Over the years, desalination has become integral to water resources management, primarily in coastal semi-arid to arid regions. While desalinated seawater has mainly been supplied to municipal and ...high-revenue industries, the agriculture sector faces increasing irrigation demands, making it a potential user. This review assesses the sustainability of using desalinated seawater for irrigation, shedding light on its limitations and potential. Using desalinated water for irrigation presents challenges, including its high energy consumption, potential contribution to climate change, and agronomy-related concerns. However, evidence suggests that these challenges can be addressed effectively through tailor-fitted strategies. That said, conventional binary decision-making paradigms that label practices as good or bad and focus on a singular, isolated aspect are insufficient for evaluating the sustainability of desalination due to the complex and interconnected nature of the issues involved. To overcome this, the climate-water-energy-food (CWEF) nexus concept is proposed as a comprehensive framework for sustainability assessment. Adopting the CWEF nexus approach allows for a better understanding of the potential challenges associated with using desalinated water for irrigation, encompassing social, economic and environmental concerns. To ensure effective management of these challenges, it is crucial to tailor desalination projects to specific regional conditions and employ either prophylactic or corrective strategies. By embracing the CWEF nexus approach, informed decisions can be made regarding the future utilization of desalinated water for irrigation, contributing to broader sustainability goals.
•The agriculture sector is leaning more toward the use of desalinated water for irrigation.•Desalination poses challenges such as energy intensity, economic viability, and environmental/agronomic impacts.•Desalination's expansion into agriculture is intertwined with climate change, yielding varied outcomes, both positive and negative.•Reevaluating the role of desalination within the climate-water-energy-food security nexus.
Water, food and energy are at the core of human needs and there is a boundless complex cycle among these three basic human needs. Ecosystems are in the center of this nexus, since they contribute to ...the provision of each component, making it imperative to understand the role of ecosystems in securing food, water and energy for human well-being. In this study we aimed to map and assess water provisioning services and associated benefits to support the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus by taking into account environmental flow requirements for riverine ecosystems using the hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). We developed a framework that includes indicators of renewable water (capacity of ecosystem to provide water) and water use (service flow) and we applied it in the Danube river basin over the period 1995–2004. Water scarcity indicators were used to map the possible water scarcity in the subbasins, and analyze the spatial match of water availability and water use. The results show that modelling is instrumental to perform the integrated analysis of the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus; and that spatial mapping is a powerful tool to display environmental availability of water provisioning and regulatory services delivered by ecosystems, and can support the nexus analysis.
•Efficient water management requires spatial knowledge of water availability and use•We develop an approach for assessing and mapping water provisioning services•We implement the approach in the Danube river basin.•The approach can support assessments and policies related to the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus
Abstract
Maintaining access to a sustainable water resource is becoming increasingly difficult in the midst of the ongoing global water crisis, emphasizing the importance of investing in alternative ...resources such as desalinated water. Throughout history, the desalination industry has adapted to the specific needs of an era or different environmental conditions by incorporating cutting-edge technologies. The general theme of this paper is the past, the present, and the future of the desalination industry. As such, this research aims to examine the evolution of the desalination industry over time, understand its current state, and ultimately use this knowledge to highlight some important considerations for its future. This review highlighted the immense influence of the energy market on the prevalence of desalination technology in a given region and/or eras. The information gathered here indicates that other sectors, such as agriculture, may need to rely on this unconventional water supply in the future, but there are certain factors ranging from socioeconomic to environmental concerns that need continued and increased research to facilitate the long-term, sustainable development of this practice.
•Alternative regionalization techniques in large-scale model applications were investigated.•Regionalization techniques are model-independent and are based on the similarity approach.•Adapted ...measures of physiographic similarity meaningful for hydrological similarity were used.•Regionalization involving unsupervised and supervised clustering were studied.•These techniques proved to be helpful in large-scale model calibration.
This work investigates regionalization techniques for large-scale model applications in the frame of a pan-European assessment of water resources covering approx. 740,000 km2 in Western Europe. Using the SWAT platform, four variants of the similarity based regionalization approach were compared. The first two involved unsupervised clustering to define hydrological regions before performing hydrological model calibration, whereas the last two involved supervised clustering after performing calibration. Similarity is defined using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) analysis that identifies watershed physiographic characteristics that are most relevant for the selected hydrological response indices.
The PLSR results indicate that typically available watershed characteristics such as geomorphology, land-use, climate, and soil properties describe reasonably well the average hydrological conditions but poorly the extreme events. Regionalization variants considering unsupervised clustering and supervised clustering performed similarly well when using all available information. However, results indicate that supervised clustering uses data more efficiently and may be more suitable when data are scarce. It is demonstrated that parsimonious use of available data can be achieved using both regionalization techniques. Finally, model performance consistently becomes acceptable by calibrating watersheds covering only 10% of the model domain, thus, making the calibration task affordable in terms of time and computational resources required.
Different SWAT models have been set-up to predict water discharge at the European scale, applying an innovative modelling protocol that involves sensitivity analysis, multi-variable calibration and ...regionalization of the calibrated parameters. In this application, two large regions have been considered: the Scandinavian and the Iberian peninsulas, with the main objectives: (a) to study the spatial variation of calibrated parameter sets obtained for selected sub-basins, and (b) identification of the most relevant hydrological processes in each region. The results of the analysis highlight that snow processes are dominant in Scandinavia; groundwater processes are significant in both the Scandinavian and Iberian peninsulas, while lateral flow is not significant in either region. Calibrated soil hydraulic parameters have different ranges of values in each region, reflecting a difference in runoff-generating mechanisms between the two studied regions. The contribution of this analysis is the assessment of the main differences between hydrological processes across Europe and understanding of the major transport pathways for pollutants. Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Guest editor V. Krysanova
The Water Framework Directive of the European Union requires member states to achieve good ecological status of all water bodies. A harmonized pan‐European assessment of water resources availability ...and quality, as affected by various management options, is necessary for a successful implementation of European environmental legislation. In this context, we developed a methodology to predict surface water flow at the pan‐European scale using available datasets. Among the hydrological models available, the Soil Water Assessment Tool was selected because its characteristics make it suitable for large‐scale applications with limited data requirements. This paper presents the results for the Danube pilot basin. The Danube Basin is one of the largest European watersheds, covering approximately 803,000 km2 and portions of 14 countries. The modeling data used included land use and management information, a detailed soil parameters map, and high‐resolution climate data. The Danube Basin was divided into 4663 subwatersheds of an average size of 179 km2. A modeling protocol is proposed to cope with the problems of hydrological regionalization from gauged to ungauged watersheds and overparameterization and identifiability, which are usually present during calibration. The protocol involves a cluster analysis for the determination of hydrological regions and multiobjective calibration using a combination of manual and automated calibration. The proposed protocol was successfully implemented, with the modeled discharges capturing well the overall hydrological behavior of the basin.
Estimating chloride deposition rates is important for several applications. The conservative nature of chloride makes it a widely used natural tracer for hydrological investigations, such as ...groundwater recharge estimations and catchment salt balances. Additionally, chloride deposition is used to identify the sources and pathways of air pollutants as well as predict the likelihood of corrosion in infrastructures. The variability of atmospheric chloride (Cl−) deposition is a crucial consideration in hydrological investigations, particularly in coastal areas where it can fluctuate greatly. On small islands, spatial variations of chloride deposition have been found to be particularly strong, which may lead to large estimation errors when assuming point measurements are representative of larger areas. This paper aims to improve knowledge of the factors affecting chloride deposition's spatial and temporal variability in small islands using Norfolk Island (South Pacific) as a case study. A monitoring network consisting of 15 open‐site rainwater collectors was installed, from which 275 rainwater samples were collected for the period September 2020–July 2022. Total deposition rates for this period varied from 22.7 to 36.7 mg m−2 d−1 for sites located more than 400 meters from the coast. A higher variation is observed closer to the coast, with values varying from 50.9 to 1022.7 mg m−2 d−1 for sites located between 50 and 200 m from the coast. Statistical analysis shows that distance from the nearest point on the coast and elevation above sea level are significant factors contributing to spatial variability of chloride deposition, whereas period‐total rainfall depth and period‐average maximum daily wind gust speed significantly affect the temporal variability. This study contributes to knowledge on chloride deposition variability as well as the understanding of factors contributing to this variability in small islands. Additionally, a double exponential model for spatial distribution of chloride deposition in small islands is proposed.
The variability of atmospheric chloride (Cl−) deposition is a crucial consideration in hydrological investigations, particularly in coastal areas where it can fluctuate greatly. Our analysis of a 35.7 km2 small island revealed that chloride deposition exhibited significant variation over both space and time. Multiple regression analysis identified four factors – distance from coast, elevation, rainfall, and wind gust – that explained approximately 60% of the variability in chloride deposition.
•Interdisciplinary assessment at national scale of the complexity of situated risks for mining.•ESG-W-RISK was developed to outline the water-related ESG risk profiles at country scale.•ESG-W-RISK ...was applied to Chile to prioritise ESG risks areas for the mining sector.•2 out of 5 Chilean mines and future projects face high-level of total ESG risk.
Mining projects interact with diverse concurrent environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks inherent to the local hosting context. These risks known as "situated risks'' usually have a relevant influence on the dynamics between operations, environment and communities. The appropriate assessment of these risks requires a multi-disciplinary approach. This research aims to propose a novel ESG-W-RISK approach to prioritise water-related ESG risks areas for the mining industry at a national scale. In contrast to similar approaches at a global scale, it uses tailored indicators and more detailed datasets for the country, which are selected based on an initial analysis of the national context. Indicators are assembled to create risk maps. Mining locations are overlaid with the risk maps to identify mining areas of high risk. ESG-W-RISK aims to support decision-makers by helping them identify the relevant water-related risk areas, and ultimately it can provide insights for developing country-level mitigation strategies. ESG-W-RISK was applied to Chile, a country with an important mining sector that faces relevant water-related challenges. The results show that 43% of current mines and 44% of future projects are in high-risk areas, and 93% of both mines and future projects are in areas of high or very high risk of water scarcity. Particularly, the risk levels in the Chile's lithium and copper mining areas are more concerning than the previously published global-scale ESG risk levels.
Water scarcity is a critical issue worldwide and has become a major constraint on socio-economic development. Seawater desalination is an appealing adaptation option in regions with access to the ...coast; however, it has sustainability challenges that require careful consideration. Two critical challenges are: how to manage the spectrum of potential adverse social and environmental impacts; and how to provide fair and sustainable water access benefits to the region as a whole. This paper presents a participatory modelling framework designed to support the participatory planning of sustainable integration of desalinated seawater into a regional water supply network in water-scarce regions. The framework is based on a modelling tool that facilitates collaborative understanding of the regional context and optimises and maps candidate water supply networks and the associated trade-offs between economic, environmental and social performance criteria. The framework aims to facilitate dialogue between all interested parties and contributes to a more informed, fair, consented, long-term and sustainable integration of desalinated seawater into regional water supply schemes. An application to the Atacama region in Chile illustrates the capabilities of the framework to communicate options under varying conditions of environmental protection. The case study also illustrates the role of stakeholders in the process of tool refinement as part of early-stage participatory planning.
•Water supply planning framework to support participatory planning.•Supports fair and sustainable integration of desalination in regional water supply.•It encompasses both spatial layout and network optimisation planning.•It incorporates environmental, social and economic aspects in planning stages.•The Atacama region (Chile) application illustrates trade-offs of shared solutions.
For centuries, desalination, in one way or another, has helped alleviate water scarcity. Over time, desalination has gone through an evolutionary process influenced largely by available contemporary ...technology. This improvement, for the most part, was reflected in the energy efficiency and, in turn, in terms of the cost-effectiveness of this practice. Thanks to such advancements, by the 1960s, the desalination industry experienced notable exponential growth, becoming a formidable option to supplement conventional water resources with a reliable non-conventional resource. That said, often, there are pressing associated issues, most notably environmental, socioeconomic, health, and relatively recently, agronomic concerns. Such reservations raise the question of whether desalination is indeed a sustainable solution to current water supply problems. This is exceptionally important to understand in light of the looming water and food crises. This paper, thus, tends to review these potential issues from the sustainability perspective. It is concluded that the aforementioned issues are indeed major concerns, but they can be mitigated by actions that consider the local context. These may be either prophylactic, proactive measures that require careful planning to tailor the situation to best fit a given region or reactive measures such as incorporating pre- (e.g., removing particles, debris, microorganisms, suspended solids, and silt from the intake water prior to the desalination process) and post-treatments (e.g., reintroducing calcium and magnesium ions to water to enhance its quality for irrigation purposes) to target specific shortcomings of desalination.
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