Sustainable Water Resources Management: Challenges and Methods
This chapter provides findings of a working group from the NATO conference on Sustainable Cities and Military Installations, whose purpose was to identify the emerging challenges and methods in water resources management. The chapter identifies several th
- PDF / 140,978 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 439.36 x 666.15 pts Page_size
- 2 Downloads / 244 Views
Sustainable Water Resources Management: Challenges and Methods M.C. Hamilton, W. Goldsmith, R. Harmon, D. Lewis, B. Srdjevic, M. Goodsite, J.H. Lambert, and M. Macdonell
Abstract This chapter provides findings of a working group from the NATO conference on Sustainable Cities and Military Installations, whose purpose was to identify the emerging challenges and methods in water resources management. The chapter identifies several themes of sustainable water resources planning, including: (i) the triple net zero concept of water, energy, and materials; (ii) risk, uncertainty,
M.C. Hamilton () • J.H. Lambert University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] W. Goldsmith Bioengineering Group, Salem, MA, USA e-mail: [email protected] R. Harmon International Research Office, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] D. Lewis Novus Environmental, Guelph, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] B. Srdjevic University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia e-mail: [email protected] M. Goodsite AU Herning and Nordic Center of Excellence for Strategic Adaptation Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] M. Macdonell Environmental Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] I. Linkov (ed.), Sustainable Cities and Military Installations, NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7161-1 6, © Springer ScienceCBusiness Media Dordrecht 2014
133
134
M.C. Hamilton et al.
and future scenarios as multiple planning criteria; (iii) interactions within and across multiple spatial and temporal scales; and (iv) application of the second law of thermodynamics to ecological systems.
6.1 Introduction Sustainable use of water resources has become a topic of critical importance for humans, with implications for society, health, economic development, ecosystem function and services, and other aspects of the human environment. Globally, freshwater resources are under increasing pressure from both development demands and anticipated impacts of climate change. Fresh water comprises only 3 % of global water, approximately 87 % of which is not readily accessible for use and development. While the global availability of fresh water is finite, human demand for this life-sustaining resource continues to grow such that at present an estimated more than two billion people are affected by a shortage of water [1]. The driving forces and pressures on water resources include both naturally occurring and human actions. Anthropogenic driving forces include population growth; demographic change, including migration from rural to urban areas; increases in the standard of living; competition among multiple users; land-use changes; and pollution of water resources [1]. Natural variability along with uncertainties in the human environment can make it difficult to predict water resource demands. In general, the systems for m
Data Loading...
