A Systematic Review of Water Vulnerability Assessment Tools

Plummer, Ryan; Loë, Rob de; Armitage, Derek

doi:10.1007/s11269-012-0147-5

Cited by 121 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The IWRM concept has been a key topic of discussion over the past decade. The recognition that, for the best environmental outcomes, water should be managed holistically rather than in compartments is widely recognised ( [17], and references therein) but IWRM poses not only scientific, but also technical, socio-economic, cultural and ethical challenges. To effectively take advantage of the valuable information resulting from groundwater vulnerability assessments, it is helpful to consider some broad approaches for water management (e.g., [18,19]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in Urban Water Mines (Porto, NW Portugal)

Afonso

Freitas

Pereira

et al. 2016

Water

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A multidisciplinary approach was developed to estimate urban groundwater vulnerability to contamination combining hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry, subterranean hydrogeotechnics, groundwater ecotoxicology and isotope tracers. Paranhos and Salgueiros spring waters in Porto City were used as a case study. Historical and current vulnerability scenarios were compared using hydrogeological GIS-based modelling. Potential contamination sources were mapped around the spring galleries. Most of these were point sources and their potential contamination load was moderate. The ecotoxicological assessment indicated a low acute toxicity potential. Groundwater radionuclides appeared to be mainly controlled by geological factors and biomineralisation. Vulnerability maps suggest that most of the area has a moderate to low vulnerability to contamination. However, some surface sources such as sewage systems cause contamination and contribute to increased vulnerability. This integrated approach was demonstrated to be adequate for a better knowledge of urban hydrogeological processes and their dynamics, and highlighted the importance of a vulnerability assessment in urban areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in Urban Water Mines (Porto, NW Portugal)

Afonso

Freitas

Pereira

et al. 2016

Water

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“…This approach, common in health sciences, has recently been applied to climate change studies to assess current knowledge about climate change impacts and adaptation measures and relies on peer-reviewed literature and national adaptation planning documents focused on water (Plummer et al 2012), human health (Lesnikowski et al 2011(Lesnikowski et al , 2013, the Arctic regions of Canada (Ford and Pearce 2010), within climate change hotspot regions (see articles in this special edition), and in general, regarding the governance of adaptation (Biesbroek et al 2014). In this study, we build on these applications and analyze national documents such as national communications to the UNFCCC (NCs), NAPAs and strategic planning documents.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of key initiatives and approaches to adaptation planning at the national level in semi-arid areas

et al. 2015

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Semi-arid areas are found in a large number of countries and regions of Africa and South and Central Asia. They display high vulnerability to climate change with considerable adaptation needs. In this paper, we review country-level and multi-country projects supported by international agencies. We examine the priorities and goals presented in national adaptation planning documents and in sectorial planning documents. Through this analysis, we seek to compare adaptation needs with current trends in national, regional and global projects and collaborations. Our results suggest that initiatives supported by international agencies play a considerable role in achieving national adaptation priorities, especially in areas such as agriculture and water management. However, compared with specific adaptation options such as drought-resistant species and irrigation (which tend to be the scope of the projects), the analyzed documents tend to see challenges in agriculture more in the contexts of food security, livestock and rural development. They emphasize the strong connection between rural livelihoods and sustainable land and ecosystem management. Priorities listed in the national documents but not captured in current initiatives include human health, pastoralism, security and migration. Our results also show high levels of mainstreaming adaptation into sectorial planning documents, especially those on poverty reduction; however, compared with the focus on the project level, they here emphasize adaptations focused on institutional development and governance. Finally, the outcomes indicate that global, regional and national initiatives are distributed unequally and that countries in Central and West Africa and Central Asia currently exhibit low participation, especially in national projects.

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“…physical threats as well as human capability to cope with) assessment is a longstanding concern to water managers, who are also committed to the basin management plans for Integrated Water Resources Management (Plummer et al 2013;Sullivan 2011). Interest in assessing water vulnerability dates back to the 1920s; more than 50 approaches are available for this purpose, according to systematic literature reviews by Plummer et al (2012) and de Grosbois and Plummer (2015). Composite index, referred as multiple individual indicators in providing a measure of a complex and multidimensional issue, is the general form of the myriad of water vulnerability assessment tools Sullivan and Meigh 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Water Vulnerability of the Yangtze River Basin: 1994–2013

Sun

Kuang

Xiang

et al. 2016

Environmental Management

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A holistic understanding of the magnitude and long-term trend of water vulnerability is essential for making management decisions in a given river basin. Existing procedures to assess the spatiotemporal dynamic of water vulnerability in complex mega-scale river basins are inadequate; a new method named ensemble hydrologic assessment was proposed in this study, which allows collection of data and knowledge about many aspects of water resources to be synthesized in a useful way for vulnerability assessment. The objective of this study is to illustrate the practical utility of such an integrated approach in examining water vulnerability in the Yangtze River Basin. Overall, the results demonstrated that the ensemble hydrologic assessment model could largely explain the spatiotemporal evolution of water vulnerability. This paper improves understanding of the status and trends of water resources in the Yangtze River Basin.

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A Systematic Review of Water Vulnerability Assessment Tools

Cited by 121 publications

References 64 publications

Environmental Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in Urban Water Mines (Porto, NW Portugal)

Environmental Groundwater Vulnerability Assessment in Urban Water Mines (Porto, NW Portugal)

Review of key initiatives and approaches to adaptation planning at the national level in semi-arid areas

Mapping Water Vulnerability of the Yangtze River Basin: 1994–2013

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