data, with qualitative data providing anecdotal evidence to back up the findings. The qualitative data was collected from focus group discussions and the quantitative data was based on a baseline survey within the context of an Integrated Rain Water Harvesting Project implemented by a local NGO. The data drew on indicators in the questionnaire that were to do with social capital and empowerment. The indicators tapped into attributes/capabilities like trust, social cohesion and inclusion and sociability and examined these within the context of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach, to consider whether and in what ways these attributes relate to food security. The results show that there are youth have high levels of certain attributes/capabilities such as trust, social cohesion and inclusion, collective action and co-operation, self-esteem, and meaning. The findings also show that in other dimensions there are less opportunities and that, in particular, access to networks, access to knowledge and information and sociability are lacking among youth. Low levels of adherence to networks, lack of access to knowledge and information and poor sociability show that there are inadequate opportunities for youth to engage with issues around food and water security. The Chi-square test was used to investigate the relationship between youth capabilities and food security and at p<0.05 results showed that there was no relationship between youth capabilities and food security in Dwaleni. There were only three capabilities which showed any significant statistical relationship between youth capabilities and food security in Luphisi namely; collective action and co-operation, social cohesion and self-esteem. The study recommends that networking opportunities and access to information relating to food and water security should be improved. The thesis claims that there are adequate opportunities to build on existing capabilities such as self-esteem, trust and social cohesion that are not being maximized and that youth are not being adequately engaged in water resources management. / Water Research Commission

Magister Artium - MA / The strain brought to bear on fiscal resources of municipalities in South Africa has had a negative effect on the ability by these municipalities to fulfil their obligations; that of delivering quality services to residents, especially the poorest of the poor. Inability to collect adequate revenue; the general hardships related to the global economic recession; competition over resources, all these form an interplay of factors that have a bearing on the City of Tshwane' ability to manage and deliver water resources. Successful efforts to maintain good quality water resources have not been balanced with the ability to increase access to poorer sections of the municipality. The lack of an integrated approach to the management of water resources, which should be guided by the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework has led to a top-down and bureaucratic approach to the management of the resources, leading to both the exclusion of communities and other stakeholders. This thesis acknowledges the municipality's ability to manage quality issues. It however raises critical questions about ability to deliver services to the poor, and their exclusion from managing of water resources.

Despite the emphasis of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) on 'soft' demand-side management, large-scale water infrastructure is increasingly being constructed in basins managed under an IWRM framework. While there has been substantial research on IWRM, few scholars have unpacked how IWRM and large-scale water infrastructure development coexist and conflict. Piura, Peru is an important site for understanding how IWRM and capital-intensive, concrete-heavy water infrastructure development articulate in practice. After 70 years of proposals and planning, the Regional Government of Piura began construction of the mega-irrigation project, Proyecto Especial de Irrigacion e Hidroelectrico del Alto Piura (PEIHAP) in 2013. PEIHAP, which will irrigate an additional 19,000 hectares (ha), is being realised in the wake of major reforms in the Chira-Piura River Basin, a pilot basin for the IWRM-inspired 2009 Water Resources Law. We first map the historical trajectory of PEIHAP as it mirrors the shifting political priorities of the Peruvian state. We then draw on interviews with the newly formed River Basin Council, regional government, PEIHAP, and civil society actors to understand why and how these differing water management paradigms coexist. We find that while the 2009 Water Resources Law labels large-scale irrigation infrastructure as an 'exceptional measure', this development continues to eclipse IWRM provisions of the new law. This uneasy coexistence reflects the parallel desires of the state to imbue water policy reform with international credibility via IWRM while also furthering economic development goals via large-scale water infrastructure. While the participatory mechanisms and expertise of IWRM-inspired river basin councils have not been brought to bear on the approval and construction of PEIHAP, these institutions will play a crucial role in managing the myriad resource and social conflicts that are likely to result.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / For generations, participation has been a mainstay of academic writing and teaching. By the 1970's, the policy statements of the major international donors and implementing agencies all emphasize the importance of participation (Dudley, 1993). It is time to stop simply reiterating the cry for community participation and prolonged argument about definitions of participation - related concepts. That was yesterday's battle. Certainly, despite all the rhetoric, participation often does not happen.

La Mancha Plain lies in the core of Spain and partially stretches over the Guadiana River Upper Basin (UGB), is one of the most arid regions of the Iberian Peninsula, indeed “La Mancha” in Arabic means “the dry”, and also houses a vast Aquifer that has supported the related numerous marshlands and hydro-ecosystems in harmony with the human development till the 1970s, when the “Agrarian Green Revolution” commenced. Land reclamation over River and lagoon beds joined to the irrigation implementation of more than 150.000 Ha have badly bled the water resources to the maximum usable limit, lowering the phreatic table down to 60 meters, provoking a serious ecological damage for the 25.000 Ha of wetlands highly dependent on shallow phreatic levels. Recently, Nature granted the wettest period ever registered in the area (2009-2012) which caused an incredible natural replenishment of that Aquifer deficit. However, even though several costly plans and policies have been undertaken, it is still pending to effectively control the extractions, to manage the Aquifer within a portion allowing a certain continuous upwelling to enliven the Guadiana River real spring, and also, to adjust the essential agriculture sector to the environmental conditions and carrying capacity of the system.

Groundwater is used worldwide as a major source for agricultural irrigation, industrial processes, mining, and drinking water. An accurate understanding of groundwater levels and trends is essential for decision makers to effectively manage groundwater resources throughout an aquifer, ensuring its sustainable development and usage. Unfortunately, groundwater is one of the most challenging and expensive water resources to characterize, quantify, and monitor on a regional basis. Data, though present, are often limited or sporadic, and are generally not used to their full potential to aid decision makers in their groundwater management.This thesis presents a solution to this under-utilization of available data through the creation of an open-source, Python-based web application used to characterize, visualize, and quantify groundwater resources on a regional basis. This application includes tools to extrapolate and interpolate time series observations of groundwater levels in monitoring wells through multi-linear regression, using correlated data from other wells. It is also possible to extrapolate time series observations using machine learning techniques with Earth observations as inputs. The app also performs spatial interpolation using GSLIB Kriging code. Combining the results of spatial and temporal interpolation, the app enables the user to calculate changes in aquifer storage, and to produce and view aquifer-wide maps and animations of groundwater levels over time. This tool will provide decision makers with an easy to use and easy to understand method for tracking groundwater resources. Thus far, this tool has been used to map groundwater in Texas, Utah, South Africa, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.

Water is a critical resource that is essential for human well-being and economic development. Many regions around the world face ongoing water scarcity and competition over water resources. Climate change, other drastic social changes, and population and economic growth can significantly impact the supply and consumption of water. There has been an increasing body of research focusing on the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus. There is a mismatch between the spatial resolution of data availability and the resolution that water resources follow. Lack of quality sub-county water data also makes the research of micro-level food-water dynamics difficult if not impossible. These challenges pose obstacles to the further understanding of water scarcity in the context of the FEW nexus and leaves critical gaps in the research of the nexus. In this dissertation I asked and answered the question: how do socio-economic forces shape localized groundwater depletion and surface water scarcity within the United States at the field and basin scale? Specifically, I tested whether irrigated farm size leads to reduction in groundwater application per unit area and whether an increase in the annual depletion in the underlying aquifer storage increases the probability of an irrigated land transfer, with a Kansas field level dataset and an econometrics approach. I estimated the FEW production and the water footprint of FEW production in every US watershed and compare the water footprint of production against their water scarcity. Then the groundwater reserves and dam storage in watersheds were examined as the buffers for the watersheds' FEW production against water shortages. I mapped the transfers of FEW goods and services and both the virtual and physical water flows from watersheds to US cities. The transportation infrastructure and other infrastructure that supports the FEW transfers are analyzed in terms of their contributions to the movement of FEW goods. This dissertation improves our understanding of how broad structural changes within the agricultural industry are interconnected with the overexploitation of groundwater resources. It is the first study of water footprint accounting with the most recent input data for the whole US food-energy-water system at the watershed level and includes an analysis of cities' infrastructure reliance for food-energy-water transfers and infrastructure as buffers. The transfers of virtual water and physical water were compared. The resulting data and findings from the novel data synthesis will provide insights for consumers, food companies, and other decision-makers at various levels on their connection to water resources in non-local areas. The outcomes of this dissertation will also improve our ability to analyze drivers and solutions to local small-scale watershed water scarcity challenges and allow a quantifiable basis for policy support in the water resources management domain and beyond. / Doctor of Philosophy / Water is an important resource for humans and the economy, but many regions around the world face ongoing water shortages and competition over the limited water resources. The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus has gained increasing attention as a framework for understanding the complex relationships between water, food, and energy systems. However, research in this area has faced challenges in data availability and data resolution. This dissertation addresses these challenges while exploring how socio-economic forces shape localized groundwater depletion and surface water scarcity within the United States at the field, basin, and city scales. The author tests hypotheses related to irrigated farm size, irrigation water use, groundwater depletion, and the irrigated land transfers. The author estimates the FEW production and water footprint of production in every US watershed. The author also tracks and analyzes the transfers of FEW goods and services and embedded water footprint. Infrastructure's role in delivering FEW goods and buffering against water shortages were also examined. Overall, this dissertation provides insights into the connections between water resources and broad structural changes within the food system, and offers a novel data synthesis that can facilitate the understanding of connections between production and consumption of FEW at various spatial scales and water resources in local and non-local areas. The findings will also help analyze the drivers and solutions to local small-scale watershed's water scarcity challenges, and provide a quantifiable basis for policy support in the water resources management domain and beyond.

abstract: In the recent past, Iraq was considered relatively rich considering its water resources compared to its surroundings. Currently, the magnitude of water resource shortages in Iraq represents an important factor in the stability of the country and in protecting sustained economic development. The need for a practical, applicable, and sustainable river basin management for the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq is essential. Applicable water resources allocation scenarios are important to minimize the potential future water crises in connection with water quality and quantity. The allocation of the available fresh water resources in addition to reclaimed water to different users in a sustainable manner is of the urgent necessities to maintain good water quantity and quality. In this dissertation, predictive water allocation optimization models were developed which can be used to easily identify good alternatives for water management that can then be discussed, debated, adjusted, and simulated in greater detail. This study provides guidance for decision makers in Iraq for potential future conditions, where water supplies are reduced, and demonstrates how it is feasible to adopt an efficient water allocation strategy with flexibility in providing equitable water resource allocation considering alternative resource. Using reclaimed water will help in reducing the potential negative environmental impacts of treated or/and partially treated wastewater discharges while increasing the potential uses of reclaimed water for agriculture and other applications. Using reclaimed water for irrigation is logical and efficient to enhance the economy of farmers and the environment while providing a diversity of crops, especially since most of Iraq’s built or under construction wastewater treatment plants are located in or adjacent to agricultural lands. Adopting an optimization modelling approach can assist decision makers, ensuring their decisions will benefit the economy by incorporating global experiences to control water allocations in Iraq especially considering diminished water supplies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019

South Africa experiences some of the lowest water resource system yields in the world as a result of the high regional variability of rainfall and runoff. Population growth and economic development are placing increasing demands on the nation's scarce water resources. These factors, combined with some of the objectives of the new National Water Act (1998), are highlighting the need for efficient management of South Africa's water resources. In South Africa's National Water Act (1998) it is stated that its purpose is to ensure that the nation's water resources are protected, used, conserved, managed and controlled in a way, which takes into account, inter alia, i. promoting the efficient, sustainable and beneficial use of water in the public interest, and ii. managing floods and droughts. Efficient and sustainable water resource and risk management can be aided by the application of runoff forecasting. Forecasting thus fits into the ambit of the National Water Act and, therefore, there is a need for its operational application to be investigated. In this document an attempt is made to test the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: Reliable and skilful hydrological forecasts have the ability to prevent loss of life, spare considerable hardship and save affected industries and commerce millions of Rands annually if applied operationally within the context of water resources and risk management. Hypothesis 2: Long to medium term rainfall forecasts can be made with a degree of confidence, and these rainfall forecasts can be converted into runoff forecasts which, when applied within the framework of water resources and risk management, are more useful to water resource managers and users than rainfall forecasts by themselves. The validity of Hypothesis 1 is investigated by means of a literature review. South Africa's high climate variability and associated high levels of uncertainty as well as its current and future water resources situation are reviewed in order to highlight the importance of runoff forecasting in South Africa. Hypothesis 1 is further examined by reviewing the concepts of hazards and risk with a focus on the role of effective risk management in preventing human, financial and infrastructural losses. A runoff forecasting technique using an indirect methodology, whereby rainfall forecasts are translated into runoff forecasts, was developed in order to test Hypothesis 2. The techniques developed are applied using probabilistic regional rainfall forecasts supplied by the South African Weather Service for 30 day periods and categorical regional forecasts for one, three and four month periods for I regions making up the study area of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. These forecasts where downscaled spatially for application to the 1946 Quaternary Catchments making up the study area and temporally to give daily rainfall forecast values. Different runoff forecasting time spans produced varying levels of forecast accuracy and skill, with the three month forecasts producing the worst results, followed by the four month forecasts. The 30 day and one month forecasts for the most part produced better results than the more extended forecast periods. In the study it was found that hydrological forecast accuracy results seem to be inversely correlated to the amount of rainfall received in a region, i.e. the wetter the region the less accurate the runoff forecasts. This trend is reflected in both temporal and spatial patterns where it would seem that variations in the antecedent moisture conditions in wetter areas and wetter periods contribute to the overall variability, rendering forecasts less accurate. In general, the runoff forecasts improve with corresponding improvements in the rainfall forecast accuracy. There are, however, runoff forecast periods and certain regions that produce poor runoff forecast results even with improved rainfall forecasts. This would suggest that even perfect rainfall forecasts still cannot capture all the local scale variability of persistence of wet and dry days as well as magnitudes of rainfall on individual days and the effect of catchment antecedent moisture conditions. More local scale rainfall forecasts are thus still needed in the South African region. In this particular study the methods used did not produce convincing results in terms of runoff forecast accuracy and skill scores. The poor performance can probably be attributed to the relatively unsophisticated nature of the downscaling and interpolative techniques used to produce daily rainfall forecasts at a Quaternary Catchment scale. It is the author's opinion that in the near future, with newly focussed research efforts, and building on what has been learned in this study, more reliable agrohydrological forecasts can be used within the framework of water resources and risk management, preventing loss of life, saving considerable hardship and saving affected industry and commerce millions of rands annually. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

<p> Latin America is one of the richest regions in the world in rainfall and freshwater resources. Despite this, large populations in this region struggle to gain safe access to safe drinking water supply and sanitation services. The objectives of this research are not simply to show that more wells and better infrastructure are needed. Instead this study encompasses both the physical and emotional geographies of water to dig deep into the social relations to show whether gender intersects with inequalities in water access, and understand how this relationship may cause water insecurities and water distress. By examining local water access in rural El Salvador, my analysis concludes that in every c&aacute;ntaro of water are women&rsquo;s personal water access struggles. Although some men help with the water collection and carrying labor in rural areas, it is women who as homemakers are more involved and affected by water insecurities.</p>