The global groundwater situation: overview of opportunities and challenges.

Shah, Tushaar; Molden, David; Sakthivadivel, R.; Seckler, David

doi:10.5337/2011.0051

Cited by 225 publications

(145 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In the Gujarat Saurashtra coastal area farmers during 1960's and 1970's through extensive groundwater pumping experienced a tube well economy boom. Now sea water intrusion in these depleted coastal aquifers reaches 7 km inland and socioecological collapse is the reality for many villages (Shah et al, 2000). Already in 1976 UNDP estimated that groundwater abstractions in Gujarat had to be reduced by 25% to reach sustainable levels (Moench et al, 2003).…”

Section: Groundwater Overdraftmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Consumptive water use to feed humanity - curing a blind spot

Falkenmark

Lannerstad

2005

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

121

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Abstract.Since in large parts of the world it is getting difficult to meet growing water demands by mobilising more water, the discourse has turned its focus to demand management, governance and the necessary concern for aquatic ecosystems by reserving an "environmental flow" in the river. The latter calls for attention to river depletion which may be expected in response to changes in consumptive water use by both natural and anthropogenic systems. Basically, consumptive use has three faces: runoff generation influenced by land cover changes; consumptive use of water withdrawn; and evaporation from water systems (reservoirs, canals, river based cooling). After demonstrating the vulnerability to changes in consumptive use under savanna region conditions -representative of many poverty and hunger prone developing countries subject to attention in the Millennium Development Goal activities -the paper exemplifies; 1) changes in runoff generation in response to regional scale land cover changes; 2) consumptive use in large scale irrigation systems. It goes on to analyse the implications of seeing food as a human right by estimating the additional consumptive use requirements to produce food for the next two generations. Attention is paid to remaining degrees of freedom in terms of uncommitted water beyond an environmental flow reserve and to potential food trade consequences (so-called virtual water). The paper concludes that a human-right-to-food principle will have major consequences in terms of altered consumptive water use. It will therefore be essential for humanity to address river depletion to avoid loss of resilience of the life support system. This will demand a deep-going cooperation between hydrology, ecology and water governance.

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Section: Groundwater Overdraftmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The area embraces 64% of national farmlands with half of China's wheat production and one third of the maize harvest (Kendy et al, 2002;Shah et al, 2000). The area is facing serious groundwater overexploitation problems, with the groundwater table under Beijing fallen 5 m since 1965, 2.5 m in 1999 (Moench et al, 2003).…”

Section: Groundwater Overdraftmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumptive water use to feed humanity - curing a blind spot

Falkenmark

Lannerstad

2005

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

121

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“…The current rate of global groundwater withdrawals, about 750-800 km 3 yr À1 [Shah et al, 2000] or about a quarter of total global water withdrawals [Shah et al, 2004], which is in excess of natural groundwater recharge rate, has depleted groundwater resources. This has resulted in declining water tables, decreasing yields of wells, increasing pumping costs, competitive deepening of wells, land subsidence, loss of wetlands and flowing springs and rivers, salt water intrusion and other salinity problems, water quality degradation, and damaging aquatic ecosystems [Konikow and Kendy, 2005;Villholth, 2006].…”

Section: Groundwater Exploitation Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperative institutions for sustainable common pool resource management: Application to groundwater

Madani

Dinar

2012

Water Resources Research

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Beneficiaries of common pool resources (CPRs) may select available noncooperative and regulatory exogenous institutions for managing the resource, as well as cooperative management institutions. All these institutions may increase the long‐term gains, prolong the life of the resource, and help to escape the tragedy of the commons trap. Cooperative game theory approaches can serve as the backbone of cooperative CPR management institutions. This paper formulates and applies several commonly used cooperative game theoretic solution concepts, namely, the core, Nash‐Harsanyi, Shapley, and nucleolus. Through a numerical groundwater example, we show how CPR users can share the gains obtained from cooperation in a fair and efficient manner based on these cooperative solution concepts (management institutions). Although, based on their fairness rationales, various cooperative management institutions may suggest different allocations that are potentially acceptable to the users, these allocation solutions may not be stable as some users may find them unfair. This paper discusses how different methods, such as application of the plurality rule and power index, stability index, and propensity to disrupt concepts, can help identify the most stable and likely solutions for enforcing cooperation among the CPR beneficiaries. Furthermore, how the noncooperative managerial characteristics of the CPR users can affect the stability and acceptability of the different cooperative CPR management institutions is discussed, providing valuable policy insights for cooperative CPR management at community levels.

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“…The other side of the story is that two thirds of the world s diverted fresh water is being used for irrigation-with an appreciable contribution coming from groundwater resources. Most of the 750-800 billion m 3 year -1 of global groundwater withdrawals are used for agriculture (Shah et al 2000). During the last 10 to 20 years, there has been a significant increase in the utilization of groundwater resources for agricultural irrigation because of their widespread distribution and low development costs (Clarke et al 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new technique to estimate net groundwater use across large irrigated areas by combining remote sensing and water balance approaches, Rechna Doab, Pakistan

2004

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Over-exploitation of groundwater resources threatens the future of irrigated agriculture, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. In order to reverse this trend, and to ensure future food security, the achievement of sustainable groundwater use is ranking high on the agenda of water policy makers. Spatio-temporally distributed information on net groundwater use-i.e. the difference between tubewell withdrawals for irrigation and net recharge-is often unknown at the river basin scale. Conventionally, groundwater use is estimated from tubewell inventories or phreatic surface fluctuations. There are shortcomings related to the application of these approaches. An alternative methodology for computing the various water balance components of the unsaturated zone by using geo-information techniques is provided in this paper. With this approach, groundwater recharge will not be quantified explicitly, but is part of net groundwater use, and the spatial variation can be quantitatively described. Records of routine climatic data, canal discharges at major offtakes, phreatic surface depth fluctuations, and http://www.springerlink.com/media/99a0hcwgqn3rypqhlk1p/contributions/l/9/y/2/l9y25e2g0ghbm45j_html/fulltext.html (1 of 25)8-11-2005 9:37:32 10.1007/s10040-004-0394-5 simplified information on soil textural properties are required as input data into this new Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing tool. The Rechna Doab region (approximately 2.97 million ha), located in the Indus basin irrigation system of Pakistan, has been used as a case study. On an annual basis, an areal average net groundwater use of 82 mm year -1 was estimated. The current result deviates 65% from the specific yield method. The deviation from estimates using tubewell withdrawal related data is even higher.Keywords Remote sensing -GIS -Water balance -Groundwater management -Net groundwater use -Recharge -Irrigation management -Sustainability -Rechna Doab, PakistanResumen La sobre-explotación de recursos de agua subterránea amenaza el futuro de la agricultura de riego, especialmente en las regiones áridas y semi-áridas del mundo. Para revertir esta tendencia, y para garantizar seguridad alimentaria futura, la meta del uso sostenible del agua subterránea se encuentra alto en la agenda de los políticos. Información espacial y temporal en cuanto al uso neto de agua subterránea-i.e. la diferencia entre las extracciones de agua de pozos entubados para riego y recarga neta-se desconoce frecuentemente a la escala de cuenca hidrográfica. Generalmente, el uso de agua subterránea se estima a partir de inventarios de pozos o fluctuaciones de superficies freáticas. Existen deficiencias en relación con las aplicaciones de estos enfoques. En este artículo se aporta una metodología alternativa para calcular los diferentes componentes del balance hídrico de la zona no saturada utilizando técnicas geoinformativas. Aunque con este enfoque no se cuantifica de manera explícita la recarga de agua subterránea, la cual es parte del uso neto...

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The global groundwater situation: overview of opportunities and challenges.

Cited by 225 publications

References 6 publications

Consumptive water use to feed humanity - curing a blind spot

Consumptive water use to feed humanity - curing a blind spot

Cooperative institutions for sustainable common pool resource management: Application to groundwater

A new technique to estimate net groundwater use across large irrigated areas by combining remote sensing and water balance approaches, Rechna Doab, Pakistan

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