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2022 | Book

Global Water Scarcity and Unconventional Water Resources Read chapter Read first chapter

Unconventional Water Resources

Editors: Prof. Dr. Manzoor Qadir, Dr. Vladimir Smakhtin, Dr. Sasha Koo-Oshima, Prof. Edeltraud Guenther

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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About this book

The world is faced with a growing number of complex and interconnected challenges. Water is among the top 5 global risks in terms of impacts, which would be far reaching beyond socio-economic challenges, impacting livelihoods and wellbeing of the people.

As freshwater resources and population densities are unevenly distributed across the world, some regions and countries are already water scarce. Water scarcity is expected to intensify in regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which has 6% of the global population, but only 1% of the world’s freshwater resources. Climate change adds to this complexity as it is leading to rainfall uncertainty and extended droughts periods, mostly in arid areas.

Increasing water scarcity is now recognized as a major cause of conflict, social unrest and migration and at the same time water is increasingly considered as an instrument for international cooperation to achieve sustainable development. Tapping and assessing sustainably every available option in water-scarce areas is needed as pressure continues to build on limited water resources.

The stark fact is that conventional water provisioning approaches relying on snowfall, rainfall and river runoff are not enough to meet growing freshwater demand in water-scarce areas. Water-scarce countries need a radical re-think of water resource planning and management that includes the creative exploitation of a growing set of viable but unconventional water resources for food production, livelihoods, ecosystems, climate change adaption, and sustainable development. Unconventional water resources are generated as a by-product of specialized processes; need suitable pre-use treatment; require pertinent on-farm management when used for irrigation; or result from a special technology to collect/access water.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Setting the Scene

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Global Water Scarcity and Unconventional Water Resources
Abstract
Freshwater scarcity is a global systemic risk. Its impacts reach far beyond socio-economic and environmental challenges and influence people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. As water scarcity deepens in arid and overpopulated regions, there is a need to explore water supply options beyond conventional water resources—snowfall, rainfall, river runoff, and easily accessible groundwater—since they already often fall short of meeting the growing water demands. Water-scarce countries need a radical re-thinking of water resource planning and management and, among other options, turn to unconventional water sources for food production, livelihood, ecosystems, and overall requirements—for sustainable development. Such water resources exist ranging from the Earth’s seabed to its upper atmosphere. Securing access to them requires specific technologies and innovations. This introductory chapter takes stock of water scarcity trends, puts forward unconventional water resources as a critical response to global water scarcity, provides insights into linkages with water-related sustainable development, and introduces the book’s parts and chapters.
Manzoor Qadir, Vladimir Smakhtin, Sasha Koo-Oshima, Edeltraud Guenther

Harvesting Water from Air and on the Ground

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. Rain Enhancement Through Cloud Seeding
Abstract
An increasing number of countries are planning to carry out rain-enhancement activities in response to water shortages and other societal needs. Rain enhancement can work with reasonable cost–benefit ratios under the right conditions. However, many components of the technology need improvement and testing, and many physical processes are not yet fully understood due to their complexity. Global research on cloud-seeding technology indicates that precipitation can be increased up to 15% of the annual norm, depending on the available cloud resources and technical systems used. However, there is still ambiguity in the results of the studies conducted and the effects and scale of the rain enhancement. When evaluating the results of rain enhancement projects, it is necessary to adhere to rigorous scientific approaches and proven methods.
Ali M. Abshaev, Andrea Flossmann, Steven T. Siems, Thara Prabhakaran, Zhanyu Yao, Sarah Tessendorf
Chapter 3. Fog Harvesting
Abstract
Capturing atmospheric water vapor for domestic and agricultural use is an ancient practice. Contemporary fog harvesting science dates to 1900 and owes a great deal to indigenous knowledge and biomimicry (nature-inspired design). The most significant fog harvesting operations have been developed for remote communities (< 1000 residents) in Chile, Morocco, and South Africa, but viable sites have been examined in over 70 places on every continent—including Antarctic. The low-impact technology uses material such as mesh nets to capture water droplets from the air, relying on weather systems and physics to collect water rather than requiring energy or other inputs. Efficient systems can yield > 20 L/m2/d for more than a decade and cost < $250/m2 of mesh. This chapter traces the history of fog harvesting science and practice to review technological innovations in fog harvesting and consider its status as an unconventional water source. Fog harvesting is shown to hold great potential for addressing not only water insecurity but also broader sustainable development needs, providing an entry point for gender equity projects, education initiatives, and enhanced livelihoods. While a growing body of work addresses the technical and mechanical aspects of fog harvesting, impact assessments based on holistic monitoring and evaluation studies are key to demonstrating the effectiveness of fog projects in building community resilience and resource security. Fully tapping into fog as a water source will require greater political and economic buy-in, but the success of organizations like FogQuest and Dar Si Hmad indicate that it is an investment well worth making.
Rebecca L. Farnum
Chapter 4. Micro-catchment Rainwater Harvesting
Abstract
Rainwater harvesting is an ancient practice that helped in meeting basic water needs and reduced water shortages mainly in arid and semi-arid regions. Rainfall, through runoff, can be captured downstream of a suitable “catchment” area. The capture and storage of rainwater can be beneficially used. Harvesting water depends not only on the rainfall amount, but also on its pattern and intensity and on the catchment and storage conditions. Storage is a vital component of rainwater harvesting systems and can be surface or subsurface reservoirs or simply a soil profile. Uses include domestic, agriculture, industrial and environment sectors. Micro-catchment rainwater harvesting (MIWH) systems are based on having a small runoff catchment, normally at the household or farm level. In MIWH, runoff flows as sheet flow downstream to a storage facility to be used later for various purposes. Among the most common MIWH types are the Household systems including rooftops and cisterns and the Farm and Landscape systems including contour ridges, bunds, small runoff basins and strips. This chapter provides an overall description of the types, uses and limitations of MIWH. It also presents cases where MIWH plays an important role in providing necessary water for people and agriculture in addition to combating desertification and coping with climate change in dry environments. The implementation of those systems, however, face several technical, social, financial, and environmental constraints. Recommendations to help overcoming those constraints are provided for the rural dry environments where the need for water and food is critical.
Theib Y. Oweis

Tapping Offshore and Onshore Deep Groundwater

Frontmatter
Chapter 5. Offshore Freshened Groundwater in Continental Shelf Environments
Abstract
While offshore groundwater has been utilized by coastal communities as far back as 1000 BC, only in the past 10 years has the global volume of fresh-to-brackish water hosted in offshore aquifers been truly appreciated. There are vast quantities (~300–500 \(\times\) 103 km3) of offshore freshened groundwater sequestered in continental shelf sediments under water depths of less than 60 m within 110 km of the coastline. New marine geophysical methods now make it possible to map and quantify low salinity offshore groundwater bodies. To date, these offshore resources have not been developed. Offshore freshened groundwater could be produced if wells are located close to the shoreline and coastal desalination plants.
Mark A. Person, A. Micallef
Chapter 6. Continental Brackish Groundwater Resources
Abstract
The global volume of continental brackish water is on the order of 5,000 × 103 km3. This is about ten times the volume of freshwater to brackish water hosted in marine continental-shelf environments. On average, brackish water resources occupy about 11% of aquifer volume. Brackish water resources tend to occur in the upland areas of sedimentary basins close to recharge areas. While brackish water utilization for municipal water supplies is growing at a near exponential rate, economic barriers exist in many countries to the use of desalinated brackish water in the agricultural production of high-value crops. Linking brackish water desalination to geothermal greenhouse and aquaculture facilities in regions of high heat flow may be one strategy for agricultural cost reduction.
Mark A. Person, Nafis Sazeed

Reusing Used Water

Frontmatter
Chapter 7. Municipal Wastewater
Abstract
Municipal wastewater is a major source of water for multiple uses, particularly in water-scarce regions. It is now recognized as a valuable resource rather than a waste stream with a focus toward resource recovery. Tailored technologies, adaptive policies, and regulations, as well as innovative finance mechanisms that create an enabling environment, need to be in place. In doing so, wastewater use should be an essential component in new policies for a circular economy, which aims to decouple economic activity from finite resource consumption. If safely managed, wastewater use can also be an important strategy to alleviate pollution in ecosystems, while producing green business opportunities. There is an increasing diversity of available technologies for resource recovery from wastewater in the presence of major challenges due to a lack of systematic planning and design to identify and implement sustainable solutions in the context of a circular economy and a Nexus thinking approach. Acceptance of reused wastewater by people and policymakers still remains a challenge. This acceptance is linked to many aspects including the general absence of adequate national legislation and the insufficiency of information sharing about the advantages, the progress in technological performance, and the safety regarding the environment and human health. There are still barriers spanning several complex and multiple dimensions that impede, delay, or completely block the expanded use of municipal wastewater. The good news is that options are available and if responsible decision-makers are aware, these barriers can be actively overcome.
Birguy Lamizana, Olfa Mahjoub, Serena Caucci, Clever Mafuta, Edeltraud Guenther, Gueladio Cisse, Kim Andersson, Francesc Hernández-Sancho
Chapter 8. Agricultural Subsurface Drainage Water
Abstract
Drainage waters generated by irrigation are a valuable, unconventional source of irrigation water and efforts to expand their reuse for irrigation are worthwhile, thereby partially mitigating the impacts of increased allocation of freshwater for municipal and industrial use. Because salinity levels in drainage waters are always higher than that of the initial irrigation water, the reuse of drainage water for subsequent irrigation requires more careful management than irrigation with nonsaline water. The first sections of this chapter deal with the basic principles of salinity management, the three irrigation strategies for using saline drainage water (blending, cyclic, and sequential reuse), the results of reuse studies, and farmer experience. The text then examines the utility of transient state models, such as HYDRUS, that simulate changes in soil salinity and crop yields caused by irrigation and rainfall, for designing alternative irrigation management strategies. Advanced methods to monitor soil salinity and crop yields at both the field and regional scales are discussed. The final sections deal with the benefits of managing drainage water reuse at a regional scale with farmers involved in planning regulations. Difficulties and barriers posed by the disposal of unusable drainage water that reuse of saline drainage for irrigation can generate are assessed, and a new paradigm in developing regulations where all stakeholders are involved is described.
J. D. Oster, Nigel W. T. Quinn, Aaron L. M. Daigh, Elia Scudiero

Moving Water Physically

Frontmatter
Chapter 9. Water Transportation via Icebergs Towing
Abstract
Climate change has fast-tracked the breaking of huge chunks of ice—icebergs—in the polar regions and subsequent drifting of the icebergs across the ocean. Despite being the world’s largest untapped freshwater source, icebergs continue to decay in the ocean over time in an era when freshwater shortages intensify in dry areas of the world, which desperately look for every option to augment water resources. Thus, an environmental concern—increasing iceberg calving—may just offer relief to a troubling reality—intensifying water scarcity. However, the idea of harnessing icebergs to produce freshwater is not a new one, although no one has yet towed icebergs from the Arctic and Antarctic oceans to provide freshwater to water-scarce areas. Frequent droughts and growing water scarcity in recent years have led to renewed interest in towing icebergs from polar ice caps to dry areas in Africa and Middle East. The timing is pertinent due to the increasing need for freshwater, the continued abundance of icebergs, and advancements in the science and technology to make iceberg harvesting possible despite skepticism over financial and technological challenges and the lack of legal instruments. This chapter addresses the history, technological interventions, research status, and major tradeoffs of water transportation related to icebergs’ towing, while highlighting the importance of icebergs as an unconventional water resource with massive potential to address growing water scarcity across the world.
Manzoor Qadir, Nisal Siriwardana
Chapter 10. Ballast Water
Abstract
Ships are the transportation engines of the globalized world, responsible for moving around 90% of the global trade. Unfortunately, together with goods, food, and fuel, ships also transport uninvited aquatic organisms that can establish themselves in the receiving port with massive impact on the economy, public health, and the environment. With around 10 billion tons (10 km3) of ballast water being discharged every year, a United Nations led International Convention on the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments was adopted in 2004 and entered into force in 2017. The convention created regulatory framework to which the shipping industry and countries must comply. It means that all ships of 400 gross tonnage or more must manage their ballast water in a way that is approved under the convention. A great deal of work has been done by academic and industrial researchers to devise onboard ballast water treatment options based on various approaches. The regulations essentially have created a new unconventional water source based on treated ballast water. Two approaches are used for such treatments: onboard filtration (desalination) and onshore treatment (desalination). As desalinization is applied as a ballast-water treatment, the end-product (desalinated water) is free of invasive aquatic organisms and unhealthy chemical compounds and is usable for other economic activities such as public water supply and irrigation. Recent developments in desalinization processes have made membranes even more efficient, cost-effective, and compact, which is a perfect combination to be used onboard and onshore to produce a reusable, unconventional water from a ship’s ballast.
Marlos De Souza

Developing New Water

Frontmatter
Chapter 11. Desalinated Water
Abstract
As desalination technology advances and water scarcity becomes prevalent in most arid and semi-arid coastal regions of the Middle East, North Africa, North America, Australia and Europe, policy makers around the world are adopting desalination as a long-term solution for closing the gap between water supply and demand in future years. Large-scale desalination plants are widely accepted as an economically viable alternative source of water supply for coastal urban centers worldwide. At present, 107 million m3 per day of desalinated water is used to supply to approximately 5% of the world’s population. It is projected that the worldwide production capacity of desalination plants will double by the year 2030 and cost of desalinated water will be reduced by half. Ocean-brine mining has been gaining momentum over the last five years and is expected to yield commercially viable products that are likely to completely offset the cost of desalinated water production in the next decade. This chapter provides an overview of the status of desalination and discusses key barriers and solutions associated with its wider adoption as an unconventional water supply alternative, including technological advances, freshwater production costs, energy use, environmental impacts, and institutional challenges.
Nikolay Voutchkov

Promoting the Enabling Environment

Frontmatter
Chapter 12. Governance of Unconventional Water Resources
Abstract
Governance principles concerning the development and utilization of freshwater resources derive from a variety of factors: historical and current patterns of usage, cultural and administrative norms and practices, and legal principles and policies. While governance of domestic surface water has benefitted from millennia of evolving practice, the legal principles regarding the development and utilization of transboundary freshwater resources emerged only during the mid-20th century and were codified towards the end of that century. The emergence of general rules and principles governing the use of groundwater resources is more recent still, as their systematic development began much later than the development of surface water. Similarly, the governance frameworks for unconventional water resources (UWR) are not yet well-developed, and legal gaps in regulating their exploitation and use have not yet been filled. This chapter presents an overview of legal theories and principles that are relevant to the design of the governance framework for both domestic and transboundary UWRs. The chapter focuses on legal aspects and attempts to predict how rights and obligations for various forms of UWR will emerge under current principles and practices.
Renée Martin-Nagle, Christina Leb
Chapter 13. Economics and Innovative Financing Mechanisms in a Circular Economy
Abstract
Increasing water shortage forces arid and semi-arid regions worldwide to reuse reclaimed water for several purposes. Four aspects have been identified as key points to successfully implement water-reuse projects: (i) increase in the quantity of treated wastewater motivated by new regulations; (ii) technical improvements in water regeneration systems that lead to producing high-water quality at affordable costs; (iii) institutional and societal context focused on water-reuse regulations; and (iv) use of economic incentives to promote and ensure water reuse for various purposes. Although the objectives of water reuse are highly desirable, there are some challenges to be addressed. Private as well as public water companies are currently searching for opportunities in water reuse and hence to expand the variety of uses. This shift needs to be accompanied by analyzing the demand and market potential, as well as identifying feasible business models. The main aim of this chapter is to explore innovative financing instruments to promote water reuse and make this an attractive and sustainable option in many areas of the world.
Francesc Hernández-Sancho, Águeda Bellver-Domingo
Chapter 14. The Future of Unconventional Water Resources
Abstract
The water scarcity challenge continues to grow and intensify in arid and semi-arid areas. There is a need to build a diversified portfolio of water management strategies to face this challenge. With unconventional water resources as the common theme, the following strategies have the potential to help address global water scarcity: (1) promoting further research and practice on both technical and nontechnical aspects of unconventional water resources; (2) ensuring that unconventional waters provide benefits, not cost to the environment; (3) positioning unconventional waters as a reliable source of water in times of uncertainty; and (4) supporting complementary and multidimensional  approaches such as addressing water scarcity and climate change together because most climate change impacts are expressed through water issues. Such a focus on unconventional water resources needs to continue and be supported by on-the-ground projects in water-critical areas to connect water experts, practitioners, young professionals, the private sector, the media, and policymakers to learn and exchange pertinent knowledge and practices.
Manzoor Qadir, Vladimir Smakhtin, Sasha Koo-Oshima, Edeltraud Guenther
Metadata
Title
Unconventional Water Resources
Editors
Prof. Dr. Manzoor Qadir
Dr. Vladimir Smakhtin
Dr. Sasha Koo-Oshima
Prof. Edeltraud Guenther
Copyright Year
2022
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-90146-2
Print ISBN
978-3-030-90145-5
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90146-2