Jan
5
Book Review: Globalization of Water: Sharing the Planet’s Freshwater Resources
January 5, 2009 | Posted by admin
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Globalization of Water: Sharing the Planet’s Freshwater Resources , A.Y. Hoekstra and A.K. Chapagain . Blackwell Publishing , . 2008 . 224 pages . ISBN 978-1-4051-6335-4 .The global water crisis is manifested by ground-water overdrafting, water pollution, insufficient access to safe drinking water, and regional conflicts over inadequate water supply. Indeed, scientists, engineers, water resource managers, and other professionals worldwide are working hard to deal with these problems. This new book by Hoekstra and Chapagain is a contribution to these efforts. This book describes the effects of globalization on water resources management. To be able to do this, the authors introduce new indicators such as the water footprint and other related ideas. These parameters are calculated for the period 1997-2001. In this book, the authors have used material from their research group’s earlier published papers in reputable journals. The Preface presents a good discussion on how this book differs from other similar books and why it is unique.
Chapter 1 starts with the assertion that people in one country affect the water systems of another nation because of global trade. To quantify these impacts, the authors use the already existing concept of virtual water defined as the water used to produce a particular good or service. They also conceive a water use indicator called the water footprint. This refers to the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed by an individual or a group of consumers such as a business or a country. If a nation suffers from water scarcity, its people can import virtual water by buying water-intensive goods (e.g., crops) from a water-abundant region. When this country has a net virtual-water import, this country has a water-saving. However, this global structure also tends to stress the hydrological systems of the exporting countries. One example is the emptying of the Colorado River. Also, the importing country might become water-dependent. These are the issues explored more extensively in subsequent chapters.
In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the methods used to estimate the virtual-water content of a commodity, such as crops and livestock products. Calculating water use for industrial products is challenging because standardized national statistics are difficult to obtain. They provide a list of estimates for several products. For example, it takes approximately 140 l of water to make a cup of coffee. Next (Chapter 3), they quantify the virtual-water transfers between nations as a result of trade in crops, livestock, and industrial products. Some countries have a total net virtual-import, and some have a total net-virtual export. However, this does not mean that those countries with a net virtual-water import only intend to save their scarce domestic resources because many factors are involved in global trade such as land availability, technological expertise, and subsidies. In Chapter 4, national and global water savings occur through international trade in agricultural products. Occasionally, however, international trade also results in global water losses. Although virtual-water import is definitely a solution to water scarcity, it has disadvantages, for instance, the country may become water-dependent and reduced employment in the agricultural sector is possible.
In Chapter 5, Hoekstra and Chapagain present the procedures on how to calculate the water footprint of a nation and then they proceed to compute for the water footprints of the nations of the world. They also suggest ways to reduce the water footprint, for example, by changing consumption habits or employing advanced technologies in harvesting rainwater. Chapter 6 tells us that Morocco (an arid-semiarid country) and the Netherlands (a humid country) have a net water-import. It is also explained why the trade balance of both countries is good. The next section (Chapter 7) shows an interesting case study. It is about the virtual-water and real-water transfers within China. The massive South-North Water Transfer Project is designed to transfer real water from South China to North China. However, this is ironic because water-intensive commodities are actually produced in the water-scarce North and these goods are sold to the water-rich South.
Chapter 8 deals with the calculation of the water footprints of coffee and tea consumption of nations. The virtual water contents of these stimulants are closely related to the stages of their production. In Chapter 9, the water footprint of cotton consumption is assessed. Here, the three components of a water footprint, namely, green water use, blue water use, and gray water production, are all included. The green water component comes from rainwater. That for blue water comes from surface and groundwater. Gray water is the polluted water that results from the production of the commodity. The last part of this chapter is devoted to the discussion on how the water-footprint indicator can be used to promote sustainable use of water. The water-footprint is a novel indicator because it considers water use in the production site rather than in the consumption site. Hence, it takes into account, for example, impacts on water quality and other externalities (e.g., soil erosion) that are not included in the price of the commodity. Chapter 10 presents evidence that many countries have become highly water-dependent because of international trade. As such, water has become a geopolitical resource. In the last section (Chapter 11), the authors outline several ways that water can be used efficiently, equitably, and in a sustainable manner through international trade.
This book is easy to understand. Ideas are direct and simple. Appendix 1 extensively outlines the procedures on how the authors calculated water footprints and related water parameters. These procedures have been published in peer-reviewed journals so I feel confident of the validity of these methodologies. The text is easy to read because the concepts and definitions are appropriately repeated so readers do not have to flip back to previous chapters to recall the definitions of terms. These terms are also comprehensively defined in the Glossary section so it is hard to be lost in the discussion. On the other hand, sometimes the discussions are unnecessarily lengthy. Occasionally, the authors deeply examine the appropriateness of terms, for instance, virtual-water trade versus virtual-water transfer. As a civil and environmental engineer doing technical work in the industry, these distinctions are hardly useful to me, but may be more important for practitioners of other fields.
In the Appendices, one can see that all the countries in the world have been included. I assume the reader might want to know the parameter estimates for his/her own country (water footprint, water-dependency, etc.). However, in the tables in this section, it would have been better if the authors had put gray color backgrounds alternatively for each row for easy reading. This is especially helpful when the fonts are small in tables showing many parameters. As I look at the estimates for my home country, the Philippines, I cannot help but feel surprised. I saw, for example, that my country has a net import of virtual-water. I know that it rains in the Philippines for half of the year; these are heavy rains, not just trickles. Why do we not have enough water? Maybe we cannot afford to implement advanced technologies? Maybe we are overpopulated? Maybe water resources have not been given enough priority in the national agenda? This is indeed a complex issue that Hoekstra and Chapagain mentioned in this book but did not comprehensively explore.
I look at the other parts of the book and notice that the Table of Contents is too busy. The authors should have used something to distinguish the main entries (e.g., bold fonts, italics). With regards to maps, they are easy to read because they use standard cartographic procedures like using a bigger arrow for showing a larger quantity or darker colors for depicting attributes with bigger quantities. Although in a few maps, the fonts can be too small to read. Figures are simple and straightforward. In the References section, I notice most of the materials are dated 2000 and later. This is not surprising as the authors affirm that this is a new field of knowledge and concepts are coming from new materials.
I recommend this book to people interested in water sustainability, for example, economists, water resources managers, policy makers, and people interested in upholding environmental justice. This does not look like a good textbook for a class; the book may be too specialized, and the book is too thick. However, one or two journal papers produced from these studies are a good reading material for an undergraduate class in Environmental Science. Undergraduates are generally familiar with the idea of the carbon footprint and can therefore appreciate its water equivalent. Graduate students in environmental management, law, and policy will benefit from knowing these concepts just by reading even one published paper. At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), for instance, there are graduate classes entitled “Business and the Environment” and “Quantitative Methods for Environmental Assessment and Decision Making.” Students from these classes will surely be interested in this new field of knowledge.
Lourdes V. Abellera, Ph.D.
MWH Americas, Inc.
618 Michillinda Avenue, Suite 200
Arcadia, California 91007
Editor’s Note: Additional book reviews may be found in AWRA’s bi-monthly journal JAWRA. If you would like to be a book reviewer for JAWRA please contact editor@awra.org.
Dec
29
Two Film Reviews: ‘FLOW’ and ‘Blue Gold: World Water Wars’
December 29, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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You’ve all undoubtedly heard of the water films FLOW: For Love Of Water and Blue Gold: World Water Wars. For those interested, I recently posted my take on each one: FLOW and Blue Gold: World Water Wars over at WaterWired.
Dec
26
Doing the Right Thing: Contributing to Water Charities
December 26, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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It’s the time of the year when our thoughts turn to charitable donations and tax deductions. But the economy is “uncooperative” this year, and charities, like many of us, are suffering, too. Any help will be appreciated, and this year, please consider supporting water charities.
Publisher Tom Bell has a wonderful editorial, Water professionals are obligated to support charitable water causes, on page 9 of the December 2008 issue of U.S. Water News. It’s about donating to charities that bring safe water to villages.
Bell points out that the world annually spends $300B on agricultural subsidies, $50B on bottled water, yet only about $3B on foreign aid specifically devoted to water and sanitation projects. About $10B - $20B per year would be enough to provide clean water to the entire world.
Bell provides some water charities to which you can donate. Here are some more that will make excellent use of your contributions. These are all small organizations that put ‘boots on the ground’ and most emphasize helping those in need help themselves. In my view, this latter aspect is key to success and sustainability.
Do you have a favorite water charity? Let us all know by commenting.
“Our failure to help those in the developing world gain access to clean water must surely rank as one of the greatest development failures of the last century.” – Peter Gleick
Dec
24
Book Review: Forecasting Urban Water Demand
December 24, 2008 | Posted by admin
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Forecasting Urban Water Demand ( Second Edition ), R.B. Billings and C.V. Jones . American Water Works Association , . 2008 . 350 pages . ISBN 1-58321-537-9 .
The first edition of this book came out in 1996 and has been expanded upon in many areas for the update, including two new chapters on water conservation, a discussion of the potential impacts of climate change on water-demand modeling, expanded tables on price elasticities and rules of thumb for calculating price impacts, and results from an American Water Works Association survey of over 600 water utility managers. An accompanying data disk includes files for daily water use, demand functions, gallons per capita per day, monthly water use factors and proportions, sector water use data and forecast, water demand forecast horizons and typical applications, and weather data.
The book begins with an introduction to water demand and major influences on it; the need for forecasting; and forecasting horizons, applications, and methods. The book then walks the reader through choosing an approach, figuring out what data to use and how to structure it, and how to perform per capita and sectoral forecasts as well as forecasts for seasonal and peak demands. Equations, real-world data tables, and examples are provided at every step.
Next a chapter on population, employment, and technology forecasts, which may not be done in-house, gives an understanding of the relationship of certain socioeconomic variables to water use. It also includes checklists for how analysts should evaluate these types of forecasts.
The chapter on weather and climate offers useful information for short-term demand models, and also affirms that water managers must plan for the long-term with the understanding that uncertainty will likely increase as related to climate change. They suggest managers look at plans that are cost-effective for a range of future scenarios.
The following three chapters on long-term and short-term conservation and price effects not only contain information useful to forecasting, but also may introduce the reader to the many opportunities available for a water provider to affect end-user water demand in various ways. In this case, you are not just forecasting to see what the future use will be, but you are also learning how to reduce that use while still meeting the costs of the utility.
The chapter on forecasting with regression begins to get a bit more complicated, and the book ends with chapters on advanced topics and how to evaluate and improve forecasts. The authors provide appendices on survey methods for data collection and on the findings of the AWWA Water-Demand Survey. A glossary houses helpful information at a glance, particularly on statistical terms, and the index seems to be comprehensive.
The book is excellent in that it combines practical steps to forecasting along with discussions of regional and national trends and case studies of individual areas. Discussions on how to reality check your work are also provided, as well as when you should use simple approaches and when more money might need to be spent for more complicated models. The authors manage to combine a technical subject with considerable real-world information, always couching the examples and equations in reality. Forecasting water demand is always filled with uncertainty, and the authors make sure to discuss how to limit that uncertainty. In addition, the data disk allows the reader an opportunity to play around with the methods to make sure that they understand the examples and equations in the book.
This book is a surprisingly easy read given the complicated nature of its subject. The last few chapters deal with more advanced topics to give an idea of what else is out there, but the book is really written with a layperson or non-statistician in mind. It would serve as an excellent introduction to students in a planning class as well as to utility employees or community water systems that need to begin some form of forecasting.
As a water planner, although not with a utility, I will keep this book in my library. I do not perform forecasts myself, but it is useful for me to understand how forecasts can be done and has given me knowledge on which to base technical comments on the regional water plans that I review.
Alison Williams
901 Lead Ave. SW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102
Editor’s Note: Additional book reviews may be found in AWRA’s bi-monthly journal JAWRA. If you would like to be a book reviewer for JAWRA please contact editor@awra.org.
Dec
24
Science in Politics: Two Views
December 24, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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This post from the Prometheus Blog dates from August 2008, but since one of the participants is John Holdren, President-elect Obama’s designate as White House Science Advisor, I thought it worthwhile to examine his view on science in politics. The other participant is Robert Lackey of USEPA.
“We don’t want nobody nobody sent.” – Chicago political boss to a then-unknown volunteer ward worker, future Rep. Abner Mikva.
Dec
20
Postmodern Hydrologic Cycle
December 20, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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We all know what the hydrologic cycle looks like, right?
Well, take a look below.
Kate Ely, Umatilla Basin hydrologist extraordinaire for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, sent me a version of the hydrologic cycle she sketched and used in a presentation.
I call it the ‘Postmodern Hydrologic Cycle’, or perhaps the ‘T. Boone Pickens Hydrologic Cycle’.
Maude Barlow would no doubt vouch for Kate’s interpretation.
This’ll get framed and put on my ‘Wall of Shame’.
Dec
10
Sustainable Sites Initiative-Review Request
December 10, 2008 | Posted by Jane Rowan
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If you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the draft Sustainable Sites Initiative Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks at the following link http://www.sustainablesites.org/report/. Will this effort become a subset of the LEED process (does anyone know for sure?)? The three sponsoring organizations would like to see these standards applied across the nation by 2010. Sustainable water resources practices related to development of any kind is certainly of interest to AWRA members.
Please share your water resources expertise and submit comments and suggestions related to this draft if you have some! The comment period ends on January 20, 2009!
Dec
9
Water Policy Dialogue Results
December 9, 2008 | Posted by Jane Rowan
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Hello Water Resources Professionals:
Attached are two files: One that is a rather lengthy document that includes the results of the September 2008 AWRA Water Policy Dialogue held in Washington DC, cosponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, and the ASCE’s Environmental and Water Resources Institute. For those of you who like a shorter rendition, I have also included the press release summarizing the group’s recommendations.
awra-media-release-3dec2008-newswire
What do you think? Will AWRA/ASCE/NWF members and friends put these recommendations into practice? Do you feel personally responsible to implement these recommendations where you can, or do you expect that the job belongs to someone else? Who would that be?
Dec
7
Electronic Petition Supporting Dr. Tony Turton
December 7, 2008 | Posted by Michael "Aquadoc" Campana
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Last month I posted about the suspension of Dr. Anthony Turton by CSIR. Tony is a world-renowned South African water expert, as well as a friend and colleague.
Some of his colleagues have established an electronic petition in his behalf. You can also access more information about the case at the petition’s WWW site.
Here is the petition’s statement:
I support the petition against the suspension of Dr. Anthony Turton by the CSIR and demand an explanation from the CSIR for actions so deeply offensive to academic freedom, human rights, scientific investigations into both the quality and scarcity of water no less than to South Africa’s good name and, ultimately, Dr. Turton himself and demand that the CSIR drops all punitive action against Dr. Turton, unless it has reasons considerably more substantive than the ones it has made public.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dec
2
Upcoming Leadership Changes for the AWRA Board
December 2, 2008 | Posted by smcclung
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Jane Rowan - President, AWRA
Greetings fellow Water Resources Professionals! I would like to take this opportunity to direct your attention to the upcoming leadership changes for the AWRA board. I am grateful for the many hours of investment in to this great organization by Faye Anderson leaving the board this year after three years of service as Director. Faye is committed to seeing AWRA succeed in its mission, and we are confident that her relationship with AWRA will continue into the future. We would like to welcome both Carol Collier and Karl Williard to the board starting in 2009. Ari Michelsen moves from his three-year Director stint to serve as 2009 President-Elect. These individuals are both well known and well-established in their careers as well as committed to the mission and objectives of AWRA, seen clearly in their volunteer involvements and their promotion of AWRA to their colleagues and students in the recent past.
I want especially to introduce you (although it is probably not necessary to many) to a fellow water resources professional I served with on the board of AWRA from 2003-2005 and again this year, Mr. Gerald Sehlke, AWRA’s 2009 President. Jerry is not only a consistent supporter and promoter of AWRA, but he is an ace scientist, a great thinker, and has made a significant contribution to water resources science and management in the interior West.
Jerry has worked as a program manager and individual contributor for regulatory compliance, environmental restoration, water resources policy and planning, groundwater monitoring, and groundwater protection programs for over 22 years. His current involvement with the Idaho National Laboratory has allowed him to contribute his knowledge and expertise as a water resources professional to the development of sustainable solutions and integrated water resources management to the development of energy resources in the Western US. Among other accomplishments, Jerry is currently a Principle Investigator in the Idaho National Laboratory’s Environmental Stewardship and Water Management Department, developing NASA Solutions Networks, which develops and employs tools for integrating NASA data and technologies for the benefit of water resources managers and decision-makers; the Department of Energy’s Energy-Water Nexus and Water Supply Technology Act programs, which are developing national approaches and a technical roadmap for energy-water management in the US; and for the INL Western Energy Corridor initiative, to evaluate the environmentally sustainable development of energy resources in the interior west of the US and Canada.
Also quite notable is Jerry’s experience as a Legislative Affairs Fellow for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), as a part of the American Geophysical Union Public Affairs Fellowship Program (2006). Jerry may tell you that this was a highlight of his career.
Jerry is also a capable negotiator and a great debater. Since he has been encouraged to debate the most sensitive subjects in a kind and respectful manner since childhood, Jerry isn’t hesitant to engage in lively conversation. I can attest that no matter how different you might find your opinions, you will leave a better person with a sharper position, honed to re-engage for the next opportunity. Because, you see, Jerry is a really great guy who loves and adores his family with a kind and easy manner, and non-judgmental attitude. I can’t promote Jerry enough to you, and I hope you all will make him feel welcome, and keep the dialogue with him going throughout his presidential tenure in 2009.
Jane O. Rowan
The Bioengineering Group<-->
