Irrigation Water Quality Assessment and Identification of River Pollution Sources in Bangladesh: Implications in Policy and Management.

Due to uncontrolled rapid industrialization and the lack of decisive and effective policy framework, river water pollution is posing an increasing threat to surface water irrigation in Bangladesh. In this paper, irrigation water quality and possible sources of pollution in the watershed of the Khiru River have been assessed. Results indicate severe degradation in water quality likely to cause serious damage to crop production. The presence of severe alkali hazards and heavy metals pose further threats to the future. Multivariate analysis suggests that industrial and municipal wastewater may be a possible cause of such degradation. The immediate formulation and implementation of water pollution prevention policies and strategies are therefore recommended to minimize farming threats to 7000 ha of land and 20,000 families depending on the river for survival

Can integrated water resources management increase adaptive capacity to climate change adaptation? A critical review

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is now a global paradigm. While conceptions of IWRM principles vary between contexts, it primarily aims to ensure more coordinated management between different aspects of water issues such as water quality, land management and habitat protection. However, one increasingly significant cross-cutting management issue is climate change adaptation which presents multiple problems for IWRM approaches. This paper therefore seeks to gauge the extent to which IWRM principles can, and indeed are, enhancing the adaptive capacity of water management through reducing vulnerability and increasing the resilience of social-ecological systems. A review of research into vulnerability and resilience to date suggests that IWRM has significant potential for supporting some of the key determinants of adaptive capacity. However, despite IWRM being promoted as an attractive approach, our assessment argues that IWRM, as currently practiced, cannot readily enhance flexibility and adaptability, which is required for climate change adaptation. Normative recommendations for future policy are then provided

Climate change adaptation and vulnerability assessment of water resources systems in developing countries: a generalized framework and a feasibility study in Bangladesh

Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the Earth’s ecosystems and therefore people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. Besides climatic change, current demographic trends, economic development and related land use changes have direct impact on increasing demand for freshwater resources. Taken together, the net effect of these supply and demand changes is affecting the vulnerability of water resources. The concept of ‘vulnerability’ is not straightforward as there is no universally accepted approach for assessing vulnerability. In this study, we review the evolution of approaches to vulnerability assessment related to water resources. From the current practices, we identify research gaps, and approaches to overcome these gaps a generalized assessment framework is developed. A feasibility study is then presented in the context of the Lower Brahmaputra River Basin (LBRB). The results of the feasibility study identify the current main constraints (e.g., lack of institutional coordination) and opportunities (e.g., adaptation) of LBRB. The results of this study can be helpful for innovative research and management initiatives and the described framework can be widely used as a guideline for the vulnerability assessment of water resources systems, particularly in developing countries

Spatial Assessment of Water Use Efficiency (SDG Indicator 6.4.1) for Regional Policy Support

Countries are facing the challenge of identifying the most effective implementation strategies and measures for achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and their specific targets. The standard procedure proposed by international organizations consists of a set of indicators (one or more per target) assessed at country level. However, such country scale assessments have only limited potential for regional or national policymaking, because of aggregation and averaging effects, which limit the identification of phenomena, their causal relationships, and their spatial-temporal dynamics. The need thus emerges for defining assessment procedures that go beyond national level aggregation and zoom into local phenomena, while maintaining a link with the approach adopted at the global level for monitoring and reporting the progress towards the meeting of the SDGs. SDG 6 focuses on water resources and aims at achieving safe water and sanitation for all, which are essential to human health, environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. SDG 6 is evidently interconnected with several other SDGs, and in particular with those focused on food production (SDG2) and other socio-economic activities using water as a production factor. This paper proposes an approach to assess SDG 6, based upon freely available global data sets. The methodology is suitable for both reporting at international level in accordance with approved guidelines proposed by custodian agencies and – more importantly – analyzing the spatial features of the phenomena related to the SDGs and their targets, producing information useful to support effective sustainability oriented policies. The proposed approach is demonstrated for the assessment of the indicator 6.4.1 (Change in water use efficiency) in South and South-East Asia, with the ambition to provide operational solutions timely applicable at the global level by exploiting the ever-increasing availability of spatial information deriving from ongoing exercises in the field of global change. This will allow identifying current and emerging water management issues, such as the areas where strategies are required to increase the availability of water resources, or those necessitating transboundary strategies. Scenario analysis driven by the IPCC Shared Socioeconomic Pathways is developed to explore policy and technological solutions across the nexus between water management and agriculture

Moving beyond water centricity? Conceptualizing integrated water resources management for implementing sustainable development goals

While the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, establishes an ambitious set of goals, targets and indicators for supporting global sustainability, greater conceptual clarity is required to measure implementation. A key UN Target (6.5) for implementing sustainable development goal (SDG) 6 is to ‘implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) at all levels’. However, we argue that the current UN emphasis on measuring its implementation through institutional indicators limits our understanding of effectiveness, while ignoring links to other SDGs. While IWRM is often interpreted to mean the integration of water-related management components at the river basin scale, conceptualizations differ significantly. Specifying the critical normative principles of IWRM, therefore, becomes important for measuring its implementation. Drawing upon pre-existing conceptualizations, we consequently identify seven core principles or dimensions (integration; scale; institutions; participation; economic valuation; equity; and, environmental/ecological protection) to re-conceptualize IWRM after the adoption of agenda 2030. These dimensions, we argue, allow more objective measurement of IWRM implementation through the development of Target 6.5 sub-indicators. They also help shift IWRM beyond its current ‘water centric’ emphasis to enhance its contribution to achieving other SDGs such as those for ending poverty, providing clean and affordable energy, achieving gender equality, protecting terrestrial ecosystems, promoting sustainable cities, combatting hunger and climate change, and strengthening the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Exploring institutional structures for Tidal River Management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh

Tidal River Management (TRM) is a local adaptation strategy for coastal floodplains in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in Bangladesh. TRM involves the periodic opening and closing of embankments to accelerate land accretion (or reclamation) in a floodplain. Although the approach is considered a promising adaptation strategy, there have been both positive and negative outcomes from recent TRM implementation. The aim of this study is consequently to explore the institutional (community, rules-in-use, and also biophysical) factors influencing successes and failures of TRM implementation for managing common-pool resources, as a basis for making recommendations on future institutional design. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, first developed by Ostrom (2010) and revised by Bisaro and Hinkel (2016), is therefore used to conduct comparative analysis of TRM institutional effectiveness in three Delta floodplains or beels: one led by a local community and the other two by national authorities. Our research employs a mixed method approach involving focus group discussions, stakeholder interviews, site visits, along with secondary literature analysis. The results of this assessment provide insights into coastal adaptation governance that could inform TRM implementation in Bangladesh and other similar contexts worldwide

Co-Optimizing Solutions for Water and Food – Scoping the Nexus Challenges in the Agro-Sector and finding Scalable Business Solutions

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus approach has an opportunity to create sustainable business solutions, especially in the agricultural sector. This report provides a clear understanding of challenges for the most promising and scalable solutions to the interconnected water, energy and food/feed/fiber problems, allowing combined co-optimization. Searching solutions for nexus challenges, a model based assessment of WEF nexus at global scale and a theoretical perspective of integrating economic and ecological objectives are presented. This study explores the opportunities for the global community to develop robust partnerships and cross sector collaboration to foster water security and increase resource use efficiency, particularly in agriculture and food industry, as part of corporate environmental and financial performance goals

Brief communication: Key papers of 20 years in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

To mark the 20th anniversary of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), an interdisciplinary and international journal dedicated to the public discussion and open-access publication of high-quality studies and original research on natural hazards and their consequences, we highlight 11 key publications covering major subject areas of NHESS that stood out within the past 20 years. The papers cover all the topics contemplated in the European Geo-sciences Union (EGU) Division on Natural Hazards including dissemination, education, outreach and teaching. The selected articles thus represent excellent scientific contributions in the major areas of natural hazards and risks and helped NHESS to become an exceptionally strong journal representing interdisciplinary areas of natural hazards and risks. At its 20th anniversary, we are proud that NHESS is not only used by scientists to disseminate research results and novel ideas but also by practitioners and decision-makers to present effective solutions and strategies for sustainable disaster risk reduction

Brief communication: Key papers of 20 years in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

To mark the 20th anniversary of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS), an interdisciplinary and international journal dedicated to the public discussion and open-access publication of high-quality studies and original research on natural hazards and their consequences, we highlight 11 key publications covering major subject areas of NHESS that stood out within the past 20 years. The papers cover all the topics contemplated in the European Geo-sciences Union (EGU) Division on Natural Hazards including dissemination, education, outreach and teaching. The selected articles thus represent excellent scientific contributions in the major areas of natural hazards and risks and helped NHESS to become an exceptionally strong journal representing interdisciplinary areas of natural hazards and risks. At its 20th anniversary, we are proud that NHESS is not only used by scientists to disseminate research results and novel ideas but also by practitioners and decision-makers to present effective solutions and strategies for sustainable disaster risk reduction

Integrated modelling of social-ecological systems for climate change adaptation

Analysis of climate change risks in support of policymakers to set effective adaptation policies requires an innovative yet rigorous approach towards integrated modelling (IM) of social-ecological systems (SES). Despite continuous advances, IM still faces various challenges that span through both unresolved methodological issues as well as data requirements. On the methodological side, significant improvements have been made for better understanding the dynamics of complex social and ecological systems, but still, the literature and proposed solutions are fragmented. This paper explores available modelling approaches suitable for long-term analysis of SES for supporting climate change adaptation (CCA). It proposes their classification into seven groups, identifies their main strengths and limitations, and lists current data sources of greatest interest. Upon that synthesis, the paper identifies directions for orienting the development of innovative IM, for improved analysis and management of socio-economic systems, thus providing better foundations for effective CCA