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Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 March 2023) | Viewed by 32119

Special Issue Editor

Department of Earth System Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Interests: groundwater monitoring; earthquake surveillance; water-level anomaly; precursory changes; earthquake hydrology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urbanization and re/development of cities around the world attracts more people to specific areas, causing various water resources-related problems. In terms of quantity, water demand increases, and subsequently having a large enough supply becomes a critical factor in the sustainability of cities. Fast population growth in cities without proper waste and sewage treatment and sanitization facilities jeopardizes cities’ futures in terms of water-quality degradation. These issues pressing issues in cities in developing countries. To expect a better and sustainable future for these cities, we need first to know exactly what is happening in them. Key issues could vary between countries and cities in temporal and spatial scales with different surface water and groundwater sources. Therefore, in this Special Issue, many real-world cases and approaches to establishing the sustainability of water resources are welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Nam C. Woo
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Water resources
  • Water supply
  • Water quality
  • Water pollution

Published Papers (9 papers)

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19 pages, 2251 KiB  
Article
Efficiency Analysis of Water Conservation Measures in Sanitary Infrastructure Systems by Means of a Systemic Approach
by Karoline Richter, Daniel Costa dos Santos and Aloísio Leoni Schmid
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 3055; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12073055 - 10 Apr 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4873
Abstract
The challenges of urban water management and sanitary infrastructure (water supply (WSS), sewage (SS), urban drainage (UDS) systems) are increasingly frequent in Brazilian cities whether as a combined result of overcrowding and/or a lack governmental interest and hence investments, in the sector. Such [...] Read more.
The challenges of urban water management and sanitary infrastructure (water supply (WSS), sewage (SS), urban drainage (UDS) systems) are increasingly frequent in Brazilian cities whether as a combined result of overcrowding and/or a lack governmental interest and hence investments, in the sector. Such an increase in environmental pressure reflects directly on population welfare and well-being related to the availability of drinking water, wastewater treatment, and access to effective drainage systems in order to minimize, or at least reduce, the occurrence of urban flooding and associated public health risks. Thus, alternatives with an integrated approach to urban water management are interesting to the reality of countries such as Brazil. The urban water use (UWU) model is a strategic planning tool with integrated way of thinking, which selects measures to mitigate the urban impacts in sanitary infrastructure and buildings. In this sense, the objective of this research is to apply the UWU model in a case study in Curitiba/Brazil to demonstrate the effect of the systematic approach and its intrinsic synergies in the systems in question, promoting water conservation in urban areas. The results are favorable to integrated systems with synergy use, evidencing quantitatively a greater efficiency in them. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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21 pages, 662 KiB  
Article
An Empirical Study of the Impact of Urbanization on Industry Water Footprint in China
by Daxue Kan and Weichiao Huang
Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2263; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12062263 - 13 Mar 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2321
Abstract
How to advance new urbanization initiatives and reduce the water footprint of industries is one urgent issue about urbanization that needs to be resolved. Based on spatial dynamic panel data, we used the system GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) to study the impact [...] Read more.
How to advance new urbanization initiatives and reduce the water footprint of industries is one urgent issue about urbanization that needs to be resolved. Based on spatial dynamic panel data, we used the system GMM (Generalized Method of Moments) to study the impact of urbanization on the industrial water footprint. The results show that, overall, urbanization increases the industrial water footprint, industrial virtual water footprint, and industrial gray water footprint in China. There are sectoral and regional differences in the impact of urbanization. Specifically, urbanization reduces the agricultural water footprint and agricultural virtual water footprint but raises the agricultural gray water footprint. Urbanization increases the manufacturing water footprint, manufacturing virtual water footprint, and gray water footprint. Urbanization reduces the virtual water footprint of the service industry but increases the water footprint and gray water footprint in the service industry. At the regional level, urbanization increases the industrial water footprint and gray water footprint across the three major regions. In the eastern region, urbanization has little effect on increasing the industrial water footprint, and reduces the industrial virtual water footprint, whereas in the central and western regions urbanization increases the industrial virtual water footprint. In all three regions, urbanization reduces the agricultural water footprint, increases the manufacturing and service water footprints, reduces the virtual water footprints of agriculture and services, and increases the gray water footprint of agriculture, manufacturing, and services. In the eastern region, the reducing effect of urbanization is the greatest and the increasing effect of urbanization is the smallest. Additionally, in the eastern region, urbanization has reduced the virtual water footprint of manufacturing, whereas in the central and western regions urbanization has increased the virtual water footprint of manufacturing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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13 pages, 387 KiB  
Article
Study on Urbanization Level, Urban Primacy and Industrial Water Utilization Efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt
by Xuhui Ding, Zhu Fu and Hongwen Jia
Sustainability 2019, 11(23), 6571; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11236571 - 21 Nov 2019
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3228
Abstract
Considering the undesirable output, this paper adopted the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with the slack variable and super efficiency improvement, to measure industrial water utilization efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The paper also creatively introduces urbanization level and urban primacy [...] Read more.
Considering the undesirable output, this paper adopted the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with the slack variable and super efficiency improvement, to measure industrial water utilization efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The paper also creatively introduces urbanization level and urban primacy into driver factors’ estimation by stochastic and fixed Tobit models, exploring how urbanization characteristics affected the water utilization in regional industrial production. The results showed that industrial water efficiency has maintained an upward trend during the whole period, while most central and western provinces have shown a U-shaped trend of decreasing first and then rising. However, the industrial water utilization efficiency of central regions is the lowest, and the eastern regions are the highest, catching up with western regions. Utilization efficiency shows an overall convergence during the research period from 2005 to 2017. Regarding the factors’ estimation, both population urbanization and land urbanization negatively affected industrial water utilization efficiency, particularly blind expansion and disorderly development. The urban primacy meant the unbalance of urbanization, which would lead to urban diseases and pollution transfer, while the effects of urban primacy depended on the urbanization level. However, the utilization efficiency of industrial water did not become better automatically along with urbanization development; therefore, the scale and speed of urbanization should be scientifically formulated. The effects of the level of economic development, the advanced industrial structure, and the level of foreign investment are significantly negative. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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17 pages, 3545 KiB  
Article
Spatio-Temporal Pattern in the Changes in Availability and Sustainability of Water Resources in Afghanistan
by Mohammad Naser Sediqi, Mohammed Sanusi Shiru, Mohamed Salem Nashwan, Rawshan Ali, Shadan Abubaker, Xiaojun Wang, Kamal Ahmed, Shamsuddin Shahid, Md. Asaduzzaman and Sayed Mir Agha Manawi
Sustainability 2019, 11(20), 5836; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11205836 - 21 Oct 2019
Cited by 42 | Viewed by 5988
Abstract
Water is gradually becoming scarce in Afghanistan like in many other regions of the globe. The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial changes in the availability and sustainability of water resources in Afghanistan. The Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) data of [...] Read more.
Water is gradually becoming scarce in Afghanistan like in many other regions of the globe. The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatial changes in the availability and sustainability of water resources in Afghanistan. The Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) data of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite obtained from three different institutes, having 1° × 1° spatial resolution for the period 2002–2016 was used for this purpose. Sen’s slope method was used to assess the rate of change, and the Modified Mann–Kendall test was used for the evaluation of the significance of trends in TWS. After, the concept of reliability–resiliency–vulnerability (RRV) was used for assessing the spatial distribution of sustainability in water resources. The results revealed a significant decrease in water availability in the country over the last 15 years. The decrease was found to be highest in the central region where most of the population of the country resides. The reliability in water resources was found high in the northeast Himalayan region and low in the southwest desert; resilience was found low in the central region, while vulnerability was found high in the south and the southeast. Overall, the water resources of the country were found most sustainable in the northeast and southwest and least in the south and the central parts. The maps of water resource sustainability and the changes in water availability produced in the present study can be used for long-term planning of water resources for adaptation to global changes. Besides, those can be used for the management of water resources in a sustainable and judicious manner. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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11 pages, 241 KiB  
Article
Study on the Evolution of Water Resource Utilization Efficiency in Tibet Autonomous Region and Four Provinces in Tibetan Areas under Double Control Action
by Xuhui Ding, Zixuan Zhang, Fengping Wu and Xiangyi Xu
Sustainability 2019, 11(12), 3396; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11123396 - 20 Jun 2019
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2341
Abstract
Tibet is the province with the largest international rivers and water resource reserves in China. However, due to its special ecological environment, the utilization of water resources has become an inevitable problem. Considering the undesirable outputs in water resource utilization, the Super-efficiency Slack-based [...] Read more.
Tibet is the province with the largest international rivers and water resource reserves in China. However, due to its special ecological environment, the utilization of water resources has become an inevitable problem. Considering the undesirable outputs in water resource utilization, the Super-efficiency Slack-based Measure (SE-SBM) model is used to measure water utilization efficiency of Tibet and the Tibetan areas (four provinces where Tibetan areas are located) from 2006 to 2016. The mixed and random panel Tobit model is used to investigate the driving factors of water efficiency and a horizontal comparison between provinces is made on this basis. The results show that the water utilization efficiency of Tibet and the Tibetan areas in four provinces shows a “U-shaped” trend. The water utilization efficiency of most provinces is greater than or close to 1 and the water utilization efficiency of each province shows a constant convergence trend. Environmental regulation and technological innovation have a significant positive effect on water utilization efficiency. Urbanization and foreign direct investment (FDI) have a significant negative effect on water utilization efficiency. Per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and water resource endowment have no significant effect on water utilization efficiency. It is necessary to select a new type of urbanization suitable for the Tibetan Plateau, eliminate the backward production capacity, high water consumption, or high emissions industries, and to strengthen the research and development of water-saving and emission-reduction technology innovation in Tibet. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
13 pages, 667 KiB  
Article
Decomposing the Driving Factors of Water Use in China
by Wei Li, Xifeng Wang, Jiahong Liu, Yangwen Jia and Yaqin Qiu
Sustainability 2019, 11(8), 2300; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11082300 - 17 Apr 2019
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1882
Abstract
Based on the national input–output table, a comparable price non-competitive input–output table was compiled for 2002, 2007, and 2012. The influence factors of price and product imports were removed from the table. Furthermore, a water-use input–output table was constructed based on the links [...] Read more.
Based on the national input–output table, a comparable price non-competitive input–output table was compiled for 2002, 2007, and 2012. The influence factors of price and product imports were removed from the table. Furthermore, a water-use input–output table was constructed based on the links between the economic system and water resources management. With the multi-factor structural decomposition analysis (SDA) model developed in this paper, the driving forces of water use were decomposed into 18 factors, and quantitative effect results were obtained. Total water use in China increased by 3.9% from 2002 to 2007 and by 5.4% from 2007 to 2012 with the combined effects of multiple factors. For example, the increase in economic scale raised water use by 46.6% and 45.5%, respectively. Advancement in agricultural technology (production and water-saving technologies) reduced water use by 14.9% and 19.8%, respectively. Reducing the proportion of thermal/nuclear power and increasing the price of electricity have water use-reducing effects. Changes in the mode of development considerably reduced water use by 9.5% and 5.3%, respectively. Water-use management should focus on factors that have great influence on water use and show high water-use sensitivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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21 pages, 7271 KiB  
Article
Natural and Human-Induced Drivers of Groundwater Sustainability: A Case Study of the Mangyeong River Basin in Korea
by Jae Min Lee, Eun Hye Kwon and Nam C. Woo
Sustainability 2019, 11(5), 1486; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11051486 - 11 Mar 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3238
Abstract
The sustainability of rural areas depends on the availability of water resources. The Mangyeong River Basin (MRB) in Korea faces a water supply shortage for agriculture and industry. Based on 11-year (2005–2015) precipitation and groundwater monitoring data, groundwater sustainability was evaluated in terms [...] Read more.
The sustainability of rural areas depends on the availability of water resources. The Mangyeong River Basin (MRB) in Korea faces a water supply shortage for agriculture and industry. Based on 11-year (2005–2015) precipitation and groundwater monitoring data, groundwater sustainability was evaluated in terms of natural and man-made factors and their spatio-temporal variations. A precipitation time-series revealed a declining trend, but there were different seasonal trends between wet and dry periods, with declining and rising trends, respectively. Groundwater hydrographs from five national groundwater monitoring wells showed temporal variations. Groundwater wells located in downstream areas showed both recharge from upgradient areas and local man-made impacts (e.g. from pumping), resulting in an ambiguous relationship between precipitation and water levels. However, other monitoring wells in the upstream areas displayed water level responses to precipitation events, with a declining trend. Using the standardized precipitation index at a time scale of 12 months (SPI-12) and the standardized groundwater level anomaly, meteorological and groundwater drought conditions were compared to infer the relationship between precipitation deficit and groundwater shortage in the aquifer. The SPI results indicated severely dry to extremely dry conditions during 2008–2009 and 2015. However, the standardized groundwater level anomaly showed various drought conditions for groundwater, which were dependent on the site-specific hydrogeological characteristics. Finally, groundwater sustainability was assessed using water budget modelling and water quality data. Presently, if groundwater is used above 39.2% of the recharge value in the MRB, groundwater drought conditions occur throughout the basin. Considering water quality issues, with nitrate being elevated above the natural background, this critical abstraction value becomes 28.4%. Consequently, in the MRB, sustainable groundwater management should embrace both natural and human-induced factors to regulate over-exploitation and prevent contamination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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15 pages, 2385 KiB  
Article
A Holistic Wetland Ecological Water Replenishment Scheme with Consideration of Seasonal Effect
by Haiyan Duan, Menghong Xu, Yu Cai, Xianen Wang, Jialong Zhou and Qiong Zhang
Sustainability 2019, 11(3), 930; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su11030930 - 12 Feb 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3303
Abstract
Wetland ecological water replenishment becomes necessary in most developing countries. A holistic water replenishment scheme considering both wetland ecosystem services and irrigation requirement is needed for river water reallocation. A framework was developed in this study to calculate wetland ecological water demand (WD), [...] Read more.
Wetland ecological water replenishment becomes necessary in most developing countries. A holistic water replenishment scheme considering both wetland ecosystem services and irrigation requirement is needed for river water reallocation. A framework was developed in this study to calculate wetland ecological water demand (WD), river water supply capacity (RSC) and the benefit of wetland ecological water replenishment and crop irrigation with consideration of the seasonal effects. The Xianghai wetland and the Taoerhe irrigation district (TID) were considered as the study area to investigate various wetland ecological water replenishment schemes (WRS). The results showed that the WRS, considering both wetland function and agricultural irrigation, has the highest overall benefit compared to the schemes with a single focus (either wetland or irrigation). In addition, the WRS design must consider the seasonal effect because of seasonal variation of rainfall, crop growth, and wetland plants and animals’ growth. The WRS design with consideration of seasonal effect not only increased the total value of river basin from $74.83 million to $104.02 million but also balanced the benefit between TID and wetland while meeting wetland WD. This study offers a decision-making framework of developing a holistic WRS considering benefits from multiple water users and seasonal variation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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20 pages, 3531 KiB  
Case Report
Environmental Sustainability of Open-Pit Coal Mining Practices at Baganuur, Mongolia
by Jonghoon Park, Eunhye Kwon, Euijin Chung, Ha Kim, Batbold Battogtokh and Nam C. Woo
Sustainability 2020, 12(1), 248; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12010248 - 27 Dec 2019
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4217
Abstract
In this paper, we studied one of the largest coal mines in Mongolia, the Baganuur Coal Mine, in terms of environmental sustainability related to mining practices, with a focus on discharged water and waste sediments. The present quality and potential for future pollution [...] Read more.
In this paper, we studied one of the largest coal mines in Mongolia, the Baganuur Coal Mine, in terms of environmental sustainability related to mining practices, with a focus on discharged water and waste sediments. The present quality and potential for future pollution were assessed. Based on World Health Organization and Mongolian guidelines, groundwater pumped from the mining operations could be used for drinking and domestic purposes. In addition, based on the Na absorption ratio, groundwater samples from GW-2 and GW-3 could be used as agriculture water supplies with salinity reduction, or used to grow halophytes as a measure for desertification control and pasture production. All waste soil samples appeared to have a desertification potential. Dust particles smaller than 150 μm comprised more than 80% of soil samples, which had arsenic levels higher than the Mongolian soil pollution standards. In addition, soil collected between coal seams (S-5) showed high sulphur content based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) spectroscopy analyses, strong potential for producing acid mine drainage in the analysis of pH of net acid generation and net acid production potential, and potential for leaching of metals, such as Co. Therefore, the Baganuur Coal Mine requires soil pollution control measures to mitigate the risks of dust and desertification. In this perspective, mine groundwater could be used to reduce environmental stresses by supporting pasture crops such as halophytes on waste disposal sites, thereby preventing dust issues and desertification. Continuous efforts, including monitoring and enacting environmental management measures, are needed from both the mining company and the government to ensure sustainable mine development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Water Resources in the Developing Cities)
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