Water Security最新文献

The southeastern region of Türkiye faced two significant earthquakes on February 6, 2023, causing widespread destruction and substantial damage to various infrastructures. Over forty large dams in the region were affected, leading to potential new earthquake-prone areas due to energy accumulation in neighboring regions. This study focuses on the seismic risk of eight cascade dams on the Peri River, a tributary of the Euphrates main river, following these earthquakes. The dams, including Kalecik, Kigi, Konaktepe, Ozluce, Pempelik, Seyrantepe, Tatar, and Uzuncayir, with heights ranging from 31 m to 146 m, are situated in a region influenced by the North Anatolian Fault Zone. The research advocates for a comprehensive re-analysis of certain large dams, considering the updated seismic specifications and seismological maps of Türkiye. The study explores the hazard and overall risk assessment of these dams, emphasizing the cascade system and highlighting the critical seismic vulnerabilities of Kigi and Ozluce dams, with a particular focus on their implications for water security in the region. Our findings underscore the need for tailored safety measures for each dam, focusing on early defect detection. By adopting a proactive stance and implementing our recommendations, the resilience of these dams can be enhanced, contributing to the overall water security of the region.

Monitoring agricultural water usage with remote sensing technology has shown to be an effective strategy for dealing with water security in the digital era. Given the massive research over the last few decades, a scientometric approach is attempted to show an accurate picture and trends in remote sensing of irrigation research. This study retrieved 14,869 documents from the Scopus database related to remote sensing-guided irrigation studies during 2003–2022. This study employs a systematic approach to identify and analyze pertinent literature related to remote sensing of irrigation and highlights the most influential institutions, countries, and journals, as well as the prominent research subjects and trends. The analysis revealed that the research on remote sensing of irrigation had grown exponentially over the last two decades, indicating a growing interest in this field. Further, this study highlighted the contribution of satellite missions, specifically open-access imagery, to the field of irrigation research through the use of high-resolution sensors. This study offers comprehensive insight to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in precise monitoring and management of irrigation, enabling them to effectively address forthcoming water security challenges.

FundiFix is a social enterprise that offers rural water systems maintenance service in rural Kenya. In recent years FundiFix has been operating these three types of water system that fall under the MAD (modular, adaptive, and decentralised) water systems paradigm: Solar powered groundwater kiosks, water ATMs, and reverse osmosis filtrations systems. This article outlines some of the challenges of operating these in a rural context. We identify four key challenges that must be considered if these technologies are to provide sustainable benefits to rural communities: managing higher capital and maintenance costs; the requirement for more skilled staff to manage and maintain them; the risk of the most marginalised communities being left behind; the importance of considering maintenance from the start.

Decentralized water/wastewater treatment technologies have emerged to reach a better and more sustainable society. Access to clean water for all is a major goal identified by the United Nations to be reached by 2030. How would this concept of decentralized treatments using electrochemical technologies impact the way of living in Latin American countries? This perspective aims to identify the water/wastewater challenges in these regions, and the possible opportunities to overcome them by using decentralized electrochemical water treatment technologies.

Public health, economic, and social disruptions caused by the pandemic extended to essential public services, including water supply. This paper examines how the pandemic caused a water security crisis for many communities, and in so doing, our analysis contributes to current debates on water system resilience and continued challenges of water affordability in the United States. Water utilities faced major shifts in industrial and domestic water demand, financial burdens of increased non-payments, and operational challenges due to a reduced workforce and supply chain bottlenecks. Areas of concern include customer protection, financial security, public communication, new technology adoption, and trust. Evidence indicates that the pandemic water crisis spurred institutional and technological innovation to increase resilience for the next shock while overall financial challenges in the post-pandemic years remain. The pandemic water crisis also revealed a stark tradeoff between household water security and water utility security, indicating that without systemic changes to policy and practice related to water affordability, the most vulnerable in the United States will continue to suffer in future crises.

Despite increases in federal infrastructure funding that could provide adequate wastewater management for thousands of U.S. communities, the pace of progress in small, underserved communities has been disappointing. This article addresses the major system typologies that can be implemented and the obstacles that are preventing many such communities from receiving funding and implementing systems. While preference for disadvantaged communities is incorporated into federal funding opportunities and many stakeholders prioritize the neediest communities, the embedded perverse incentives and asymmetric information present substantive obstacles to these goals. Small communities and other stakeholders have often found their efforts frustrated by a system that was designed for larger municipalities (or higher-income communities) with greater internal capacity and which is highly dependent on engineering firms, most of which prefer large projects with conventional technological approaches. Novel approaches that show promise in enabling sustainable wastewater management in low-population density, underserved communities are those that leverage existing infrastructure (e.g., gravity sewer, high-speed internet) with recent innovations in infrastructure and management (e.g., liquid-only sewer, centralized management of decentralized infrastructure) and/or incorporate creative approaches to funding and technical assistance.

A large proportion of the population in low-income countries (LICs) has limited access to portable drinking water. This leads to many people consuming contaminated water, which is associated with several health risks. It is thus, important to reduce exposure to water-borne pathogens and toxic chemicals through effective water treatment. In this regard, point of use (POU) water treatment techniques can ensure quality drinking water, especially where water treatment systems are compromised, or where centralized water treatment systems are non-existent. An affordable POU water treatment option for LICs is the use of ceramic filtration. The goal of this review is to evaluate the application of ceramic filtration as a POU technique in LICs. Specifically, the review aims to: (1) review previous studies on low-cost ceramic filters used in LICs, (2) evaluate the pollutant removal performance and limitations of the filters, and (3) provide future research directions. The major findings are: (1) low-cost ceramic filters are effective POU devices, (2) modification of ceramic filters improves performance, and (3) more robust multicomponent removal devices can be made from combining ceramic filtration and other techniques. Overall, this information is important for use by local authorities in LICs in formulating policies and regulations that conduce the provision of safe drinking water to disadvantaged communities.

San Francisco recognized the opportunity to build and manage its city to be more resilient and sustainable with localized (i.e., decentralized) water treatment systems. These onsite water treatment systems capture and treat water for reuse, thereby reducing the use of potable water for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and irrigation. Critical to the success of treating water onsite was the development of oversight and management program to ensure the protection of public health.

Understanding the impact of human activity on the levels of nitrates found in groundwater is essential. Anthropogenic sources, such as nitrogen-rich fertilizers in agriculture and animal excrement, have led to high nitrate concentrations in groundwater globally. High nitrate concentrations can cause health issues for infants, children, and adults. The Safe Water Network is working towards providing safe and affordable drinking water to communities in India, where nitrate levels in groundwater are alarmingly high. Treatment technologies such as reverse osmosis and ion exchange effectively reduce nitrate concentrations in water supplies. While the government is pursuing surface water use, it often presents higher risks of microbial contamination and elevated concentrations of contaminants from run-off. It is crucial to take measures to mitigate nitrate contamination in groundwater to ensure the health and safety of communities.

Safe Water Network serves communities with safe, affordable drinking water in Telangana and Maharashtra in India, where the nitrate levels in groundwater reach up to 300 mg/l, nearly seven times the 45 mg/l limit specified in India's national drinking water standards, making nitrate reduction essential.

Water security is typically defined in terms of water available at a quality and quantity to meet human needs. This definition now includes ecological needs. We argue these definitions ignore conceptions of Indigenous relations to water, all living things, and between people. We examine this gap in a contested water governance space in British Columbia, Canada, characterized by competing legal claims and distinct relations to water between First Nations (Indigenous Peoples) and the Crown (Province). We surveyed water officials from both groups, and documented that First Nations and women respondents are more likely to perceive water insecurity, as do those who lack trust. We argue that strengthening and securing relations through learning is critical to reconciling water security governance.