Using a systemic approach to address the requirement for Integrated Water Resource Management within the Water Framework Directive

Evaluation of oral and dermal health risk exposures of contaminants in groundwater resources for nine age groups in two densely populated districts, Nigeria

Human health and the sustainability of the socioeconomic system are directly related to water quality. As anthropogenic activity becomes more intense, pollutants, particularly potentially harmful elements (PHEs), penetrate water systems and degrade water quality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of using groundwater for domestic and drinking purposes through oral and dermal exposure routes, as well as the potential health risks posed to humans in the Nnewi and Awka regions of Nigeria. The research involved the application of a combination of the National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI), HERisk code, and hierarchical dendrograms. Additionally, we utilized the regulatory guidelines established by the World Health Organization and the Standard Organization of Nigeria to compare the elemental compositions of the samples. The physicochemical parameters and NSFWQI evaluation revealed that the majority of the samples were PHE-polluted. Based on the HERisk code, it was discovered that in both the Nnewi and Awka regions, risk levels are higher for people aged 1 to <11 and >65 than for people aged 16 to <65. Overall, it was shown that all age categories appeared to be more vulnerable to risks due to the consumption than absorption of PHEs, with Cd > Pb > Cu > Fe for Nnewi and Pb > Cd > Cu > Fe for water samples from Awka. Summarily, groups of middle age are less susceptible to possible health issues than children and elderly individuals. Hierarchical dendrograms and correlation analysis showed the spatio-temporal implications of the drinking groundwater quality and human health risks in the area. This research could help local government agencies make informed decisions on how to effectively safeguard the groundwater environment while also utilizing the groundwater resources sustainably.

Regional water pollution management pathways and effects under strengthened policy constraints: the case of Tianjin, China

In recent years, China has attached great importance to pollution control, and national and many provinces have introduced water pollution management policies in the hope that improvements can be made. However, there is currently a lack of objective and adequate assessment of the effectiveness of water pollution management (WPM) at the regional level, especially a lack of in-depth research on the causes of improvement, key measures, and pathways of action. This paper constructs an evaluation index system based on the driver, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) model and evaluates the WPM performance of Tianjin based on the five aspects comprising the DPSIR model. The results show that WPM performance in Tianjin has been commendable, improving from 76.15 points out of 100 in 2014 to 90.93 points out of 100 in 2018. The score increased more rapidly from 2016 to 2018 after the regional policy was implemented. The main reason for this encouraging phenomenon is the significant improvement in water quality. From 2016 to 2020, the closure of high pollution industrial enterprises and the regulatory management of aquaculture have significantly reduced pollutant emissions. At the same time, under the constraints of the river chief system, pollutant discharge permits, discharge standards, ecological compensation agreements on water pollution and other policies in Tianjin, the effect of pollution source control is obvious, with improved water quality and high public satisfaction.

A scenario analysis-based optimal management of water resources supply and demand balance: A case study of Chengdu, China

Water resources scarcity has threatened the coordinative development of demographics, society and economy. As a typical rapidly urbanizing area and an emerging megacity in China, Chengdu is confronting the pressure of inadequate water supply. The present study divides the macroeconomic factors that affect the water resource supply and demand balance into six major subsystems: water resources supply, water demand, water drainage, population, ecological environment and economy. The combining variable interaction description and predictive simulation models are applied to simulate the water supply and demand ratio (S:D) from 2005 to 2035. Further, this study designs different development scenarios to simulate the change of S:D ratios by altering the parameter values of driving factors. The results show that: (1) the S:D ratio will decline if the current development scenario continues, implying the serious water resources shortage and the severe water supply-demand conflict in Chengdu; (2) socio-economic water demand and wastewater/rainwater reuse are the key driving parameters of S:D ratio, especially the water consumption per ten thousand yuan of industrial value-added; (3) the S:D ratio will increase from 0.92 in the current baseline scenario to 1.06 in the integrated optimization scenario in 2025, and the long-term planning brings 2035 from 0.71 to 1.03, with the proportion of unconventional water supply rise to 38% and 61%, respectively. This study can provide a decision-making tool for policy-makers to explore plausible policy scenarios necessary for bridging the gap between the water supply and demand in megacities.

An Assessment of Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Regional Water Resources Security in the DPSIR Framework in Jiangxi Province, China

Water resources are critical for the survival and prosperity of both natural and socioeconomic systems. A good and informational water resources evaluation system is substantial in monitoring and maintaining sustainable use of water. The Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework is a widely used general framework that enabled the measurement of water resources security in five different environmental and socioeconomic subsystems: driver, pressure, state, impact, and response. Methodologically, outcomes of water resources evaluation based on such framework and using fuzzy set pair analysis method and confidence interval rating method depend critically on a confidence threshold parameter which was often subjectively chosen in previous studies. In this work, we demonstrated that the subjectivity in the choice of this critical parameter can lead to contradicting conclusions about water resources security, and we addressed this caveat of subjectivity by proposing a simple modification in which we sample a range of thresholds and pool them to make more objective evaluations. We applied our modified method and used DPSIR framework to evaluate the regional water resource security in Jiangxi Province, China. The spatial-temporal analysis of water resources security level was carried out in the study area, despite the improvement in Pressure, Impact, and Response factors, the Driver factor is found to become less safe over the years. Significant variation of water security across cities are found notably in Pressure and Response factors. Furthermore, we assessed both cross-sectionally and longitudinally the inter-correlations among the DPSIR nodes in the DPSIR framework. The region-specific associations among the DPSIR nodes showed important deviances from the general DPSIR framework, and our analysis showed that in our study region, although Responses of regional government work effectively in improving Pressure and State security, more attention should be paid to improving Driver security in future regional water resources planning and management in Jiangxi Province, China.

Towards a Good Ecological Status? The Prospects for the Third Implementation Cycle of the EU Water Framework Directive in The Netherlands

The aim of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to achieve a “good” chemical and ecological status for all waters by 2027. Currently, the Netherlands and other EU Member States are finalizing their plans for the third iteration of the WFD management cycle. In this paper, we conducted an ex ante evaluation of these plans by assessing the perceptions of regional water authorities on goal attainment and the factors that account for it. In order to gain these insights, we first reviewed literature and developed a framework of factors that stimulate or hamper the implementation of the WFD. More detailed insights into the relevance and characteristics of these factors were found by applying the framework in two in-depth case studies. A more generalizable pattern was found by translating the case study results into a survey among the regional water authorities. We found that the majority of the participating water authorities expect that 50% (or more) of their WFD objectives will be achieved in 2027. However, hampering factors such as a lack of political will or the impossibility to address key causes of the problems that were identified during earlier management cycles are still present. Since it is doubtful whether they can be addressed by regional water authorities, we conclude that it will be unlikely that ecological ambitions will be met by 2027.

Construction and Evaluation of the Integrated Perception Ecological Environment Indicator (IPEEI) Based on the DPSIR Framework for Smart Sustainable Cities

Ecological environment evaluation is of great significance to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promote the harmonious development of economy, society, and environment. To evaluate environmental SDGs, single environmental indicators have been analyzed at national or large regional scale in some literature, while the urban integrated environment is ignored. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically and quantically evaluate the sustainability of ecological environment integrating the water, soil, and air environment at the urban scale. This study aims to construct the Integrated Perception Ecological Environment Indicator (IPEEI) based on the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework to solve the above-mentioned problems. The IPEEI model was proposed based on the three-level association mechanism of the Domain-Theme-Element, and the DPSIR framework conforming to the relevant standards for indicator determination. Moreover, the multi-dimensional, multi-thematic, and multi-urban quantitative evaluations were conducted using the entropy weight method, and the comprehensive evaluation grades by the Jenks natural breaks classification method of the geospatial analysis. Nine cities in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area were selected as the experimental areas. The results were consistent with the Ecological Index and local government’s planning and measures, which demonstrated that IPEEI can be effectively verified and applied for the evaluation of urban ecological environment sustainability.