GEOG2055

Water Resources and Management

Lecture 1&2 - Introduction
Contact details for Dr Lishan Ran
Room 1032, Jockey Club Tower,
Centennial Campus, HKU
Email: lsran@hku.hk
Course learning outcomes

2
Course content &
assessment

• Fieldtrip
• Water quality exercise
(Laboratory@Geography)
3
 United Nations World Water
Development Report no. 1 (2003):
Water for People Water for Life

• “Water is essential for life”

• “…..we all too often take the availability

of water for granted.”

• “In recent years the availability of and

access to freshwater have been highlighted
as among the most critical natural
resource issues facing the world.”

4
 Water crisis
# 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to
water
# A total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at
least one month of the year.
# Inadequate sanitation is also a problem for
2.4 billion people—they are exposed to
diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever,
and other water-borne illnesses.
# 2 million people, mostly children, die each
year from diarrheal diseases alone.
# By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s
population may face water shortages.

WWF report (2018)

5
China’s water crisis

WATER PRODUCTIVITY

WATER POLLUTION

Qian (2007) 6
Components of water crisis & stress not crisis?

Nb., Rapid water use is approaching

towards hydrological limits. 7
Components of water crisis: in
support of Newson (2009) Egypt depends entirely
on the waters of the Nile
to irrigate its farmland.

(source: World Water Council website) 8

 Summary of water crisis
“There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not
about having too little water to satisfy our
needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly
that billions of people - and the environment -
suffer badly.” (World Water Forum, Cosgrove Relative Amounts in Water Supply
& Rijsberman, 2000)

Global scale: enough water?

(Gleick, 2006)

9
 A perspective on water crisis
Steffen et al. (2015). Nature

In terms of supporting life on the

planet Earth, is water use and
availability the main threat? 10
 Spatial variation of water stress

11
(source: World Water Development Report 3)
 HDI: Human development index

Priorities in water use

# Domestic water supply is of critical

importance for basic human well-being……

# The related issue of water for growing cities

is also a high priority.

# Water for environment has increased as a

priority for very high HDI countries……and is
approximately equal to domestic water in
them. For low HDI countries, ensuring water
supply for domestic use is more important. 12
(UNEP, 2012)
 How much water ?
Spatial variability: uneven distribution and availability
Precipitation – Evapotranspiration = Available water
P – ET = Q
Seasonality!!

“A key characteristic of the world’s freshwater resources is their uneven

distribution in time and space”.
“Of global water resources a large fraction is available where human demands are 13
small, such as in the Amazon Basin, Canada and Alaska.”
Spatial variability of water resources

14
 Drivers of pressure on water
resources (why under stress)

Demographic drivers…………
• “Human activities and processes of all
(D‘Odorico et al., 2018; UNESCO, 2009)
types - demographic, economic and
social - can exert pressures on water resources and need to be managed”.
• “The rapid rise in living standards combined with population growth presents the major
threat to the sustainability of water resources and environmental services”.
• “Population dynamics (growth, age distribution, urbanization and migration) create
pressures on freshwater resources through increased water demands and pollution”. 15
Social Drivers

UNESCO (2009)
16
Technology

17
Climate Change McCarthy et al. (2001)

18
Water resources/capita under climate change
1990 compared to 2050 under various climate change scenarios

Pink bar shows no change

McCarthy et al 2001

19
“Blue Planet”
Distribution of the earth’s water
Total global water
Fresh water
Fresh water in rivers and lakes

20
Distribution of the earth’s water in the hydrosphere

0.006% freshwater

21
Use of Water:
Household water use: a comparison
MDCs

Domestic consumption

UK

22
Gleick (1996)
Human water
requirements
_________________

If we sum these up we arrive

at a total of 50 liters per
person per day.
___________________

23
 Food: growing/producing
Water requirements from transpiration,
evaporation, and percolation

(Nakka, 2016)
WWDR No. 1, 2003 24
 Agriculture
(Chen, 2013)
Major virtual water flows embodied in international trade
(mainly agriculture, but also include industrial and service)

Mekonnen & Hoekstra (2011)

Shiklomanov (2000)
25
 Population pressure on water
Some definitions
• Water scarcity: a relative concept describing the
relationship between demand for water and availability.
It is partly a social construct in that it is determined by
water availability AND consumption patterns.

• Water stress is the symptomatic consequence of scarcity

which may manifest itself as increasing conflict over
sectoral usage, a decline in service levels, crop failure,
food insecurity etc. (This term is analogous to the
common use of the term “drought”)

• Water security is a situation of reliable and secure access

to water over time. It does not refer to the quantity but
rather to predictability / reliability of supply.
Eg., water reliability was a problem in the 1960s in HK. 26
Indicators of water stress
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations regards water as:
# A severe constraint on socio-economic development and environmental protection at levels of renewable
water availability of less than 1000 m3/capita
# At levels of availability of less than 2000 m3/capita water is regarded as a potentially serious constraint
and a major problem in drought years
• Falkenmark Indicator: classifies stress based on amount of renewable water
resources per person per year
# >1700 m3 per person per year: water shortage occurs only irregularly or locally
# <1700 m3 per person per year: water stress appears regularly
# <1000 m3 per person per year: water scarcity is a limitation to economic development and human health
and well-being
# <500 m3 per person per year: water availability is a main constraint to life (e.g., 220 m3/capita in Israel)

• Water stress indicator; the ratio of withdrawal to availability

• Gleick (1996) per capita daily water requirements: 50 litres per person per day 27
 Water per person

Water Stress Indicator

UN WWDR 5, 2015
This is the
“Falkenmark” Indicator
Please note:
Vulnerabilty; Stress;
Scarcity; Absolute scarcity.

28
Population and water

(UNDP Human Development Report 2006)

Gleick (1996): 50 litres/capita/day

29
Drivers of use of water/ water demand

(demographic drivers
in WWDR no.3, 2009)

30
1) Population
Too many people:
not enough water?

(UNDP Human Development Report 2014)

Asian and African countries

will have to adopt new
practices of more efficient
water use.
US Census Bureau (2011)
31
Population & water 2nd WWDR, 2006

32
(Jamil, 2010)
Spatial variation in consumption: population

Water withdrawal

Water consumption

Asia will be problematic!

33
 Domestic demand / consumption

Int. Water Assoc. 2012

400

300
200

100
50

Birm’m
Tianjin Singapore Perth
Barcelona Beijing
Burkina New York Tokyo Taipei
Brisbane
Faso & Amsterdam
Guangzhou & HK 34
 Jacobsen et al (2012)

•African cities

• Compare to basic needs !!!

• Compare to MDCs !!!

Nb: Gleick, 50 liters/ capita/ day

35
2) Industry & energy

UNWWDR 5, 2015 36
Water & Energy

37
 Energy & water
Energy production usually involves
water consumption.
- flue gas desulfurization, washing solar panels, cooling

e.g. USA

(Spang et al., 2014)

Total water consumption for energy production
38
Biofuels & water

(Spang et al., 2014)

39
3) Agriculture: Water for food

“More crop per drop”……in practical terms WWDR 3

Source: UNWWDR 5, (2015)

40
Agriculture & water
Agriculture: a big share!!!

WWDR, No. 3, 2009 41

Global water transfer by agriculture
Virtual water balance

Hoekstra & Mekkonnen (2011) 42

 Water crisis & stress: complicating issues
• A) Current debate ignores access to potable water & sanitation
• B) Climate change……(do not forget earlier slides)
• C) Complications of land use
# Agriculture
# Deforestation/Afforestation
# Urbanization
• D) Human impact upon runoff in rivers
# Land use change (above)
# River regulation, including dams & reservoirs

• E) Rivers: not just for water supply

# Other important services
# Ecosystem services

• F) How much water do we really need in the future 43

A) Access to
water……..good news

44
Access to improved water UNICEF (2015)

45
Access to water
Access: rich vs poor

UNICEF, 2015

46
 Access to water: water is not available all day, every day
eg., South Africa: In some provinces, water supply in 60% of households has been interrupted for 2 days or more

~25%

47
 Access to water, but sanitation is still a problem.

In 41 countries, a fifth of
people drink water from
a source that is not
protected from
contamination. WHO, 2017
48
 Sanitation……..
not such good news.
UNICEF 2015

Q: Why water supply improved more

than sanitation?
UNEP 2010
Palaniappan et al. 49
 Eg, Zambia
Households with access to improved water sources

Access to improved water

UNICEF, 2015

Rich vs poor
• Worldwide 96% of the world’s urban population has
access to safe clean water (versus 84% in rural areas);
• 82% of the urban population has access to an improved
sanitation facility (versus 51% in rural areas).
50
(Mulenga et al., 2017)
Water & sanitation: a changing world
UNICEF, 2017
Population growth
Urban areas more successful at keeping
up with population growth compared to
rural areas in terms of improved water
supply & sanitation.

UNICEF 2015

51
China

(CWR report, 2018)

52
Water & sanitation: why
they matter

Source; 2nd WWDR, 2006

53
(Adina, 2018)
 Water & health: China World Bank (2009)

Zhou et al., (2014)

2015

54
B) Climate change:

55
 Climate change &
hydrology/water
resources Arnell & Reynard (2000)
1) Direct impact on Q = P – Et

2) Indirect impact on land use and hence Q = P – Et

3) Q influences water quality

( Santamarta et al, 2014)

56
Climate change:
Adaptation

After Arnell & Delaney (2006)

57
Climate change

71%

UNEP,
77%
2012

• Climate change adaptation: high priority in a majority of

countries (71%) and particularly for the medium HDI.
• 77% of countries think threat has increased.
• Low and high HDI countries think climate change less priority
than other threats and issues for water management. 58
45%
 Climate change 2025 predictions

(Vörösmarty et al., 2000)

Science

• Population change as a major driver

• Climate change can alleviate stress in limited areas, e.g., central Asia

59
 Climate change:
uncertainty in knowledge

UNCERTAINTY!!

(WWAP of UN) 60
C) The human impact

Walling (1980)
61
 Land use……(Q=P-Et)
Human control of the
water balance by changing
the natural vegetation.

Global distribution of wilderness (magnitude of human impact)

(FAO, 2017)

62
Land use: urbanization

63
 Land use: (UN, 2014)

urbanization
• >50% of global population
currently lives in urban areas.
• It will reach 2/3 by 2050.
• Land use change modifies hydro. cycle.
• Water demand by urban population
increases.

64
Land use: agriculture

65
Blue and green water

From Schreier (2014)

66
 Agriculture: green & blue water
Koellner (2011)

67
From Schreier (2014)
(Valipour, et al., 2013)

Irrigated

Rainfed

68
Irrigated agriculture

Impact on river flow discharge:

North America: 4.2% reduction
Asia: 2.8% reduction

(Haddeland et al., 2006)

69
Land use: deforestation

(WWF, 2015) 70
FAO (2015)

Deforestation &
afforestation

71
Runoff & deforestation
% rainfall becoming runoff

72
% infiltration decreases
 Runoff & deforestation

Falkenmark & Rostrom (2014)

73
Runoff & deforestation
Woodward et al (2014)

74
Runoff & afforestation

75
Land use conversion
Quantity vs. Quality

76
Agriculture, forests, land-use Shrieier (2014)
conversion affect eco-
hydrology………..partition to
green and blue water

77
Falkenmark & Rostrom (2004)
D) Direct human impact:
Dams & reservoirs ((GRanD) Database, 2013)

There are approximately 800,000 dams in operation on at least

78
60 percent of the world’s rivers.
 People control the water cycle Any negative impacts?
Newson, 1997; 2009

Hoover dam
(1935)

79
Dams: fragmentation and flow regulation (Nilsson et al., 2005. Science)

Green: unimpacted
Yellow: moderately impacted
Red: strongly impacted catchments
80
Issues with dams

(Vorosmarty et al., 2010. Nature)

81
Issues with dams

(Vorosmarty et al, 2010)

82
Issues with dams:
biodiversity
(Vorosmarty et al, 2010)

(Xie et al., 2003. Science)

83
River fragmentation: impact

(Nilsson et al., 2005)

84
E) Not just water supply !

2015

(2009)
85
F) How much water for the future?

Gleick, 2000

86
Water crisis or stress made worse due to:

• 1) Inefficient use/loss of water

• 2) Pollution of scarce resources

• 3) Groundwater mining

• 4) Not all water available (flood vs stable runoff)

87
1) Inefficient use/loss of water HK WSD, 2008

Losses from urban water networks

(EPA, 2018)

88
(Perdikou, 2014) Mackintosh, 2015
 Irrigated Agriculture.
Inefficient use of water India, 2011
Urban Water Systems

89
 2) Pollution of water

# Point sources
# Non-point sources

Newson, 2009

Source: US EPA New Zealand

90
Pollution: water quality

91
WWDR
Time to recover (WWDR no2, 2006)

92
Impact of pollution

Nb. Very high HDIs

93
Water quality: China

Unsafe for any use!!

“Water scarcity and pollution have important

social impacts. The most important relates to
the health risks resulting from polluted drinking
water resources. According to a national survey,
about 25% of over 1,000 source areas of drinking
water nationwide do not meet the national
standard (Sheng 2005).” World Bank 2009
94
 China: pollution control
New ‘Water Ten Plan’ to Safeguard China’s Waters
Since 2015

CRW, 2017
World Bank, 2009
95
3) Groundwater mining

Groundwater pump,
California.

WWDR no2, 2006

96
 Groundwater mining
Impact on river runoff

(4th WWDR)

Declining water storage

(Famiglietti, 2014)

Eg, California
97
4) Not all water is
available: flood vs
stable runoff in
rivers

98
Flooding, near York, England, December 2015
5) Water related hazards
Floods

Geographic centers of floods during the period 1985-2010

Where were most of the floods observed

and why?

Drought 99
Water related hazards
Salinisation
of soils

Evaporation leaves salts

behind, if the content of
salts in soil is too high,
Subsidence
plants cannot grow.

100
Solutions to water crisis/stress
• a) UNWDR 3, 2009: 3 categories of response: conserving, developing
resources and allocation.
• b) Cannot greatly expand supply BUT:
# Long distance water transfer
# Desalination
# Rainwater harvesting
• c) Demand management aimed at reducing demand/conserving water:
# Adopt water saving devices in the home
# Reduce leakage & waste
# Recycle
# Price adjustment (water too cheap?)
# Stop pollution of water

• d) Control population growth

• e) Others:
# Agriculture water efficient crops; modify agric. to improve water efficiency
# Water allocation & management
101
# Technology
b) Supply side
Los Angeles aquaduct,
California

ASWAN LOW & HIGH DAMS

Hoover dam

102
Long Distance Water Transfer

103
Desalination: cost?

(Mauter et al., 2018)

Application of nanotechnology?104
Rainwater harvesting

Pond for rainwater

harvesting

105
c) Demand management
Water recycling/re-use

106
WWDR no2, 2006
 Water reclamation
# Reclaimed water is highly treated wastewater.

# “Water reclamation is to use lower quality

water to replace high quality water
currently used for non-potable purposes
such as toilet flushing and landscape
irrigation.”

# Pilot schemes involving the use of reclaimed

water began in Hong Kong in 2006 (at Ngong
Ping).

(HK Water Supplies Department, 2018)

107
 Pereira et al (2009)

Wastewater re-use Different levels

Treatment: governs use

• In 2012, the total national wastewater

discharge in China was 68.5 billion tons.
• By 2013, 3508 WWTPS had been built
108
nationwide. Zhang et al. (2016)
New
Water,
Singapore

109
Domestic wastewater recycling/re-use Hamburg Water
New Jersey, USA

Closed wastewater treatment loop 110

Controlling demand: The price of water

In theory if price goes up

water use, or demand,
goes down.

Is it that simple?

2nd WWDR, 2006 111

 Water price: China
Water price

World Bank, 2009

112
 Sectoral water price
Agricultural, industrial and household water prices in
late 1990s

113
OECD, 2003 European Environment Agency, 2012
 Canterbury, New Zealand Stevenson et al 2012

Reducing water
pollution

Larsen (2013)

114
 China Great improvements!

(Zhang et al., 2010)

• A high number of lakes and major rivers are

classified as severely polluted, with only 50% of its
200 major rivers suitable for use as drinking water
after treatment.
• Nationwide, >300 million people rely on hazardous
drinking water sources.
• Costing China 2% of its rural GDP from diseases
associated with microbial and industrial pollutants.
115
Reducing pollution by recycling of wastewater in
industry: which industries pollute?

Urioc (2016)
116
 Problems for recycling: e.g. China

China Water Risk (2018)

Feng et al. (2014)

• It is cheaper to pollute than to clean up

• Low fines for pollution

• Inadequacies in industrial water pricing

• Inconsistencies in water quality standards

• Inefficient tariff collection systems

117
 Cosgrove & Rijsberman (2000)
d) Control population no.1 factor contributing to water pollution

____________________________________________
118
 e) Other solutions to water
crisis/stress
• Agriculture; breed
drought resistant
plants/crops

119
increasing productivity:
deficit irrigation

A slight reduction in water

use to achieve acceptably
high crop yields.

UNWWDR 5, 2015

120
Technology

121
Technology – human water security

Vorosmarty et al., (2010)

122
Water management: why ?

123
Jeffrey & Geary (2006)
Hard engineering approach Limitations
_________________________

124
Hard & soft approaches

4th WWDR,
2012
125
Integrated water resources management (IWRM)

126
 UNESCO, 2017

________
4th WWDR, 2012
_______________________________
________________________________________

127
Global Water Partnership (2000)

(Liehr et al., 2018) 128

Changing paradigms for water resources
management
• Earliest was engineer’s hydraulic mission. Equates to supply side
paradigm.
• Demand side oriented paradigm.
• Integrated framework

Based on Jeffrey & Geary (2006)

World Water Council
129
 History of
IWRM
Rio, 1992

Global Water Partnership, 2000

130
 Global Water
Partnership
(2000)
______________________________

______

_________________________________________

131
 Stages in IWRM planning and implementation IWRM at the drainage basin scale
Eg, China

(UN-Water Review, 2018)

132
Obstacles to implementation of IWRM

Jeffrey & Geary (2006)

Liehr et al. (2018)
133
Critique of IWRM
• Critics of IWRM do not argue against the need for integration across
sectors and scales.
• Critics suggest that IWRM focuses too much on principles and
processes and not enough on how to take practical actions and
pragmatic problem solving.
• Butterworth et al. (2010) have called for a more pragmatic IWRM to
meet practitioners’ needs.

Smith & Clausen, 2015. WWC.

134
Critique of IWRM
Former President of the International Water Resources Association

(Mitchell, 2005)

Critique of IWRM: technocratic/top-down

Smith & Clausen, 2015. WWC.

135
 • Lack of a consistent definition and vague
Critique of IWRM concept.

• Ambiguous in its objectives, difficult to verify

• A range of knowledge needed to manage

Cook & Spray (2012) controversial environmental problems.
offer the following critique:
• IRWM unable to explain the dynamic role of
social influences on management, including
factors such as competition, conflict, bias,
subversion, interests, and active opposition.

• Failure to incorporate IWRM into governance.

• IWRM assumes that it can be easily

transferred from concept to governance 136
 How to integrate
so many “players”

Government departments etc. with

an interest in water management in China

World Bank (2009): Addressing China’s Water Scarcity

137
IWRM: lacking in science Jeffrey & Gearey (2006)

__________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________

# It needs new metrics, techniques and analytical frameworks to help show utility of IWRM

138
IWRM: a tension between complexity and
holism
• Holistic approach called for………but not achieved?
• Why not?
• A change from single water management issue to true IWRM involves
great change. Substantial changes to the way water is managed can
be risky.
• Complexity of ecosystems means we cannot regard knowledge as a
function of experience and it is also neither absolute nor general. This
causes problems and creates a knowledge gap between IWRM policy
and practice. Jeffrey & Geary (2006)

hard to implement in real life situation where there are a lot of stakeholders involved 139
140
Progress in IWRM

UNEP (2012) 141

 ____________

____________

____________ ____________

UNEP (2012)

142
IWRM
• “It is difficult to overstate the extent to which IWRM has become the
norm or even, one might say, the orthodoxy in water resources
management.”

• “…….IWRM is now widely viewed as ‘the only sustainable solution’

(Durham et al. 2002, p333) and therefore as the only game in town.”

Jeffrey & Geary (2006)

143
 ____________
Alternative Cook & Spray (2012)

management
paradigms

144
IWRM & Ecosystem
services: in terms of
water are very
similar? Cook &
Spray (2012)

It prioritize environmental health

and its connection to individual,
economic, and societal wellbeing

145
Ecosystem services

a management
paradigm for water?

Environmental flow

146
 Adaptive management Jeffrey & Geary (2006)

• A response to water stress; societies will need to adjust to water stress which means
simple supply and/or demand solutions not enough; society will have to harness
adaptive capacity.
• Adaptivity is the ability to cope with changing circumstances.
• Adaptive management is the integrated multidisciplinary approach for confronting
uncertainty.
• Applies to other natural resources facing uncertainty.
• It acknowledges that quantity & quality of managed water resources will always
change as a result of human intervention and that surprises are inevitable and that
new uncertainties will emerge.
• In social/societal terms the key process of adaptivity is the ability to generate and
exploit options for change.
• ….” adaptive management has been widely advocated as the paradigm which
natural resource managers should adopt building on a recognition that ecosystems
are complex systems which are adaptive or self-organizing and that management
systems must be able to readjust to change or surprise in the system (cf Gunderson
& Holling (2001).” 147
Adaptive
management

4th WWDR, 2012

148
Sustainable
development

Wood (2006)

149
Public vs. private sector

WWDR No. 3, 2009

150
 IWA (2009)
Privatization of water services

____________
______________

__________________

Albalate et al (2015)
Eg, USA 151
Factors controlling privatization

________________________
__________________________________________
_________________________________________
______________________________

___________________________________
_________________

Albalate et al (2015)
They cite an example of these from the literature
152
Privatization

(2009) 153
Privatization

154
Water laws

155
Legislated
156
In conclusion: