| 1. |
- Berndtsson, Ronny, et al.
(författare)
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Drivers of changing urban flood risk : A framework for action
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Management. - : Elsevier. - 0301-4797 .- 1095-8630. ; 240, s. 47-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study focuses on drivers for changing urban flood risk. We suggest a framework for guiding climate change adaptation action concerning flood risk and manageability in cities. The identified key drivers of changing flood hazard and vulnerability are used to provide an overview of each driver's impact on flood risk and manageability at the city level. We find that identified drivers for urban flood risk can be grouped in three different priority areas with different time horizon. The first group has high impact but is manageable at city level. Typical drivers in this group are related to the physical environment such as decreasing permeability and unresponsive engineering. The second group of drivers is represented by public awareness and individual willingness to participate and urbanization and urban sprawl. These drivers may be important and are manageable for the cities and they involve both short-term and long-term measures. The third group of drivers is related to policy and long-term changes. This group is represented by economic growth and increasing values at risk, climate change, and increasing complexity of society. They have all high impact but low manageability. Managing these drivers needs to be done in a longer time perspective, e.g., by developing long-term policies and exchange of ideas.
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| 2. |
- Blösch, Günter, et al.
(författare)
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Twenty-three unsolved problems in hydrology (UPH) - a community perspective
- 2019
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Ingår i: Hydrological Sciences Journal. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0262-6667 .- 2150-3435. ; 64:10, s. 1141-1158
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.
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| 3. |
- Omarova, Alua, et al.
(författare)
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Water Supply Challenges in Rural Areas : A Case Study from Central Kazakhstan
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1660-4601. ; 16:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rural water supplies have traditionally been overshadowed by urban ones. That must now change, as the Sustainable Development Goals calls for water for all. The objective of the paper is to assess the current access to and the perceived water quality in villages with various types of water supply. The survey was carried out during July⁻December 2017 in four villages in central Kazakhstan. Overall, 1369 randomly selected households were interviewed. The results revealed that even though villagers were provided with tap water, significant numbers used alternative sources. There were three reasons for this situation: residents' doubts regarding the tap water quality; use of other sources out of habit; and availability of cheaper or free sources. Another problem concerned the volume of water consumption, which dropped sharply with decreased quality or inconvenience of sources used by households. Moreover, people gave a poor estimate to the quality and reliability of water from wells, open sources and tankered water. The paper suggests that as well decentralization of water management as monitoring of both water supply and water use are essential measures. There must be a tailor-made approach to each village for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of providing rural Kazakhstan with safe water.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Radelyuk, Ivan, et al.
(författare)
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Pitfalls of wastewater treatment in oil refinery enterprises in Kazakhstan-a system approach
- 2019
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Ingår i: Sustainability (Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 11:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present article is an assessment of wastewater treatment processes in the oil refinery sector in Kazakhstan by comparing relevant experience of developed and developing countries. The legislation in this sphere, the treatment methods, the discharge process and the effect on the environment were evaluated following international and national regulations. In our study, the wastewater systems in three factories in Kazakhstan were assessed. Results show that, even though the environmental regulation in Kazakhstan promotes the polluter pays principle and follows the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, the oil refinery plants in Kazakhstan still contain exceeding concentrations of pollutants in their effluents. One issue is that the local legislation allows disposal of wastewater to natural or artificial ponds as long as the concentrations of pollutants in effluents are less than the already existing concentrations in the pond. Consequently, the factories can use ponds with an initially high concentration of contaminants. The high initial concentration of pollutants in the pond water is due to wastewater discharged before the implementation of current environmental regulations. This issue in the current legislation leads to the situation where there is no incentive for efficient wastewater treatment. The national law also lacks regulations regarding which methodology should be used to assess the pollutants in the wastewater. Thus, the control by national environmental office for each enterprise is negotiated separately between the factory and the governmental body. This gives the factory a strong position to define the parameters assessing the effluents. This has led to none of the factories measuring, e.g., heavy metals in discharged wastewater. Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) concentration in wastewater is often exceeded at each factory and there is no analysis done for different hydrocarbon fraction. To overcome the issues described in the present study, we strongly recommended a unified and transparent methodology for the country's oil refinery industry to assess important pollutants in discharged wastewater.
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| 6. |
- Uamusse, Miguel M., et al.
(författare)
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Mini-grid hydropower for rural electrification in mozambique : Meeting local needs with supply in a nexus approach
- 2019
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Ingår i: Water. - : MDPI AG. - 2073-4441. ; 11:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 states that access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy should be provided for all by 2030. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries on earth but has abundant supply of energy resources. The electrification rate, however, has been slow. Rural electrification is hampered by lack of basic infrastructure, institutional barriers, and low ability and willingness to pay for energy services. Thus, there is a general gap between electricity supply and demand. In view of this, the present paper investigates supply and demand of electricity for a typical rural case study area in Mozambique. We suggest a nexus approach to improve water, energy, and food security initiated at a local level. Households in the investigated case study area can be connected to a mini-grid hydropower system that allows for energy production to 80-200 households. To increase the economic profitability of the mini-grid hydropower system we suggest including small-scale industry. For the studied rural village, this would be constituted by a small-scale factory for milling of corn and other cereals. Electricity produced can thus be used for food processing but also for pumping water supply to households for domestic use and small-scale irrigated farming lots. The results indicate that the villagers have a real payment capacity of between 8 and 19 USD per MWh of generated hydropower. Benefits of rural electrification are direct. It contributes to improved living conditions for households and provides better nexus security and sustainable development within healthcare, education, and small-scale business development.
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