Macro, Meso, and Micro‐Efficiencies in Water Resources Management: A New Framework Using Water Balance¹

Abstract

One of the most important performance indicators for water resources systems (WRSs) management is efficiency. Here, water balance, based on mass conservation, is utilized to systemically develop three levels of composite efficiency indicators for a WRS, which are configurable based on two types of water totals: total inflow and total consumption (outflow that effectively is not available for reuse). The indices characterize hydrology of an area by including in their formulations the flow dynamics at three integrated levels. Furthermore, the usefulness of water is incorporated into the indicators by defining two weights: one for quality, and the other for beneficial attributes of water use. Usefulness Criterion is the product of quality and beneficial weights, emphasizing the equal significance of the two dimensions. Both of these weights depend on the system itself and the priorities of the supervising organization, which also are shaped by the objectives and values of the given society. These concepts lead to the definition of Macro, Meso, and Micro-Efficiencies, which form a set of integrated indicators that explicitly promotes stakeholder involvement in evaluation and design of WRSs. Macro, Meso, and Micro-Efficiencies should be maximized for both water totals, which is an integrated prerequisite for sustainability and is less promoted by competing stakeholders. To demonstrate this new framework, it is applied to published data for urban and agricultural cases and some results are explained.(KEY TERMS: 3ME; efficiency; Usefulness Criterion; beneficial weight; quality weight; water resources management; irrigation; water balance.) Haie, Naim and Andrew A. Keller, 2012. Macro, Meso, and Micro-Efficiencies in Water Resources Management: A New Framework Using Water Balance.

Indicators for Measuring Spatial Justice and Land Tenure Security for Poor and Low Income Urban Dwellers

“…The meso level refers to the province, district, or other low level while the micro level relates to the household or individual scale. Those levels can be aggregated at other hierarchies depending on the geographical scale of the study [88][89][90]. For this reason, the indicators will be aggregated at the scales of the city: macro (1), urban neighbourhood: meso (2), and household: micro (1).…”

Assessing the Impacts of Population Growth and Climate Change on Performance of Water Use Systems and Water Allocation in Kano River Basin, Nigeria

“…The Sefficiency framework [26] was used to evaluate the performance of WUSs, by modelling drivers, such as climate change and population growth, and their influences on water resources. A brief description of the methodology is provided here, further details can be found in [10,39].…”

“…The analysis will help in Improving the performance of urban and irrigation schemes through various interventions is considered a vital issue for addressing the pressure on water resources [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. However, efficiency is considered as one of the most important performance indicators for water resources systems management [26]. It was reported in de Fraiture & Wichelns [27] that adequate land and water resources are available to satisfy global food demands in the next 50 years, but only if water is managed more efficiently.…”

Urban water metabolism indicators derived from a water mass balance – Bridging the gap between visions and performance assessment of urban water resource management

“…The derivation of water metabolism indicators from an urban water mass balance is in its infancy. Past research in this area has focused on components of the water balance, for instance potable water supply (Kennedy et al 2014), or the demand-supply balance of water systems (Sahely et al 2005), or focused on one particular performance objective such as 102 efficiency (Haie and Keller 2012 (Table A1).…”