Complementarity between mitigation and adaptation: the water sector

The water cycle, a fundamental component of climate, is likely to be altered in important ways by climate change. Climate change will most likely worsen the already existing water related problems. Then the question is how should policy makers respond to this dilemma. Climate change mitigation, through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and sequestration is not a sufficient response. Adaptation will also need to feature as a response strategy. Mitigation and adaptation need to be viewed as complementary responses to climate change. Complementarity between adaptation and mitigation in the water sector will be addressed in this paper. The paper will also outline the main impacts of climate change on water resources and identify those areas that are most dependent and vulnerable to hydrological systems (e.g., hydroelectric systems, irrigation, agriculture) and any changes thereof resulting from climate change. It will aim to assess the impact of water demand and water use, with a view to identifying the main relationships between mitigation and adaptation in the water sector and the means through which individual mitigation and adaptation actions can potentially interact with each other for the benefit of the water sector as a whole. It will also explore the implications of climate change on the management of water resources. Adaptation and mitigation options would be considered in the context of their socio-economic and environmental impacts and their contribution to sustainable development. A brief evaluation of how this information can be directly used for planning purpose will also be presented.

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沈阳北部污水处理厂出水回用于丁香湖溶质运移预测

通过对北部污水处理厂出水、丁香湖地区水环境质量现状评价,采用Visual MODFLOW数值模拟方法预测北部污水处理厂出水再生回用于丁香湖后研究区水质的变化情况,分析由此可能带来的水环境水质风险,来研究北部污水处理厂出水再生利用于丁香湖方案在水质上的可行性。预测结果显示：在地下水动力场作用下,随着时间的延长,SO4^2-将向下游不断运移并出现了累积现象,污水再生利用到丁香湖后,对地下水环境未来情况有一定的影响。     

Assessment of Wastewater Reuse Effects on Nutrient Loads from Paddy Field Using Field-Scale Water Quality Model

CREAMS-PADDY, a modified version of the field-scale CREAMS model, simulates the hydrologic, sediment, and nutrient cycles in paddy fields. The CREAMS-PADDY model was applied to estimate the effects of using wastewater for irrigation on nutrient loads from paddy fields in Republic of Korea. The model was calibrated and validated using data from two rice paddy fields. The coefficient of determination between observed and simulated total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 0.92 and 0.57, respectively, for the calibration period and 0.84 and 0.73 for the validation period. Simulations showed that when using wastewater for irrigation, the total nitrogen loads increased by 210% and total phosphorus by 1,270% when compared with conventional water irrigation. The total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentration in the ponded water increased by 254 and 534%, respectively, when compared with conventional water irrigation. The effect of reducing N and P fertilizer application rates by 10, 30, and 50% on nutrient loads exiting a paddy field were also simulated using the validated CREAMS-PADDY model. These simulations indicated that total phosphorus loads from the paddy were reduced only slightly by reducing the fertilizer, while total nitrogen loads were reduced by as much as 8.8, 16.6, and 24.4% when N ferlitizer rates were reduced by 10, 30, and 50%, respectively. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Assessing representativeness of places for conservation reservation and heritage listing

Problems arising from application of the representative criterion for conservation and natural heritage evaluation are discussed. An ecological basis to this criterion is suggested that focuses on those key environmental factors dominating biotic response. A methodology is proposed that utilizes computer-based methods of establishing and interrogating spatial data bases (geographic information systems), environmental modeling, and numeric analysis. An example is presented illustrating some of the advantages and limitations of classification and dimension reduction techniques in both defining bioenvironments and displaying their spatial distribution. The advantages of this method for representativeness evaluation are that it maximizes the utility of available data, is explicit and repeatable, and enables large areas to be analyzed at relatively fine scales.