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Managing Climate Risks to Water Security
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Managing Climate Risks to Water Security

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 14335

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hemant Ojha

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD), Sydney, Australia
Interests: environmental policy; development studies; water security and climate change; engaged research and transformation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Nick Schofield

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Australian Water Partnership, Australia
Interests: water policy; research and planning in water and environmental governance; sustainability; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, climate risks to water security are growing. Over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress (United Nations 2019) and about 4 billion people across the planet experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2016). Climate change is a key driver of growing water insecurity, and if the world continues on its current path, projections suggest that the world may face a 40% shortfall in water availability by 2030 (UNEP 2016). The nature of climate risk varies across regions, countries, and localities which have different degrees of hazard, levels of exposure, and response capacities.

Understandably, there is no single set of actions or strategies that any government, city, state, nation or transboundary organisation can take to ensure water security under the changing climate. Before climate risks became apparent, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) appeared and has remained a dominant solution to water management challenges. IWRM’s integrative approach is being adapted for system wide climate risk managemen.  Responses to climate risks, both within the worldview of IWRM and beyond, are emerging around the world, but are still not adequate, considering the likely changes in climate and the scenario of water demand in the projected trajectory of socio-economic development (Petit 2016).

With multiple, uncertain drivers of the future at play, a risk-based approach is warranted. A risk-based approach requires considering the full range of conditions to which a system might be exposed (Hall and Borgomeo 2013).  Resilience to risk can be strengthened through better understanding and managing interactions between institutions, knowledge, incentives, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Also, risks should be managed across the entire water cycle as water passes through social systems, industries, and the urban landscape. Knowledge and practice of climate risk management across the water sector still remains limited. Even when there is some progress on science, water governance still suffers from democratic engagement between government, stakeholders and citizens (Richter 2014). This Special Issue invites contributions that demonstrate new insights into principles, planning, policies, strategies, and operational solutions to managing climate risks to ensure water security. Papers can take any theoretical or methodological approaches but are encouraged to showcase examples from around the world.

References

Hall, Jim and Edoardo Borgomeo (2013). "Risk-based principles for defining and managing water security." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 371(2002): 20120407.

Mekonnen, Mesfin M and Arjen Y Hoekstra (2016). "Four billion people facing severe water scarcity." Science advances 2(2): e1500323.

Petit, Olivier (2016). "Paradise lost? The difficulties in defining and monitoring Integrated Water Resources Management indicators." Current opinion in environmental sustainability 21: 58-64.

Richter, B (2014). Chasing water: A guide for moving from scarcity to sustainability. Isladn Press

UNEP (2016). Options for decoupling economic growth from water use and water pollution: Summary for policy makers, UNEP and International Resource Panel.

United Nations (2019). Leaving No One Behind: United Nations World Water Development Report, UN Water, UNESCO and Partners

Dr. Hemant Raj Ojha
Prof. Nick Schofield
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Water security
  • Integrated water resource management (IWRM)
  • Water cycle management
  • Nature based solutions
  • Water and adaptation
  • Water and disasters
  • Urban water
  • Water governance
  • Water for sustainability

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

35 pages, 9197 KiB  
Article
Agricultural Drought Risk Assessment: A Spatial Analysis of Hazard, Exposure, and Vulnerability in Zacatecas, Mexico
by David Ortega-Gaucin, Jesús A. Ceballos-Tavares, Alejandro Ordoñez Sánchez and Heidy V. Castellano-Bahena
Water 2021, 13(10), 1431; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13101431 - 20 May 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7221
Abstract
Drought is one of the major threats to water and food security in many regions around the world. The present study focuses on the evaluation of agricultural drought risk from an integrated perspective, that is, emphasizing the combined role of hazard, exposure, and [...] Read more.
Drought is one of the major threats to water and food security in many regions around the world. The present study focuses on the evaluation of agricultural drought risk from an integrated perspective, that is, emphasizing the combined role of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability to drought. For this purpose, we used the Mexican state of Zacatecas as a case study. This state is one of the most vulnerable to the adverse effects of agricultural drought in the country. The proposed method includes three stages: first, we analyzed the risk of agricultural drought at the municipal scale using the FAO Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS) in its country version (Country-Level ASIS) and also determined a Drought Hazard Index (DHI). Subsequently, we conducted a municipal assessment of exposure and vulnerability to drought based on a set of socioeconomic and environmental indicators, which we combined using an analytical procedure to generate the Drought Exposure Index (DEI) and the Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI). Finally, we determined a Drought Risk Index (DRI) based on a weighted addition of the hazard, exposure, and vulnerability indices. Results showed that 32% of the state’s municipalities are at high and very high risk of agricultural drought; these municipalities are located mainly in the center and north of the state, where 75.8% of agriculture is rainfed, 63.6% of production units are located, and 67.4% of the state’s population depends on agricultural activity. These results are in general agreement with those obtained by other studies analyzing drought in the state of Zacatecas using different meteorological drought indices, and the results are also largely in line with official data on agricultural surfaces affected by drought in this state. The generated maps can help stakeholders and public policymakers to guide investments and actions aimed at reducing vulnerability to and risk of agricultural drought. The method described can also be applied to other Mexican states or adapted for use in other states or countries around the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Managing Climate Risks to Water Security)
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21 pages, 1305 KiB  
Article
Downstream State and Water Security in the Mekong Region: A Case of Cambodia between Too Much and Too Little Water
by Mak Sithirith
Water 2021, 13(6), 802; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13060802 - 15 Mar 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4497
Abstract
Cambodia has too much water during the wet season, and too little water remains in the dry season, which drives a relentless cycle of floods and droughts. These extremes destroy crops, properties, infrastructure, and lives and contribute to poverty. Thus, water management is [...] Read more.
Cambodia has too much water during the wet season, and too little water remains in the dry season, which drives a relentless cycle of floods and droughts. These extremes destroy crops, properties, infrastructure, and lives and contribute to poverty. Thus, water management is key to the development of Cambodia. This article seeks to answer the question why Cambodia is vulnerable to floods and drought and how these conditions undermine the country’s development. It also examines what can be done to improve the country’s water resource management and the livelihoods of its population. The article examines water resource availability in Cambodia, its management regimes, and the policy implications in answering these research questions. The article looks at three case studies: first, the Stung Chreybak irrigation scheme in the Tonle Sap region; second, the Lower Sesan 2 Dam (LS2) in the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong (3S) basin in Cambodia; and third, the transboundary water management in the Mekong Delta. It concludes that water management has been equated to irrigation management. However, the irrigation system in Cambodia has been inadequate to cope with the tremendous volume of water. Furthermore, water management has been complicated by the hydropower dams in the Upper Mekong region and the rubber dams in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. These contribute to high water insecurity in Cambodia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Managing Climate Risks to Water Security)
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13 pages, 7789 KiB  
Article
The Spatiotemporal Patterns and Interrelationships of Snow Cover and Climate Change in Tianshan Mountains
by Tong Heng, Xinlin He, Lili Yang, Jiawen Yu, Yulin Yang and Miaoling Li
Water 2021, 13(4), 404; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13040404 - 04 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1862
Abstract
To reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of the asymmetry in the Tianshan mountains’ climatic warming, in this study, we analyzed climate and MODIS snow cover data (2001–2019). The change trends of asymmetrical warming, snow depth (SD), snow coverage percentage (SCP), snow cover days (SCD) [...] Read more.
To reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of the asymmetry in the Tianshan mountains’ climatic warming, in this study, we analyzed climate and MODIS snow cover data (2001–2019). The change trends of asymmetrical warming, snow depth (SD), snow coverage percentage (SCP), snow cover days (SCD) and snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Tianshan mountains were quantitatively determined, and the influence of asymmetrical warming on the snow cover activity of the Tianshan mountains were discussed. The results showed that the nighttime warming rate (0.10 °C per decade) was greater than the daytime, and that the asymmetrical warming trend may accelerate in the future. The SCP of Tianshan mountain has reduced by 0.9%. This means that for each 0.1 °C increase in temperature, the area of snow cover will reduce by 5.9 km2. About 60% of the region’s daytime warming was positively related to SD and SWE, and about 48% of the region’s nighttime warming was negatively related to SD and SWE. Temperature increases were concentrated mainly in the Pamir Plateau southwest of Tianshan at high altitudes and in the Turpan and Hami basins in the east. In the future, the western and eastern mountainous areas of the Tianshan will continue to show a warming trend, while the central mountainous areas of the Tianshan mountains will mainly show a cooling trend. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Managing Climate Risks to Water Security)
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