Water Science and Sustainability

Professor Singh is the first Indian Geographer to have the dual distinction of holding the position of the IGU Secretary General and ICSU Scientific Committee Member. He was the first Indian and second Asian Secretary General and Treasurer of the IGU. He has been elected as the Vice President of IGU for two terms since 2012. Professor R. B. Singh is a Distinguished Geographer in Environmental Geography and GIS applications, who has made distinct academic contributions over the last five decades. His reputation spreads beyond academic and national boundaries. He is an excellent mentor, guide, and life-long advisor to his students. His success as a mentor to his students is evident from the fact that he has supervised 40 Ph.D., 82 M. Phil, Research Scholars and countless MA students. He was Chair, UGC National Committee-Learning Outcome Based Curriculum Framework since July 2018. Expert in the prestigious Committees of the Government of India-Ministry of Environment and Forests, Department of Science and Technology, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Taught courses to M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. programs at University of Delhi. Undertaken Major International Collaborative Research Projects, he has written and edited more than 50 books and more than 230 Research Papers.

Life sustains on the foundation of natural resources and water is one of them, which are essential commodity for the existence of human being and flora and fauna. Any evidence of life cannot be imagined without water. Potentiality of becoming water as critically scarce resource in the coming years is increasing continuously due to various factors. Looking the importance of water from local to global level, its integrated, appropriate and long-term strategies are much needed for sustainable water resource management. Book consists of total 19 chapters on different dimensions of water resources having case studies adopting very relevant and useful methodologies and providing sustainable solutions for the rational utilization and consumptions of natural resources in the various parts of the world. Out of the total case studies, book covered seven case studies from different parts of the world along with 10 chapters from various regions of India. The successful attempt has been made to address all these issues and to create a responsible academic contribution to the field of sustainable water resource management. Scientific study considered as need of the hour for establishing its economic feasibility and technical applicability with the consideration of the eco-hydrological, environmental and social aspects. An in-depth hydrological study is required in the contemporary scenario and strategies are required to be formulated and implemented for maintaining freshwater quality for sustainable future of earth.

Changes in river runoff for the Neman River basin using two scenarios of economic development and climate change (A1B and B1) were forecasted. The data sources are based on the materials for the 24 hydrological stations since 1961 till 2009 and 23 meteorological stations since 1961 till 2010 at the Neman River in Belarus and Lithuania. During the research, we devised a multi-factor model based on joint solution of the equations for water and thermal balances. Modeling the water balance was realized in a computer program. The results for the A1B scenario indicate the increasing of runoff from 7.4% to 33.9%. Scenario B1 has shown change in runoff from 1.9% to 21.6%.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has increasingly become an important rallying theme for addressing the governance and management of water resources. The objective of this chapter is to examine how IWRM is perceived in southern Africa and the challenges of applying this concept in water resources governance and management within the region, using the case study of Zimbabwe. Due to mixed views among researchers, there is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the implementation of IWRM has succeeded in the country. However, at grassroots community level, the implementation of IWRM is constrained due to the limited choices that these communities have. Due to poverty, these communities depend directly on land-based resources for livelihood, many of which lead to environmental degradation, which in turn undermine the availability of water in the environment. Despite all these limitations, community-based institutions are better placed to pursue IWRM than state-sponsored institutions.

Urban heat island refers to considerably higher temperatures in the large and contiguous high density built-up surface of a city as compared with its surrounding open countryside. Hence, urban heat island is a phenomenon of excessive heat dome in the C.B.D. of large cities. Urban heat island is one of the major environmental issues of microclimate. At the same time, heat islands are the nuclei of global warming and climate change. The paper hypothesizes that the intensity of urban heat island grows in proportion to the city size and function. It also hypothesizes that the nocturnal heat island of megacities heavily erodes the comfort level of the hard-working city dwellers and tends to undermine their health. Although the problem of heat islands has already attained a critical level in the megacities, even then megacities are more rapidly growing in the developing countries, particularly India than in the developed countries. It is because the concentration of factors of production and migrant sustainability is highest in the megacities of disequilibrated centralized economies as compared with the equilibrated economies of the developed countries. This is evident from the fact that India with just over 30% urban population has more number of megacities than the USA with 75% urban population. The paper examines the urban heat island growth of Hyderabad in relation to its area and population growth during 1961–2011. The megacity of Hyderabad has an areal extent of over 851 sq.km. with a corresponding population exceeding 7.74 million persons. The city has witnessed an areal growth of 673 sq.km. and a population growth of 6.62 million persons since 1961. Urban heat island growth has been calculated through linear regression analysis of the mean monthly daytime and mean monthly nocturnal temperature data for a period of 50 years. It has been found that the higher nocturnal heat island growth is more hazardous to health than the relatively lesser daytime heat island growth.

Flood is one of the most dreadful natural disasters in the humid tropics especially in India. It appears from the research studies and government reports that the Mundeswari (the main distributary of River Damodar) and Lower Darakeswar are the endemic flood-prone tropical rivers. Both natural and anthropogenic causes are responsible for flood of the rivers. The causes of floods of the rivers become highly complex and their relative importance varies from place to place. Anthropogenic activities such as building activity and eventual urbanization, channel manipulation through diversion of river’s course, construction of bridges, barrages and reservoirs, agricultural practices, deforestation, land-use changes etc. induce floods in the study area. The main objectives of the paper are: (i) to assess the physical environmental impacts of flood in Darakeswar–Mundeswari Interfluve in Hugli District of West Bengal and (ii) to suggest possible relevant measures towards reducing the magnitude of flood impacts in the study area.

The method of system-analytical modeling of complex natural systems is proposed to construct the simulation balance models for water and hydrochemical runoff of mountain rivers. An integral set of universal models for seasonal and long-term runoff dynamics was developed based on the example of 34 mid-size and small rivers of the Altai-Sayan mountain country as a regional case study. The set includes (a) regional climate model, (b) water runoff balance model, and (c) seven hydrochemical runoff balance models. The latter characterizes the hydrochemical composition of the river runoff: three nitrogen mineral forms (\({\mathrm{NO}}_{2}^{-}, {\mathrm{NO}}_{3}^{-}, {\mathrm{and\,NH}}_{4}^{+}\)), phosphates (\({\mathrm{PO}}_{4}^{3-}\)), ions, total dissolved iron, and suspended matter. To calculate the seasonal runoff, four hydrological periods/seasons were specified: winter low water, spring–summer flood, summer low water, and autumn low water. A total of 13 typological geosystem groups (landscapes) were selected to account for a landscape structure of river basins. In “b” and “c” models, the hydrological and hydrochemical regimes of river basins are divided into 13 standard types that correspond to selected hydrological seasons and landscapes. Each type depends on spatially generalized monthly dynamics of precipitation and air temperature. These meteorological characteristics are calculated in “a” model and expressed in percent of specified long-term mean values to be the same throughout the Altai-Sayan mountain country. GIS data on the relief and landscape structures of mountain river basins represent the input information for the “b” and “c” models. These data include the area and average altitude of the basins, the area and elevation of landscapes, the altitude of the outlet, the length of river channels (between the river head and the outlet), and the area of arable land. The spatially generalized for the Altai-Sayan mountain country normalized monthly precipitation and mean monthly air temperature as well as water runoff estimated for individual landscapes in river basins with “a” and “b” models serve as input factors for seven “c” models. The sensitivity of models to variations of input factors was evaluated. The sensitivity is expressed as a contribution of a particular factor to the variance of the observed values of the output variable (water or hydrochemical runoff). A quantitative assessment of the water and hydrochemical runoff sensitivity was obtained for the following factors: landscape structure of river basins, basin lateral slope, precipitation, temperature, arable land area. Both RSR < 0.60 (RMSE-standard deviation ratio) and NSE > 0.65 (Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient) estimated for each of the developed runoff models represent their good or very good performance. The most probable water and hydrochemical runoff can be forecasted for 3–4 months ahead with a twice reduced variance as compared with the similar forecast by the observed mean runoff. The elaborated balance models with anew selected landscapes and the updated values of parameters can be applied to any mountainous area and allow to estimate and manage the seasonal and long-term dynamics of water quality.

Integrated water resource management is a process that promotes the comprehensive development and management of water, land and other resources to maximize economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The water management system still requires improvement and further development. In particular, various usage conditions for the same water body in different Russian regions give rise to social conflicts and escalation of negative public sentiment. Moreover different Russian regions may establish various sanctions for same offense for the same water object, for example, violation of the human life protection rules on water or the rules for the use of small boats equipped with motors. Currently, basin agreements are concluded only for inter-regional water objects, i.e. catchment area, which is located within several subjects of the Russian Federation, it does not take into account the cross-border nature of the water objects, located in the territory of one subject of the Russian Federation, but covers the boundaries of several administrative areas.

Madhya Pradesh has vast surface water resources drained by the rivers radiating from this state toward all directions and being utilized by the bordering states much before this state could think of it. There is wide regional variation in potential as well as utilization of water resources within the state following the variations in hydro-geological aquifers, precipitation pattern, land use and cropping structure. Groundwater is resource in real sense because it is being utilized within the state for irrigating more than two-thirds of net irrigated area besides for domestic and other uses. Though slightly more than half of the groundwater potential could be utilized, 95 development blocks present symptoms of excessive exploitation. Most of them are confined in the Malwa region, which is deprived of any major river valley project. Besides lowering of water level and depletion of groundwater, certain other issues such as large scale displacement of people, their rehabilitation and resettlement in amicable way, Interstate River Water Disputes, rapid silting of reservoirs, water pollution, water logging and salinization have come on the way of proper management of water resources in the state.

The quality of the natural water incoming on water intakes of water supply in certain European countries since the beginning of the 1970s at the drinking water supply Early Warning Systems (EWS). The use of high level of chemical in drinking water is danger and economic losses in such cases depend on speed of acceptance of the management decisions directed to their prevention and elimination. The aim of EWSs is to support of the management decisions directed to minimization of environmental risks in the case of dangerous water quality changes at water supply. The BioArgus-W is a science-based, multi-parameter, multi-level biomonitoring system comprising several building blocks. Even a failure in one of them can reduce partly or entirely a whole system efficiency. The main distinctive features of the BioArgus-W system are test-organisms (crayfish and fish) used as the sensors. The measuring system allows carrying out a long-term continuous biomonitoring of a surface water quality and quality of biologically treated wastewaters on the basis of the analysis of heart rate variability in the freshwater crayfish.

Water is regarded as the ultimate source of life in all the world religions including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Apart from being considered as a major source of survival, the religious perspectives on the water are diverse and unique and play an important part in religious traditions and rituals. The most common characteristic of water to be found common in all religions is the source of purity and is reflected in most of the Hindu rituals as well as Baptism (Christianity), ablution (Islam), Mikvah (Judaism). Majority of the known works on the water are from economic and technological perspectives, whereas fundamentally it is the culture which defines water usage. The present chapter provides a run-through of water symbolism of world religions followed by focusing on the various facets of water in Islam. It explains the numerous themes of water, which prevail in the Islamic world on the basis of the two major relatable sources: the holy Quran and the hadiths.

Water is considered as the most vital natural resource of Garhwal Himalaya and is also an important asset to the state population. The state is richly endowed with hilly terrain having an enormous volume of water from the catchment areas of Garhwal Himalaya that consists of Alaknanda river, Bhagirathi, Yamuna, Tons, and Nayar. Among them, Alaknanda river basin is the biggest one, which occupies around one-third area of whole Garhwal region. This paper presents a methodological approach through ecological restoration for the water resource management, integration of extreme events, climatic vulnerability, land use/land use cover changes, and natural resource for sustainable development planning. Climate change and anthropogenic activities are continuously disturbing the natural system of the Garhwal Himalaya and its impact on sustainable development and water potential. Himalayan geosystem is highly vulnerable and susceptible to various kinds of geo-hydrological vulnerability and its impact on socio-economic capacity. The study areas which are a part of fragile Garhwal ecosystem are isolated with its difficult topography and need immediate consideration for water resource management. Better legislative frameworks are necessary to protect water resources and prevent water pollution. The study has been based on the primary and secondary data. Primary data has been collected from field observation, interview techniques, informal interviews, interaction, and discussion with local people. The main technique of primary data collection was done through questionnaire and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approaches. This parameter is important in building resilience capacity and ensuring sustainable development pathways and provides water resource management. This research paper has suggested a policy to improve the transfer of scientific knowledge, and to increase mutual understanding, partnership, and cooperation for better policy outputs in Sustainable Development Goal 06 (Clean water and Sanitation), Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). These approaches will be useful in building collaborative arrangements across political and administrative barriers and boundaries to govern at the scale of sustainability challenge to achieve way toward the SDG 06.

The present study provides a synoptic view of recent changes in the patterns of rainfall and their linkages to extreme floods in Bhagirathi-Hooghly Basin (BHB). The objectives are: (a) to obtain a better understanding of long-term and short-term trends and variations in rainfall; and (b) to ascertain whether the extreme floods were coincided with multi-decade excess monsoon rainfall epochs at the basin level. To fulfill the above objectives, we use district-wise long-term (1901–2000) monthly rainfall data and annual maximum flood series in BHB. The data are mostly obtained from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal, numerous research articles, published and unpublished reports. The methodology includes various statistical approaches and simple techniques, such as the Mann–Kendall (MK) test with Sen’s slope estimator, Cramer’s t-statistic and linear regression in order to evaluate the trends and patterns of the rainfall series. The analyses revealed a long-term insignificant declining trend of annual as well as pre-monsoon rainfall, whereas increasing trend in monsoon and post-monsoon season over BHB. Rainfall during winter seasons showed a decreasing trend. Statistically monsoon rainfall can be considered as very dependable as the coefficient of variation is 17.31%. However, there is decreasing monthly rainfall trend in June and August, whereas increasing trend in July and September. On the other hand, the shorter period of recent data showing higher significance may have better practical utility and correlatable with major floods in the basin. This changing rainfall trends during monsoon months is a major concern for the rain-fed agriculture. The results of this study therefore would be of immense help to the reservoir managers and policymakers in planning and management of water resources of the BHB.

Groundwater in the coastal area is relatively vulnerable to the contamination by seawater intrusion, which makes it unsuitable for drinking or irrigation. This study was carried out along the coastal aquifer of southern Tamil Nadu, India. To access the impact of mining, the coast was divided into three sites, namely (i) non-placer sand area, (ii) active mining area and (iii) inland dune area. The non-placer sand area is assumed to be undisturbed and is considered as reference site. The inland dunes sand area is the area with no active mining but within the impact of the mining activity. Hydrogeochemical and groundwater table characteristics of shallow coastal aquifer system in the mining and non-mining area were investigated to identify the salinization process. The Na/Cl ratio, correlation matrix and ionic relationship between major ions showed a marked increase in salinization in the active mining area and nearby wells. The reverse ion exchange and seawater intrusion control the groundwater chemistry along the active mining aquifers. The spatial visualization of electrical conductivity, salinity, chloride and groundwater quality index map (GWQI) that reflects active mining areas are exhibiting poor water quality and are comparatively low in non-placer mining areas. Gibb’s diagram representing evaporation is the dominant process more than the rock water interaction and precipitation. The groundwater level fluctuation in both inland dune and non-placer sand area aquifers blocks a little variation due to lack of rainfall, irrespective of volumes of water recharge and over pumping of groundwater for irrigational purposes. In the active mining region, the groundwater level shows high fluctuation of ±3 to ±5 m below the ground level. Depth profile study indicates the highly depleted groundwater level in the active mining region that has induced higher EC value and salinity. The process might, therefore, be related to the saltwater encroachments. Tidal induces changes in water level in the Karamaniyar river estuary and near the active mining wells around 1.03 m and the Vembar river estuary water level increased in the wells around 0.68 m.

Flood is a common fluvial hazard in the plain areas of West Tripura District during almost every monsoon season, where the gradient is very gentle (1:1461) and is drained by numerous drainage systems. About 40 percent area and 41 percent population of this district are flood affected which also includes Agartala, the capital of Tripura. This hazard causes tremendous loss in terms of property, standing crops, roads and houses. The objective of this study is to assess flood risk and disaster risk reduction using flood simulation model for 50 and 100 years return period. A study of 46 years’ water level of the Haora River indicates 11 m a.m.s.l as the highest water level and 8 m a.m.s.l for the Lohar Nala. For this modelling, contour at 1 m interval has been generated on DEM which was downloaded from Bhuban Cartosat, the flood inundation data have been entered in Animation Manager Table in ArcMap and the layer thus generated has been overlaid on 3D map of West Tripura District in ArcScene. From this model, it has been estimated that during 50 and 100 years return period, the flood inundation depth was found to be 1–4 and 1–5 m, respectively; about 180 and 300 km² area of this district, respectively, will be affected; about 1,99,530 and 4,51,263 people will be affected, respectively. It means flood can be disastrous in the district when water level of the Haora River and Lohar Nala will be equal to or exceed 1.5–2 and 1–1.4 m above the river bank, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the flood risk through proper flood plain land use planning and changing the cropping system.

Spiti river basin is located in the north-eastern part of Himachal Pradesh, India. The Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 2011 has been used in the present study. Three different basins have been delineated by using hydrological tool given in the ArcGIS 10.1. They are named as Spiti, Tsarap Chu and Parechu basins with an area of 5419, 781 and 651 sq. km, respectively. The morphometric parameters of all the three sub-basins have been calculated. ArcGIS 10.1 software was used for delineation and computation of drainage parameters and also for generating map layout. All the morphometric parameters of Spiti river basin provide an important information about drainage density, stream frequency, soil texture, slope aspect, drainage pattern, type of relief, stream order and the total number of streams. Morphometric analysis of the study area of all the three sub-basins represents sub-dendritic to dendritic drainage pattern with moderate to very fine drainage texture. The bifurcation ratio of all three basins indicates normal basin category and presence of low drainage density suggesting that the region has highly permeable sub-soil.

Hyper-arid deserts bear extremely fragile environment of acute water scarcity with very low floral, faunal and human sustainability. The ecological diversity is meagre and marginal in the hyper-arid conditions. Hyper-arid lands with less than 100 mm mean annual rainfall globally comprise 5.86 million sq. km. Hyper-arid deserts along with very scanty rainfall also experience a very high rainfall uncertainty and recurrent drought frequency. In the Indian Desert, as we advance towards the west, it is noticed that the monsoon becomes feeble and rainfall consequently becomes erratic. As the predominantly rangeland economy and subsistence agriculture are directly related to the amount and variability of rainfall, the socio-economic conditions also hinge upon this variability. The intensity of the problem can be ascertained by the fact that the arid lands of the Indian Desert experience 60 percent rainfall variability, while the extreme water scarcity hyper-arid lands experience up to 80 percent rainfall variability.

Macro-level studies have generated a widespread perception amongst the scholars that Indian Desert is a mild desert in comparison to the Arabian Desert, Atacama Desert and the Great Sahara Desert. Most parts of the Indian Desert are admittedly mild but there are small remote patches which qualify themselves to be extreme desert. Central Arid Zone Research Institute delineated the semi-arid and arid lands in the Indian Desert. Semi-arid lands depicted a greater half of the desert and arid lands comprised lesser half of the Indian Desert. However, a micro-level analysis of the western frontier of the Indian Desert has revealed a narrow strip of hyper-arid conditions in the Indian Desert adjacent to Cholistan Desert in Pakistan. The enquiry reveals meteorological, hydrographic and botanic evidences to this effect. The hyper-arid conditions would become even more intense and further challenging in the wake of global and regional climate change.

Snow storage influence on the flood situation and the contemporary approaches to determine water content in a snow cover are discussed. An artificial neural network application is proposed and tested to improve the accuracy of snow water equivalent retrieval from the satellite microwave radiometer-based measurements and to predict the water discharge in a river flow control point. A method of inundation zone outline calculation in case of river flood situation is proposed and evaluated.