Abstract Water is not only essential to all living creatures, but also critical to every industry. In Taiwan, given the inconsistent distribution of water resources differing by season and geographic site, and the short and narrow river basin unable to retain most rainfall, the available water resources are only one-fourth the total amount of water, which makes water one of the most scarce resources competed among immigrants in the early days. In the last half century, the increase in all kinds of water utilization due to the rising living standards, growing population, and industrial transformation results in the repeated predicament of water shortage in Taiwan; especially in southern Taiwan, severe river pollution causes even more difficulties in the exploration of water resources. However, after the lift of martial law, in the face of dramatically changed political situation and increased democratic awareness, government can no longer deal with conflicts and protests regarding water resources through coercive way as before, but rather needs to adopt alternative solutions. Taking ¡§the politics of water resources¡¨ as a major theme, this study attempts to understand what water resources issues Taiwan encounters thus far; what policies government is adopting now; what the new policies and regulations should be if the old ways can no longer cope with new kinds of conflicts; and whether the current policies for water resources issues are effective. Moreover, this study intends to investigate the implications and types of future water resources conflicts. The present study explores Taiwan¡¦s early and current water resources issues, government policies, and the administrative organization and structure for the implementation of policies through literature review, historic comparative analysis, and policy analysis approach. This study covers five chapters, in addition to introduction and conclusion, including the examinations of water resources issues in Taiwan, current government water resources policies and administrative organization, as well as future water resources policies. Finally, the findings and recommendations of the study are as follows: government should (1) expedite the unification of water right; (2) strengthen administrative organization through community participation; (3) fulfill sustainable-development-centered policy goal; (4) adjust current industrial policy; (5) establish reasonable water price system; (6) overhaul relevant laws and regulations, and build the customer-pay-fee system. Key words: water resources issues, politics water resources, administrative organization of water resources, sustainable development

Assessment of water resources administration in Nigeria reveals gross inadequacies. The present decision-making framework for water resources administration is not expected to contribute much toward national development in the long run. Water institutions which should provide the means for implementing decisions can best be described as non-existent. Evaluation of water institutions found in the United States resulted in the development of three alternative institutional models of water resources administration, any one of which is recommended for adoption by Nigeria depending on the circumstances. Each of these three alternative models is characterized by significant citizen participation at all levels and at all stages of the decision-making process. One of the alternatives organizes water institutions by level of government, where the states are responsible for all aspects of water resources administration, as on the Colorado River Basin. Another alternative organizes water institutions on the basis of regional, basin-wide executive agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). A third alternative adopts a mixed strategy. Certain areas would have TVA-type executive agencies, while other areas would have no TVA-type agency, but the states would then be responsible for all aspects of water resources administration and development. This situation prevails throughout the United States. At the user level, the institutional framework of decision making for water resources administration provided by the special water districts found in the United States is recommended for adoption by Nigeria to fill a vacuum created at the interface of the water resources system and the social system. The choice of an overall institutional model for Nigeria will be determined by the final political map of the country in relation to the identified river basins. These alternative institutional models for water resources administration are also recommended for consideration by other developing countries.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Maintenance of water resources protection practice for water availability, uninterrupted water utilization, and for ecosystem integrity is critical for sustainable achievement of resource security for all. Therefore, operationalization of water resource protection strategies such as resource directed measures, especially at catchment level where water resources utilization takes place is critical. The main aim of the current study was to develop a citizen science framework for operationalization of resource directed measures at catchment level. Such a framework used a nexus approach, and its development was guided by the principles of socio-ecological model from a systems thinking perspective. This demonstrated importance of resource directed measures which are accepted as relevant policy implementation strategies towards improved and integrated water resources management practice at catchment level, where local citizens become part of such practice.

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

Several river basins in the world are faced with growing water scarcity and water use conflicts attributed to increasing water demand and competition among users, climate change and variability, and environmental degradation. Addressing these challenges necessitates shifting from the traditional uncoordinated sectoral approach to more integrated and fully participatory approaches supported by credible information generated by reliable and robust technical tools. Combining engineering, economics and hydroclimatological science, hydro-economic tools are well suited to provide reliable and impartial technical information that can support multi stakeholder negotiation and decision making processes in a river basin. This research develops and applies a detailed hydro-economic model to support multi-objective water resources assessments. The model supports integrated assessments of physical and economic impacts of changes in water demand, climate conditions, water resources management objectives and policies, and other system constraints on a basin's water resources. The main contribution of this research is the systematic coupling of detailed water resources and economic assessment models that are capable of (a) representing complex physical system characteristics and constraints; (b) simulating system operation at diverse temporal and spatial scales; and (c) representing water-based economic production processes at a basin scale. The research integrates a wide range of potential climate change impacts into the hydro-economic modeling framework through consideration of multiple future climate change scenarios from 13 Global Circulation Models under the medium and high emission projection scenarios. Economic uncertainty is characterized through conjunctive use of Monte Carlo simulation and Geometric Brownian Motion techniques to generate multiple forecast traces of important economic parameters. The model is applied to the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin in the southeast USA as a case study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 406-419).

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the social, economic and technological factors that influence rates of adoption of innovative stormwater management approaches in municipal organizations in the Great Bay watershed, NH. The scope of this study was to investigate how innovations spread through municipal populations in a specific region and watershed area of the US. The methodology used mixed qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, case studies, and surveys to examine perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that influence the adoption of innovative stormwater management solutions, as well as the governance characteristics of municipalities at different stages of adoption. Major findings include: adopter categories can be relatively easily and quickly categorized into early and late majorities as a preliminary means to identify populations of ready and willing audiences interested in and capable of advancing innovations; early and late adopter classifications followed general diffusion theory, but differed in substantial ways that could influence overall project or program success; and finally that early majority communities have more internal and external capacity to advance innovations as well as higher levels of peer-to-peer trust to offset perceptions related to economic risk that can either advance or stall innovative stormwater management solution adoption. This research offers insights on how to allocate scarce resources to optimally improve water quality through stormwater management solutions, and makes recommendations for how to effectively and efficiently generate greater understanding of complex barriers to adoption that thwart innovation in municipal governance organizations. One significant implication is that agents of change who want to move innovations through a broad municipal population should focus their efforts on working with innovators and early adopters that have status within relevant peer networks and who have capacity to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of innovations.</p>

<p> Traditional engineering and financial assessments are limited not only to consideration of currently internalized costs, but also often lack consideration of new or current externalities during the life of the new system. The goal of this thesis is to provide a methodology that integrates sustainability assessment with the traditional assessments, thereby allowing the assessment and optimization of the total overall costs. The proposed method is applied for the steam methane reforming (SMR) plants operated by Air Products in Edmonton, Canada where the boiler feed water for hydrogen manufacturing is produced using the polished effluent from the local municipal wastewater treatment plant. The softening of the feed water to Reverse Osmosis (RO) system is proposed (after evaluating the several options) to improve the recovery for the current RO system from 75% to 95%. The overall costs were estimated for comparison of the current and proposed systems.</p><p> The production of hydrogen via SMR highlights the complexities of the sustainability assessment. While hydrogen may be considered a renewable transportation fuel, depending on whether the fossil natural gas can be replaced with renewable biogas or via electrolysis of water using renewable energy, it is reliant on the availability of water. However, water is a scarce resource that is also essential for basic human survival and ecological needs. As the population of the world increases, alternative water sources need to be explored, which may require more energy in the processing of such water to potable grade. </p><p> The results show that the proposed RO feed softening via Ion Exchange (IX) can improve RO recovery up to 95%. The financial assessments based on literature prices and cost factors show that the current operating cost can be reduced up to ~20% by improving RO recovery to 95% with ~75% probability for cost reduction at 95% recovery. When the capital costs are accounted for, NPV-based analyses show that for 95% recovery more than 20% IRR (if spare vessels are available for refurbishment) could be achieved.</p><p> Environmental assessments (Life Cycle Assessment method using SimaPro v7.3 following ISO 14040-44 standards) show that 1.12 x 10^-3 ReCiPe Endpoints impact for current RO operation at 75% recovery can be reduced by ~8% when 95% RO recovery is achieved via the proposed system. Due to the need for increased NaCl salt for regeneration of resins in the proposed system, the environmental impacts increased for metal depletion and ionizing radiation impact categories, unlike the other impact categories. The GHG emissions could be reduced by ~10% (after accounting for 10%-30% probability) for 95% RO recovery with the reduction from the reduced consumption of inputs. Similarly, the life cycle water depletion impacts can be reduced by ~10% (after accounting for 30%-65% reduction probability) from the current 1.75kg water depletion per kg of BFW produced. Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) as per the Ridoutt &amp; Pfister method shows that when accounted for local water stress, during the worst month, the blue water footprint increases from 1.75kg/kg BFW to 63.9kg/kg BFW, in addition to ~0.08kg/kg BFW greywater footprint.</p><p> The social assessment shows mixed results with lower employment, employee development, corporate philanthropy, environmental "protect" spend and R&amp;D spend due to reduced overall consumptions for the 95% recovery option. The other social impact categories were improved for 95% recovery. The overall cost (estimated as the sum of the internally normalized social costs) were 3.0 units with up to 35% reduction potential.</p><p> The results of the case study show that IX feed softening has potential to not only reduce the environmental and social costs, but also meet the financial constraints. Also, this highlights that an integrated sustainability assessment method that evaluates and combines all three aspects of sustainability - environment, social and economic - could be developed. The proposed method as presented needs further development. Among other things, the lack of availability of robust social inventory database significantly hinders the development and adoption such integrated methods. The application of the method to additional case studies would be a good next step.</p><p> This exercise has highlighted that the value and benefits of overall cost estimates are beyond those of policy making by the regulatory agencies. Sustainability minded companies could benefit from having environmental and social goals along with the financial targets as they understand the risks from inadequate performances in any of these aspects. However, these goals are typically on a gate-to-gate basis and independent of each other; thereby, creating the potential for shifting burdens in the value chain and not obtaining the full benefits of risk mitigation. The assessment using the overall cost approach at life cycle basis is essential for industry in not only risk mitigation, but also opportunity identification at an early stage.</p>

<p> Groundwater is an essential input to agriculture world-wide, but it is clear that current rates of groundwater use are unsustainable in the long term. This dissertation assesses both current use of groundwater for country- to global-scale agriculture, and looks at the future of groundwater. The focus is on 1) quantifying food directly produced as a result of groundwater use across spatially-varying agricultural systems, 2) projecting future groundwater demands with consideration of climate change and human decision-making, and 3) understanding the system dynamics of groundwater re-use through surface water systems. All three are addressed using a process-based model designed to simulate both natural and human-impacted water systems. </p><p> Irrigation can significantly increase crop production. Chapter 1 combines a hydrology model (WBM) with a crop model to quantify current crop production that is directly attributed to groundwater irrigation in China. Unsustainably-sourced groundwater &mdash; defined as groundwater extracted in excess of recharge &mdash; accounted for a quarter of China&rsquo;s crop production, and had significant spatial variability. Climate variability and groundwater demand magnified one another in hot and dry years, causing increased irrigation demand at the same time as limited surface water supplies. </p><p> Human decisions about water resource management can impact both the demand and sustainability of groundwater use. Chapter 2 takes an interdisciplinary approach to projecting India&rsquo;s future (to 2050) groundwater demands, combining hydrology and econometric modeling. The econometric model projects how humans make decisions to expand or contract the irrigated land area of crops in response to climate change. Even in areas with precipitation increases, human decisions to expand irrigated areas led to increasing demands for groundwater. We additionally assessed the potential impact of a large water infrastructure project to alleviate groundwater demands in India, and found that maximum alleviation (up to 16%) was dependent upon the storage volume and location of new reservoirs. </p><p> One proposed method for reducing the world&rsquo;s demand for groundwater is to increase the efficiency of agricultural water use. However, these same inefficiencies cause a portion of extracted groundwater to enter surface water systems; it can then be reused, creating a complex system in which groundwater demand does not linearly decline with increased water use efficiency. Chapter 3 quantifies the amount of groundwater that enters surface water systems, the number of times this water is reused for agriculture, and the minimum amount of groundwater required by current agricultural systems in the hypothetical scenario of perfect irrigation efficiency.</p>

<p> This study assessed the effect of an application of mycorrhizal fungi to stormwater filter media on urban bioswale soil and stormwater in an infiltration-based bioswale aged 20 years with established vegetation. The study tested the use of commercially available general purpose biotic soil blend PermaMatrix^&reg; BSP Foundation as a treatment to enhance Earthlite&trade; stormwater filter media amelioration of zinc, copper, and phosphorus in an ecologically engineered structure designed to collect and infiltrate urban stormwater runoff before it entered the nearby Willamette River.</p><p> These results show that the application of PermaMatrix^&reg; BSP Foundation biotic soil amendment to Earthlite&trade; stormwater filter media contributed to the reduction of extractable zinc in bioswale soil (-24% and -26%), as compared to the control, which received a treatment of Earthlite&trade; stormwater filter media only, and experienced an increase in extractable zinc levels (23% and 39%). The results presented also show evidence that after establishment mycorrhizal treatment demonstrated lowered levels of phosphorus in bioswale soil (-41%) and stormwater (-100%), in contrast to the control, which had increased phosphorus levels. The treatment contributed to reductions between 67% and 100% in every metric detected in stormwater after an establishment period of 17 weeks, while the bioswale with no mycorrhizal treatment had increases between 50% and 117%. Treatment also appeared to enhance the reduction of ammonium and nitrates, while contributing to a greater increase in soil pH. </p>