Importance of good groundwater governance in economic development: The case of western Iran

Foroushani, Taraneh Sarami; Balali, H; Movahedi, Reza; Kurban, Alishir; Värnik, Rando; Stamenkovska, Ivana Janeska; Azadi, Hossein

doi:10.1016/j.gsd.2022.100892

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Accordingly, it is essential to assess sustainability and protect aquifers in the face of ongoing and proposed development-induced stresses. A promising tool to determine the exploitation status of an aquifer is integrating indicators of multiple dimensions (i.e., hydrogeology, environmental, social, economic, and political) [8,28]. Yet, the resulting overall sustainability index cannot demonstrate the contribution of future groundwater development plans [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Management and Environmental Impact Assessment of Sustainable Groundwater-Dependent Development in Toshka District, Egypt

Aly

Elhamid

Abu-Bakr

et al. 2023

Water

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Egypt has recently inaugurated a mega development project aiming to alleviate the overpopulation along the Nile River and to meet the looming food gap. Toshka is a promising area where groundwater-dependent activities are being expanded adjacent to Lake Nasser. Thus, it is of utmost importance to provide a sustainable development approach and to assess the resulting environmental implications. Accordingly, a coupled groundwater flow and transport model was invoked. The generated model was successfully calibrated for the observed water levels and salinity. The proposed exploitation regime of 102 wells each pumping 1000 m3/day was simulated for a 100-year test period. The maximum resulting drawdown was about 25 m, compatible with the advocated sustainable restriction limit. Climate change (CC) impacts of reducing the lake’s storage and increasing the crops’ water requirements were investigated. The lake’s water level fluctuations were a key factor in the aquifer hydraulics and flow direction. The drawdown breakthrough considering the CC catastrophic scenario (RCP8.5) has increased by about 20%. The developed solute transport model was utilized to simulate the salinity spatial distribution and the lateral movement of leaking pollutants from the underway activities. Cultivation activities were found feasible up to 80 km away from the lake border where salinity does not exceed 2000 ppm. Yet, a protection strip of not less than 4.8, 6.0, and 7.2 km according to the lake operating condition is inevitable to ensure that pollutants do not intrude into the lake. These findings will assist the decision-makers in scheming environmental impact assessment criteria for sustainable development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Management and Environmental Impact Assessment of Sustainable Groundwater-Dependent Development in Toshka District, Egypt

Aly

Elhamid

Abu-Bakr

et al. 2023

Water

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“…The rapid increases in population and rapid social industrialization over the past few decades have led to a severe scarcity of water resources [3][4][5]. As an essential water resource, groundwater has been heavily extracted and used, resulting in substantial degradations in both water quantity and quality [6,7]. Water quality assessments, as a crucial aspect of water resource management, play an essential role in determining the groundwater quality status, analyzing pollution sources and addressing groundwater quality restoration [8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater Quality Assessment Based on the Random Forest Water Quality Index—Taking Karamay City as an Example

Xiong,

Zhang,

Sun

et al. 2023

Sustainability

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In the past few decades, global industrial development and population growth have led to a scarcity of water resources, making sustainable management of groundwater a global challenge. The Water Quality Index (WQI) serves as a comprehensive method for assessing water quality and can provide valuable recommendations at the water quality level, optimizing policies for groundwater management. However, the subjectivity and uncertainty of the traditional WQI have negative impacts on evaluation outcomes, particularly in determining indicator weights and selecting aggregation functions. The proposed water quality index for groundwater based on the random forest (RFWQI) model in this study addresses these issues. It selects water quality indicators based on the actual pollution situation in the study area, employs an advanced random forest model to rank water quality indicators, determines indicator weights using the rank centroid method, scores the indicators using a sub-index function designed for groundwater development, and compares the results of two commonly used aggregation functions to identify the optimal one. Based on the aggregated scores, the water quality at 137 monitoring sites is classified into five levels: “Excellent”, “Good”, “Medium”, “Poor”, or “Unacceptable”. Among the 11 water quality indicators (sodium, sulfate, chloride, bicarbonate, total dissolved solids, fluoride, boron, nitrate, pH, CODMn, and hardness), chloride was given the highest weight (0.236), followed by total dissolved solids (0.156), and sodium was given the lowest weight (0.008). The random forest model exhibits a good prediction capability before hyperparameter tuning (86% accuracy, RMSE of 0.378), and after grid search and five-fold cross-validation, the optimal hyperparameter combination is determined, further improving the performance of the random forest model (94% accuracy, F1-Score of 0.967, AUC of 0.91, RMSE of 0.232). For the newly developed groundwater sub-index function, interpolation is used to score each indicator, and after comparing two aggregation functions, the NSF aggregation function is selected as the most suitable for groundwater assessment. Overall, most of the groundwater in the study area was of poor quality (52.5% of low quality) and not suitable for drinking.

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“…As such, an urgent need exists to understand the composition, source, and contribution ratio of nitrogen to effectively control NO 3 pollution from the transportation of nitrogen into GW. To address this issue, the government of Iran has implemented various policies and regulations, including promoting sustainable agriculture practices and developing wastewater treatment plants [30]. Nevertheless, further research is needed to address the issue of NO 3 contamination, particularly in light of increasing agricultural intensity and its potential impact on the country's water resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing Nitrate Contamination in Groundwater: The Importance of Spatial and Temporal Understandings and Interpolation Methods

Zaresefat,

Hosseini,

Ahrari Roudi

2023

Water

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Iranian water security is threatened by groundwater (GW) degradation. The excessive use of GW for agriculture in Iran is degrading these resources. Livestock waste disposal and sewage irrigation are also major contributors. Nitrate (NO3) contamination in GW is a growing global concern, posing serious health and environmental risks. Soil can easily leach NO3 into GW, causing long-term contamination. Understanding the temporal and spatial patterns of NO3 pollution is vital in protecting human health and establishing safe drinking water limits. Choosing an appropriate interpolation method is crucial for creating a reliable spatial variability map, which is essential for environmental research and decision-making. This study used 85 GW samples collected over four periods to create interpolated maps and examine the spatial variability of NO3 levels. Spatial interpolation methods were performed using the geostatistical tool within ArcGIS Software. The results showed that Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) was the most effective of the five evaluated interpolation methods, although the performance of each method varied depending on the period sampled. Therefore, the choice of interpolation method should be tailored to the study’s specific needs and the characteristics of the data being interpolated. The EBK method produced interpolation maps that illustrated the spatial distribution of NO3 concentrations, both within and exceeding the recommended guidelines. Interpolation methods can assist in creating spatial maps of NO3 concentrations, identifying pollution sources, and developing targeted management strategies. These maps demonstrate the potential impact of human activities on the observed patterns. A thorough understanding of Iran’s current GW quality is very important and valuable for management and policymakers.

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Importance of good groundwater governance in economic development: The case of western Iran

Cited by 11 publications

References 67 publications

Integrated Management and Environmental Impact Assessment of Sustainable Groundwater-Dependent Development in Toshka District, Egypt

Integrated Management and Environmental Impact Assessment of Sustainable Groundwater-Dependent Development in Toshka District, Egypt

Groundwater Quality Assessment Based on the Random Forest Water Quality Index—Taking Karamay City as an Example

Addressing Nitrate Contamination in Groundwater: The Importance of Spatial and Temporal Understandings and Interpolation Methods

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