Search results for "water resource"
showing 10 items of 225 documents
A satellite stand-alone procedure for deriving net radiation by using SEVIRI and MODIS products
2018
Abstract In this study, a new stand-alone satellite approach for the estimation of net surface radiation (Rn) has been implemented and validated for the Italian territory. The method uses the MODIS and MSG-SEVIRI time series products and it is independent of the use of ancillary data (i.e. ground measurements). A database of daily measurements of Rn, provided by 9 stations of the FLUXNET network, was used to validate the method in different ecological scenarios in the period 2010-12. The Rn modelled by the proposed approach and the corresponding FLUXNET measurements were in good agreement, with RMSE and R2 of 19.8 Wm−2 and 0.87, respectively, at 8-days scale, and 23.3 Wm−2 and 0.92, respect…
GIS-based groundwater potential mapping in Shahroud plain, Iran. A comparison among statistical (bivariate and multivariate), data mining and MCDM ap…
2019
Abstract In arid and semi-arid areas, groundwater resource is one of the most important water sources by the humankind. Knowledge of groundwater distribution over space, associated flow and basic exploitation measures can play a significant role in planning sustainable development, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Groundwater potential mapping (GWPM) fits in this context as the tool used to predict the spatial distribution of groundwater. In this research we tested four GIS-based models for GWPM, consisting of: i) random forest (RF); ii) weight of evidence (WoE); iii) binary logistic regression (BLR); and iv) technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) mul…
Special Issue: Water Management Strategies in Irrigated Areas
2016
The 2015 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report highlighted that ‘water is at the core of sustainable development’. Water has upgraded the quality of human life, and any progress to achieve a more sustainable world will deal with the maintenance and/or the improvement of water management. Water demand has grown at more than twice the population rate in the XX century. By 2025, it is estimated that about 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.
Metagenomic insights into strategies of aerobic and anaerobic carbon and nitrogen transformation in boreal lakes
2015
Thousands of net-heterotrophic and strongly stratifying lakes dominate the boreal landscape. Besides their central role as emitters of greenhouse gases, we have only recently begun to understand the microbial systems driving the metabolic processes and elemental cycles in these lakes. Using shotgun metagenomics, we show that the functional potential differs among lake types, with humic lakes being particularly enriched in carbon degradation genes. Most of the metabolic pathways exhibit oxygen- and temperature-dependent stratification over depth, coinciding with shifts in bacterial community composition, implying that stratification is a major factor controlling lake metabolism. In the botto…
Vertical stratification patterns of methanotrophs and their genetic controllers in water columns of oxygen-stratified boreal lakes
2021
ABSTRACT The vertical structuring of methanotrophic communities and its genetic controllers remain understudied in the water columns of oxygen-stratified lakes. Therefore, we used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to study the vertical stratification patterns of methanotrophs in two boreal lakes, Lake Kuivajärvi and Lake Lovojärvi. Furthermore, metagenomic analyses were performed to assess the genomic characteristics of methanotrophs in Lovojärvi and the previously studied Lake Alinen Mustajärvi. The methanotroph communities were vertically structured along the oxygen gradient. Alphaproteobacterial methanotrophs preferred oxic water layers, while Methylococcales methanotrophs, consisting of putative…
Opportunity Costs of Ensuring Sustainability in Urban Water Services
2011
This paper assesses technical performance in the water industry in the Southern European region of Andalusia, while accounting for sustainability in the management of water. This allows the opportunity cost of producing sustainability to be evaluated. Given the low cost of raw water in Spain in relation to the estimated opportunity cost of saving this natural resource, wasting water becomes a profitable strategy for utility managers from a private perspective. However, this managerial strategy has a huge social cost in an area of Europe where the sustainable management of water is a pressing need. The conclusion is that environmental policy aimed at discouraging this wasteful behaviour is u…
Improving operation of a complex headworks system for municipal use and hydropower production by mathematical programming
2013
The paper presents a Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP) model of the water resources system supplying Genoa, in northern Italy. The system presently features five reservoirs, three main river intakes, and two well fields. The hydrological regime is typically Mediterranean; water availability is however relatively abundant, so that drought issues are limited, especially now that water demand from the supply sources has decreased due to reduced population, deindustrialization and to improvement in the operation and maintenance of the water distribution network. In this context, it is worthwhile considering the possibility to relax an over-conservative management of resources, justif…
La tutela e la gestione delle risorse idriche nella prospettiva del PNRR
2022
The right to accessing clean and drinkable running water for all is formally ensured in Italy, but it is undeniable that there are substantial distribution and pollution problems that hinder its fulfilment. That is especially true for southern and insular areas where the living conditions for large parts of the population remain problematic. The European Court of Justice has condemned Italy twice already for these deficiencies, which are now aggravated as a result of the health and economic crisis linked to Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for a serious and systematic intervention of the legislator, leading to the renewal of legislation on national and regional level…
The Necessary Integration of Green Infrastructures in the Public Transport Infrastructure Design
2021
The spatial planning of the new infrastructures for the urban mobility can provide the opportunity for the development of the urban green areas toward the condition of a healthy city. Elements such as architectural, heritage, and landscape centralities can lead to build a converging point between the two infrastructural systems of green and mobility. The development of the new urban railway lines in the city of Palermo (Italy) offers the chance to apply an integrated approach to the field. The local potentials of the biodiversity on one side and the fragmented landscape and environment systems on the other side build the framework for the development of a case study oriented to the enhancem…
From local measures to regional impacts: Modelling changes in nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea
2021
Study Region: Our study region is the Baltic Sea Drainage Basin (BSDB), which covers an area of 1.8 Mio km2 distributed over 14 countries in northern Europe. Study Focus: We use a large-scale hydrological and nutrient transport model (E-HYPE) to model basin-wide impacts of measure scenarios on the Baltic Sea, where eutrophication is a critical issue for the marine ecosystem. We constructed measure scenarios based on stakeholder acceptance, established in workshops in different regions around the Baltic. These measures include local stream reach to catchment scale measures aiming to reduce nutrient transport into the stream network (buffer strips, stormwater ponds) and measures aiming to red…