Spring : managing groundwater sustainably

Cross, Katharine; Laban, Peter; Paden, Mary; Smith, Mark

doi:10.2305/iucn.ch.2016.wani.8.en

Cited by 64 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Although accurate monitoring of groundwater resources is essential for provision of effective management practices 27 , groundwater monitoring has not well-attended in developing countries 28 , mainly due to the hidden nature of groundwater and the lack of recognition for the human impacts on groundwater resources 29 . Data coming from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite has provided a grand opportunity for monitoring changes in groundwater storage and detecting depletion at larger scales [30][31][32] ; however still the value of in-situ groundwater monitoring is unquestionable, particularly at smaller basin and sub-basin scales.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran

Ashraf

Nazemi

AghaKouchak

2021

Sci Rep

139

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Using publicly-available average monthly groundwater level data in 478 sub-basins and 30 basins in Iran, we quantify country-wide groundwater depletion in Iran. Natural and anthropogenic elements affecting the dynamics of groundwater storage are taken into account and quantified during the period of 2002–2015. We estimate that the total groundwater depletion in Iran to be ~ 74 km3 during this period with highly localized and variable rates of change at basin and sub-basin scales. The impact of depletion in Iran’s groundwater reserves is already manifested by extreme overdrafts in ~ 77% of Iran’s land area, a growing soil salinity across the entire country, and increasing frequency and extent of land subsidence in Iran’s planes. While meteorological/hydrological droughts act as triggers and intensify the rate of depletion in country-wide groundwater storage, basin-scale groundwater depletions in Iran are mainly caused by extensive human water withdrawals. We warn that continuation of unsustainable groundwater management in Iran can lead to potentially irreversible impacts on land and environment, threatening country’s water, food, socio-economic security.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran

Ashraf

Nazemi

AghaKouchak

2021

Sci Rep

139

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“…For groundwater, key elements of the framework include (i) a governmental vision of needed solutions to the problem that leads to (ii) policies and laws that provide governments with the powers and instruments needed to manage the resource (Garduno & Foster, 2010;Smith et al, 2016). In ASM, powers might include mandated registration of claims, managing production on a continuing basis through licenses, creating government-sponsored supply chains, and enforcing mining bans in environmentally sensitive areas or national parks.…”

Section: The Problems Of Data and Resource Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In ASM, powers might include mandated registration of claims, managing production on a continuing basis through licenses, creating government-sponsored supply chains, and enforcing mining bans in environmentally sensitive areas or national parks. Successful management requires governments to be proactive in developing acceptance among stakeholders and punishing noncompliance with the general policies, as well as pollution and safety violations (Smith et al, 2016).…”

Section: The Problems Of Data and Resource Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

2021

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Some of the poorest people in the world's poorest countries eke out a living in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Equipped with primitive tools like picks, shovels, buckets, and gold pans, they work mining valuable resources, like gold, diamonds, tin, lithium, rare earth elements, tantalum, and cobalt, and any other usable commodity, for example, sand, coal, or mica. The mining and refining processes are labor intensive and associated with a variety of health problems due to accidents, overheating, overexertion, dust inhalation, exposure to toxic chemicals and gases, violence, and illicit and prescription drug and alcohol addiction. Evident disadvantages with ASM are counterbalanced by the immense economic benefits. For many, the true scope and scale of ASM activities are unappreciated, along with the unknown health and societal impacts. Here, we set out to elucidate the scope of ASM beyond the recovery of familiar commodities, such as gold and diamonds. We adopt a holistic perspective toward health impacts of ASM, which includes unique occupational, environmental, and human/social drivers. A particular focus is poverty as a health risk with artisanal miners. They are commonly poverty-stricken people in poor countries, ensnared by a variety of poverty traps, which take a toll on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. ASM sometimes provides an opportunity to diversify income in the face of a decline in subsistence agriculture. However, ASM often trades one kind of generational poverty for another, coming along with serious health risks and turmoil associated with work in an informal "cash-rich" business. Plain Language Summary Many of the world's most valuable commodities, for example, gold, diamonds, and strategic metals, and less valuable resources, for example, sand, clay, and coal, are the products of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). The miners are commonly poor people with rudimentary tools, like shovels, buckets, and pans subsisting by working shallow ore deposits. Although an inefficient mining method, the large numbers of people can contribute substantially to a country's total production. Much of this mining occurs in distant, lawless areas like the Amazon River basin or the outback in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The work is grueling and dangerous because of violence and unregulated work sites. Miners suffer from the expected collection of occupational health risks, due to, for example, accidents, chemical exposures, dust inhalation, and lifting and lugging of heavy loads. Mining communities are at risk from incidental exposures to mercury, mosquito-borne diseases, poor sanitation, and more. Human and social problems also impact health. Our paper emphasizes poverty as a risk factor for disease, as miners are caught in poverty traps-unable to leave. Injuries and disease often must remain untreated because of costs and absent clinics.

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“…Second, watershed protection programs focused on maintaining or enhancing hydrologic ecosystem services, including groundwater recharge, are rapidly growing, particularly in the tropics (Abell et al 2017;Salzman et al 2018;Brauman et al 2019). A key information need for both groundwater sustainable yield policies and watershed protection efforts is improved understanding of the relative impacts of watershed management on groundwater recharge and supply in a context of broader climate and land-cover change (Chun et al 2017;Bremer et al 2020). Furthermore, translating changes in groundwater recharge and supply into metrics directly related to groundwater management (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An improved version that accounts for salinity, RAM 2, was later introduced by Liu (2006). Although RAM 2 is useful in its simple and widely applicable approach, the state water regulator and others have identified the critical need to update sustainable yield estimates to better account for aquifer spatial heterogeneity, future land-cover and climate change, and groundwater flow to ecosystems (Chun et al 2017;Townscape 2019;Burnett et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of land-cover and watershed protection futures on sustainable groundwater management in a heavily utilized aquifer in Hawai‘i (USA)

et al. 2021

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Groundwater sustainability initiatives, including sustainable yield and watershed policy protection policies, are growing globally in response to increasing demand for groundwater, coupled with concerns about the effects of climate and land-cover change on groundwater supply. Improved understanding of the impacts of watershed management on groundwater yields and management costs—particularly in the broader context of climate and land-cover change—is critical to inform these initiatives and facilitate integrated land and water management. This study develops a novel, spatially explicit groundwater hydrologic ecosystem services framework, which combines stakeholder-defined land-cover scenarios, sustainable yield estimation using a groundwater simulation optimization approach, and economic valuation, and applies it in the most heavily utilized aquifer Hawai‘i (USA). Sustainable yield estimates and resulting differences in replacement costs are estimated for six land-cover scenarios (with varying levels of urban development and watershed management) crossed with two water demand scenarios in a context of a dry future climate (Representative Concentration Pathway [RCP] 8.5 mid-century). Land-cover change is found to be an important, though less significant drive of changes in groundwater recharge than climate change. The degree of watershed protection, through preventing the spread of high-water-use, invasive plant species, is projected to be a much stronger land-cover signal than urban development. Specifically, full forest protection increases sustainable yield by 7–11% (30–45 million liters per day) and substantially decreases treatment costs compared with no forest protection. Collectively, this study demonstrates the hydrologic and economic value of watershed protection in a context of a dry future climate, providing insights for integrated land and water policy and management in Hawai‘i and other regions, particularly where species invasions threaten source watersheds.

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Spring : managing groundwater sustainably

Cited by 64 publications

References 19 publications

Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran

Anthropogenic drought dominates groundwater depletion in Iran

A Review of the Scope of Artisanal and Small‐Scale Mining Worldwide, Poverty, and the Associated Health Impacts

Effects of land-cover and watershed protection futures on sustainable groundwater management in a heavily utilized aquifer in Hawai‘i (USA)

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