Integrated land use and multiple water supply-demand modelling framework: a peri-urban case study

The South Creek catchment with an area 620 km2 confronts increased competition between potable water, irrigation and environmental flows. Peri-urban areas also generate a large volume of effluent and stormwater and can often meet some or all the irrigation and industrial water needs provided adequate infrastructure is available. An adequate harmonisation of these multiple supplies and land use using a total system analysis approach leads to a better understanding and evaluation of the limitation and opportunities to enhance the overall performance of the system. This paper descriers the developed modelling framework to simulate water supplies and forecast future demands and integrate supplies and demands in finding water allocations with different climate change and land use scenarios. The integrated model is applied to the South Creek catchment to plan future land use and water supply in an environment of water scarcity under system harmonisation water resources management concept

Innovative modeling and visualization platform for sustainable cities - Mutopia

Now more than half the world’s population lives in towns and cities and this proportion will rise to nearly two thirds by 2030. Many cities worldwide are facing acute challenges, and therefore it is essential that all future developments are carried out on a sustainable footing. Through a web-based platform, MUtopia visualises and demonstrates in a quantifiable manner what impact a planned site development would have by representing best practice in all aspects of sustainable urban living on a relatively large scale. Sites may be new suburbs or rebuilt sections of the city large enough to require systematic planning. The project focuses on the development of an integrated modelling, analysis and visualization tool that helps the government and developers to make informed decisions to achieve such sustainable urban development and implementation. MUtopia integrates the streams of energy, waste, water and transport, based on land use, as well as social and environmental factors so that various planning scenarios or dependencies between factors can be tested. It is an integrated BIM and GIS tool. MUtopia would be an international first in an area of growing interest and need

Integrated Evaluation of Hybrid Water Supply Systems Using a PROMETHEE-GAIA Approach

There are pressures on existing centralized water infrastructures in urban centers which justify the search for alternatives. An increasingly important alternative is to shift from centralized to hybrid systems, often in response to climate variability and demographic changes. In a hybrid system, water is supplied and discharged through a mix of centralized and decentralized systems. There is usually no single objective that justifies the choice of hybrid water systems, but they typically are justified based on the consideration of a number of different criteria in order to evaluate the overall quality of service provision. The most important criteria include meeting water demand, as well as reducing demand for fresh water and instead using local alternative water supplies. Integration of multiple objectives to evaluate the hybrid water supply systems can be accomplished by multi-criteria decision aid techniques. This paper evaluates a number of hybrid water supply scenarios using a case study based on the Northern Growth Area of Melbourne, Australia. It uses the Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Decision Aid (GAIA), one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods through D-Sight software, to rank the hybrid water supply scenarios, and this ranking is validated by means of sensitivity analysis. The centralized system combined with stormwater harvesting and the centralized system combined with treated wastewater and rainwater tanks yielded the first and second most preferred scenarios, while the centralized water supply system combined with treated wastewater yielded the worst hybrid water supply option

An Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Streamflows in the Musi Catchment, India

The long-term impacts of climate change on water resources are expected to be considerable in Southern India especially in the semi-arid regions. The effects of the changes on precipitation and temperature are expected to alter the hydrology of catchments and ultimately water security. A complicating factor in dealing with climate change from a water resource management perspective in India is the current government policies that promote watershed development (WSD), a policy that promotes the capture of runoff to increase groundwater recharge and irrigation development. In this paper the aim is to quantify the impacts climate change and WSD will have on the hydrologic behavior of the Musi catchment Andhra Pradesh. Global Climate Model (GCM) predictions of future climate are too coarse for hydrological modelling and fail to account for the most important influence on the monsoon rainfall patterns over India. In order to increase the spatial resolution of the models, a dynamic downscaling approach was used in this research. Three climate simulations corresponding to the IPCC-SRES A1B scenario were downscaled for the period 1961- 2098 using “Providing REgional Climates for Impact Studies” (PRECIS) regional climate modelling system. These simulations were based on three versions of the HadCM3 global climate model that showed realistic results for the Indian summer monsoon. The hydrology of the catchment was modelled using the SWAT hydrologic model. The model was set up for the entire Musi catchment in the Krishna Basin for which the model calibration and validation was carried out at the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar gauging stations. Monthly and annual inflows were used to carry out the model calibration. The model calibration and validation yielded Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients ranging between 0.65 and 0.75, which indicate a good model performance. The downscaled climate data was then used as forcing data in the model to carry out simulations for all three versions of the climate projection data ((Q0, Q1 and Q14). An analysis of flows at different time slices shows that stream flows decline in the near future (2011-40) and then an increasing trend towards the end of the century. Under the Q1 scenario, annual stream flows show a systematic decline over the period of analysis. The Q14 scenario shows an increase in stream flows over the next few decades followed by a decline towards the end of the century. Potential evapotranspiration is predicted to increase for all the climate scenarios. The reservoir component option available in SWAT was used to assess the impact of watershed development structures in the catchment and the analysis shows that stream flows have been declining due to the growth and impact of these structures in the catchment

Hydro-economic modelling of the Upper Bhima Catchment, India

Water resources development has played a crucial role in the expansion of agriculture and industry in the Upper Bhima Catchment, Maharashtra, India. However, sustainable water resources management has become a challenging issue in this catchment in recent years as there is an increasing demand for renewable, yet finite water resources. Finding ways to meet this growing demand and also to achieve positive environmental and economic outcomes requires the aid of modeling tools to analyze the impact of alternative policy scenarios. Water resources management modeling at a catchment scale can provide policy makers with essential information needed to make rational resource allocation decisions..

Developing a strategy to improve irrigation efficiency in a temperate climate A case study in England

Irrigation is an essential component of agricultural production in England, but the water resources required are under intense pressure due to rising competition, demands for greater environmental protection and the longer-term threats from climate change. This paper describes the development of a water strategy for agriculture to assure its future sustainability by reducing water wastage and maximizing the benefit from the water used. Three themes have been defined - working together, making best use of available water and developing a knowledge base. The approaches described have international relevance to countries where agricultural irrigation is an important component of water abstraction

Water policy in practice: A case study from Vietnam

In Brennan, D. (Ed.), Water policy reform: Lessons from Asia and Australia - Proceedings of an International Workshop held in Bangkok, Thailand, 8-9 June 2001. Canberra, Australia: ACIA