Ecological Sustainability Assessment of Water Distribution for the Maintenance of Ecosystems, their Services and Biodiversity

Abstract

Water provision and distribution are subject to conflicts between users worldwide, with agriculture as a major driver of discords. Water sensitive ecosystems and their services are often impaired by man-made water shortage. Nevertheless, they are not sufficiently included in sustainability or risk assessments and neglected when it comes to distribution of available water resources. The herein presented contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and Life on Land (SDG 15) is the Ecological Sustainability Assessment of Water distribution (ESAW-tool). The ESAW-tool introduces a watershed sustainability assessment that evaluates the sustainability of the water supply-demand ratio on basin level, where domestic water use and the water requirements of ecosystems are considered as most important water users. An ecological risk assessment estimates potential impacts of agricultural depletion of renewable water resources on (ground)water-dependent ecosystems. The ESAW-tool works in standard GIS applications and is applicable in basins worldwide with a set of broadly available input data. The ESAW-tool is tested in the Danube river basin through combination of high-resolution hydro-agroecological model data (hydrological land surface process model PROMET and groundwater model OpenGeoSys) and further freely available data (water use, biodiversity and wetlands maps). Based on the results, measures for more sustainable water management can be deduced, such as increase of rainfed agriculture near vulnerable ecosystems or change of certain crops. The tool can support decision making of authorities from local to national level as well as private enterprises who want to improve the sustainability of their supply chains.

An Evaluation of Herodotuss Historical Descriptions of the Scythians to What Extent Are Herodotuss Literary Works on the Scythians Credible?

“…In Herodotus's accounts, golden possessions such as cups, fixed spears on either side of the corpse, and horses were vital elements. Gold was the most valuable and crucial component of the burials, and the researchers at the Scythian burial mound in the northern Black Sea region discovered about hundred and eighty gold and silver objects [7] dated from 500 to 300 BCE. A gold clothing appliqué depicting two archers, shown below in Graph 4, was the most well-preserved artifact.…”

Study on the evaluation of GIS technology on surface water resources in the security intelligence perspective

“…Numerous scholars have proposed many scienti c and feasible methods from both theoretical approaches and practical experiences.Yifan Gu et al [6] proposed a new grey water footprint assessment method for the development of water footprint assessment considering evaluation indicators such as Taking Quality, Quantity, and Time Effect into Consideration.Chanchai Petpongpan [7] used various future climate changes as the SWAT was used to analyze the interaction between surface water and groundwater in the basin to address the impact of climate change on future water supply.Liwei et al [8] used GIS and RS technology to explore the water resources vulnerability of typical karst areas in southwestern China as an example to conduct a comprehensive evaluation, and this scheme is scienti c and intuitive compared with traditional methods. olha halytsia [9] proposed the MAR (Managed aquifer recharge) system scheme after the Gao xp [10] used SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and normal cloud models from multidimensional factors of water resources to The development and selection of a sustainable water use strategy has been case tested and shown to be feasible and has some potential to be applied to other water issues.Anna Schlattmann [11] et al introduced agriculture as a major driver in the ESAW tool for sustainable assessment of watersheds from the perspective of con icting water supply and distribution, with a view to protecting ecosystems and biodiversity. B. Senthil Rathi [12] realized the seriousness of the water pollution problem, for which they discussed the progress of traditional and other innovative forms of removing water quality pollutants and optimized the basic water resources data obtained and screened the evaluation methods for removing harmful pollutants from water.AB Müller [13] et al explored "a framework for decision support, the concept of risk and sustainability assessment (RSA) to provide uni ed information on water scarcity risk and sustainable use of water resources" by reducing the risk of regional water scarcity through water recycling measures.…”