Sustaining Water Resources: Environmental and Economic Impact

Abstract

Water is essential to human health and economic development due to its utilization in sanitation, agriculture, and energy. Supplying water to an expanding world population requires simultaneous consideration of multiple societal sectors competing for limited resources. Water conservation, supply augmentation, distribution, and treatment of contaminants must work in concert to ensure water sustainability. Water is linked to other sectors, and the quantity and quality of water resources are changing. The efficient use of water in agriculture, the largest user of water worldwide, via drip irrigation is described as is the use of energy-intensive reverse osmosis to supplement freshwater supplies. Efforts to manage watersheds and model their responses to severe weather events are discussed along with efforts to improve the predictability of their function. The regional competition for water resources impacts both energy and water supply reliability, which requires that nations balance both for sustainable economic development. The use of water and energy in the US is described which provides a lens through which to both rethink the interrelationship of water and energy as well as evaluate technological developments. Advances in nanotechnology are highlighted as one emerging technology. These results underscore the multifaceted nature of water sustainability, its interrelationship to energy and economic development, and the need to develop, manage and regulate water systems in a concerted manner.

Bio-Based Aromatic Copolyesters: Influence of Chemical Microstructures on Thermal and Crystalline Properties

“…2 Temperature for maximum degradation rate. 3 Remaining weight at 800 • C. 4 Crystallization temperatures (T c ) and crystallization enthalpies (∆H c ) calculated from the first cooling DSC traces of the precipitated samples at a cooling rate of 10 • C min −1 . 5 Glass transition, crystallization and melting temperatures (T g , T c , T m ), melting and crystallization enthalpies (∆H m , ∆H c ) calculated from the second heating DSC traces of the precipitated samples at a heating rate of 10 • C min -1 .…”

“…These challenges, include exhaustion of fossil resources, marine pollution, greenhouse effect, and so forth. All these problems urge people to adopt sustainable and green manner for social behaviors [1][2][3][4]. Bio-based polymer materials are attracting more and more attention from both academic and industrial aspects, especially for the synthesis and modification of bio-based degradable polymers (polyester, polyurethane, and polycarbonate) [5][6][7][8].…”

Study on the Coupling Coordination Relationship between Water-Use Efficiency and Economic Development

“…Arain et al explored the empirical relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), population, energy production, and water resources in South Asia with the newly developed approach called dynamic common correlated effects [13]. Alexandratos et al pointed out that the regional competition for water resources impacts both energy and water supply reliability, which requires that nations balance both for sustainable economic development [14].…”

Study on Coupling Coordination Relationship Between Water Use Efficiency and Economic Development

“…Arain explored the empirical relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), population, energy production, and water resources in South Asia [3]. Alexandratos discussed the efforts to manage watersheds and model their responses to severe weather events along with efforts to improve the predictability of their function [4]. Hao-Zhe Yu, Yi Cui, Yong-Xin Xu, Wei-Wei Xu and Yu-Ping Han et al studied on the relationship between water resources utilization and economic growth [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”