Using data collection to build trust and ownership in transboundary water allocation planning: a case study from the Mara River Basin

Following a 2015 Memorandum of Understanding, efforts began to develop a transboundary water allocation plan in the Mara River Basin between Kenya and Tanzania. Many lessons were learned along that way, including the importance of involving basin and national water authorities in all phases of data collection, planning and decision-making;...

Exploring distributive justice in water resource allocation: A rival framings approach on the operationalization of equality in multi-objective optimization models for water systems

Water, an essential resource for diverse purposes like environmental protection, urban water supply, energy generation, and agriculture, faces intensifying demand amid depleting supplies. Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO)-models are vital for addressing complex water system challenges with limited resources. However, varying approaches to...

Inter-Annual and Seasonal Variability of Flows: Delivering Climate-Smart Environmental Flow Reference Values

Environmental flow (eflow) reference values play a key role in environmental water science and practice. In Mexico, eflow assessments are set by a norm in which the frequency of occurrence is the managing factor to integrate inter-annual and seasonal flow variability components into environmental water reserves. However, the frequency parameters...

Operationalising stability and fairness in transboundary water resource allocations

This research identifies a method to evaluate the fairness and stability of existing Pareto optimal policies in the context of transboundary water resource allocations. Using the case study of the Susquehanna river basin, the fairness of efficient policies was evaluated using utilitarianism, egalitarianism and prioritarianism. Stability was...

Frequency of occurrence of flow regime components: a hydrology-based approach for environmental flow assessments and water allocation for the environment

Hydrological methodologies are the most efficient approaches for environmental flow (eflow) assessments. This paper presents a hydrological methodology for determining eflows in rivers with scarce development to promote proactive environmental water allocations that limit flow alteration and unsustainable water use. The analysis includes the...

Sustainable Water Resources Management in an Arid Area Using a Coupled Optimization-Simulation Modeling

Severe water scarcity in recent years has magnified the economic, social, and environmental significance of water stress globally, making optimal planning in water resources necessary for sustainable socio-economic development. One of the regions that is most affected by this is the Sistan region and its Hamoun wetland, located in south-east...

Virtual tracers to detect sources ofwater and track water reuse across a river basin

Water managers around the world face the increasingly challenging task to evaluate the impacts of technological measures and policy mechanisms from the local to the river basin scale. A toolset providing quantitative, actionable information on dependencies and trade-offs between upstream and downstream water users is currently lacking. Yet,...

A Multi-Objective Approach for the Analysis of a Water-Food-Ecosystems Nexus at Basin Scale

Optimal operation of the Eastern Nile System using Genetic Algorithm, and benefits distribution of water resources development

The Eastern Nile Basin is facing a number of transboundary issues, including water resources development, and the associated impacts. The Nile Basin, particularly the Eastern Nile Sub-basin, is considered as one of a few international river systems of potential conflicts between riparian countries. The Eastern Nile is characterized by the...

Water Allocation Optimisation of the Litani River Basin: Litani Water

A water crisis is looming for Lebanon. Economic growth, natural population growth and the inflow of refugees from Syria cause an increased water demand in Lebanon. In the meanwhile, the precipitation rates of Lebanon are decreasing. An important water source of Lebanon is the Litani river, which is totally located within the borders of Lebanon....

Embrace diversity: (un)divided Hebron: coexistence through architecture of water

Water scarcity and unequal distribution of water to different social groups is a problem around the world - mostly in arid and dry climatological conditions. In Israel and the Palestinian Territories water is used as a territorial tool in what I call 'spaces of conflict and opposition'. What could the role of e.g. an architect be in spaces of...

Equitable and Reasonable Utilization: Reconstructing the Nile BasinWater Allocation Dialogue

Equitable and reasonable utilization is a core principle in the distribution of water resources. However, its practical application in the Nile Basin has been a significant challenge, leading to a water allocation deadlock. To address the deadlock, we used the van Eeten (1999) four-step process for defining new agendas. To reconstruct the debate...

Managing Basin Interdependencies in a Heterogeneous, Highly Utilized and Data Scarce River Basin in Semi-Arid Africa: The case of the Pangani River Basin, Eastern Africa

For integrated water resources management both blue and green water resources in a river basin and their spatial and temporal distribution have to be considered. This is because green and blue water uses are interdependent. In sub-Saharan Africa, the upper landscapes are often dominated by rainfed and supplementary irrigated agriculture that...

Weighted Bankruptcy Rules and Transboundary Water Resources Allocation

One significant problem of transboundary river basins causing various challenges and disputes throughout the world is that because of increasing water resource variability and consumption, the water demand often exceeds water availability. Hence, one of the main challenges in transboundary river basin management is how to allocate the available...

Managing conflicts in water resources allocation: A sustainable water allocation for Urumia Lake Basin in Iran

Using the Urumia lake water allocation problem as a case study, a conflict analysis method was applied to look for possibilities to resolve the problem of conflicting demands for water. First a thorough overview of the problem was made by describing the Urumia lake basin and the human activities therein as a Large Technical System. After the...

Understanding hydrological variability for improved water management in the Semi-Arid Karkheh basin, Iran

This study provides a hydrology based assessment of (surface) water resources and its continuum of variability and change at different spatio-temporal scales in the semi-arid Karkheh Basin, Iran, where water is scarce, competition among users is high and massive water resources development is under way. The study reveals that the ongoing...