The present study describes an integrated modeling framework for surface and groundwater resources planning, management and allocation. The study area includes four groundwater systems of Halkidiki Prefecture in Northern Greece, all facing serious water quality and/or quantity issues, especially during the summer period due to intensive agricultural activity and tourism. Within all four systems, the water demand is met exclusively by groundwater resources. Initially, a supply–demand model is applied under different climate conditions to assess groundwater resource availability. Then a certain quantity of surface water is considered available, due to the potential (future) construction and operation of two reservoirs within the study area and an optimal water allocation model using linear programming is developed. The combined use and allocation of surface and subsurface water under climate changing conditions is also being studied by investigating three additional scenarios in which either every one of the two reservoirs operates solely or both reservoirs operate together. The model was applied using Water and Evaluation Planning (WEAP) software, while the climate data were abstracted from Regional Climate Model REGCM3_10 km and ERA-Interim reanalysis data bases. Finally, the results of unmet demand, water supply coverage and reservoir storage were evaluated as water management action efficiency indicators.
The aim of this study is the protection of groundwater resources from nitrate pollution by regulating land use and by establishing guidelines for agricultural activities within specific wellhead protection areas. Wellhead protection zones are specifically designed in four wells in the municipality of Nea Moudania, an area of intensive agricultural activities in northern Greece. Recent water samples from these wells indicate high levels of nitrates concentrations. Wellhead protection areas are delineated through a geographic information systems (GIS) analysis in order to determine the boundaries of protection zones, as well as to identify the land use patterns and the specific crop types around the contaminated wells. Different land use management techniques for groundwater protection zoning are also examined with respect to their implementation cost. The purpose of this analysis is to identify the least expensive management strategy for wellhead protection. The results show that land use changes are always more expensive than implementing agroenvironmental measures.
Modern concepts in water resources management and related risk assessment necessitate participatory approaches with stakeholders having a key role in the respective processes. The objective of the article is to (i) integrate stakeholders’ opinions and preferences on identified hazards, i.e., coastal flooding, water scarcity, and heat stress, derived by physically based numerical modeling under current and future climate change conditions and attributed in the form of an Integrated deltaic risk index (IDRI) at a specific case study area, and (ii) investigate whether and how the stakeholders’ opinions differentiate the initial outputs coming from the mathematical models. Doing so, stakeholders’ mapping was conducted in tandem with interviews for the detection of responsibilities, tasks, importance, and influence, followed by a structured questionnaire for registering the stakeholders’ perception on climate change impacts and relevant estimated hazards at the same deltaic case study area. Thereafter, a stakeholder-based risk assessment model was constructed based on two methods: (a) stakeholders’ opinion and answers about the impact of each identified hazard are equally taken into consideration, and (b) stakeholders are divided into groups and evaluated through multi-criteria analysis. Finally, the produced weights by the two methods are appropriately coupled with the identified hazards and resulted in the development of a Stakeholder Participatory multi-Risk Index (SPmRI) per method. The comparison of the produced SPmRIs with the IDRI, which was formulated without considering any stakeholders’ participation, reveals noticeable differentiation of modeled outputs especially in cases of high index values, corroborating the need for stakeholders’ opinion inclusion through the SPmRI approach. The proposed methodology fosters the interaction of stakeholders’ perception with modeling-based hazard assessment as a modern tool for decision-making processes.
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