Assessing Water Withdrawals in Scarce-Data Transboundary Areas by Use of Dynamic Precipitation–Flow Relationships: The Case of the Hasbani River Basin

Abstract

The present study proposes a nonstandard solution to the problem of assessing water withdrawals (AWW) in the scarce-data transboundary basin. The applied AWW method operates with the open-source available data on precipitation and river flow and thereby overcomes the usual restriction due to lack of data on shared water use in the Middle East. Analysis of dynamic precipitation-flow relationships enable to separate the effect of water withdrawals from the total decline of river flow under the decreasing precipitation. This study is the first which provides complete information (1972–2020) on water withdrawals from total, surface, and base flow of the Hasbani River (Lebanon). The resulting values that exceed by far earlier published estimates were confirmed by (i) indirect indices (area of irrigated land and population), and (ii) validation of the AWW method based on independent data on water use (Israel Water Authority). The study results are useful for water balance estimations, as well as for management of water resources in the Jordan River headwaters basin and in the entire Lake Kinneret Basin. The AWW method can be applied to other transboundary basins and enables historical and real-time monitoring of water withdrawals as a necessary database for settlement of riparian water relations.

Assessing Water Security in the Jordan River Basin: Temporal Changes for Precipitation, Evapotranspiration and Land Cover

“…The data in this study show that available water for Israel from 2003 to 2020 is negative (−306 MCM/year), in contrast to positive (470 MCM/year) in our previous study [1], indicating a significant increase in water withdrawals in the area. In fact, [8] shows that the measured flow of the Hasbani River decreased by 41% in the period of 2008-2020, reaching 66 MCM; contrarily, water withdrawals sharply rose to 48 MCM, reflecting a 60% increase [8]. This could be due to the expansion of irrigated agriculture and human activities in the basin [8].…”

“…In fact, [8] shows that the measured flow of the Hasbani River decreased by 41% in the period of 2008-2020, reaching 66 MCM; contrarily, water withdrawals sharply rose to 48 MCM, reflecting a 60% increase [8]. This could be due to the expansion of irrigated agriculture and human activities in the basin [8]. Jordan covers 40% of the basin's area and receives merely 252 mm/year of precipitation.…”

“…The data could not be contrasted to other studies because past analyses that focused on isotope studies [20] or modeling of the precipitationstreamflow processes [41,52] and hydrochemistry [53] mentioned that precipitation data were gathered from the Israel Hydrological Survey and cannot be acquired publicly. A new study by [8] focused on precipitation-flow relationships for the Hasbani River and not Israel as a whole, making the data incomparable [8].…”

“…data were gathered from the Israel Hydrological Survey and cannot be acquired publicly. A new study by [8] focused on precipitation-flow relationships for the Hasbani River and not Israel as a whole, making the data incomparable [8].…”

Quantifying Landscape Pattern–Hydrological Process Linkage in Northwest Iran

“…In addition, the base flow is quantified as a part of the overall river flow that reacts to the precipitation event, and it is usually related to the water discharged from the underground waters. Actually, its boundary is under the water table, and it exists in a river in the absence of a precipitation event [23][24][25][26].…”