Artificial Intelligence Technique in Hydrological Forecasts Supporting for Water Resources Management of a Large River Basin in Vietnam

Hydrological forecasting plays an important role in water resource management, supporting socio-economic development and managing water-related risks in river basins. There are many flow forecasting techniques that have been developed several centuries ago, ranging from physical models, physics-based models, conceptual models, and data-driven models. Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an advanced technique applied as an effective data-driven model in hydrological forecasting. The main advantage of these models is that they give results with compatible accuracy, and require short computation time, thus increasing forecasting time and reducing human and financial effort. This study evaluates the applicability of machine learning and deep learning in Hanoi water level forecasting where it is controlled for flood management and water supply in the Red River Delta, Vietnam. Accordingly, SANN (machine learning algorithm) and LSTM (deep learning algorithm) were tested and compared with a Physics-Based Model (PBM) for the Red River Delta. The results show that SANN and LSTM give high accuracy. The R-squared coefficient is greater than 0.8, the mean squared error (MSE) is less than 20 cm, the correlation coefficient of the forecast hydrology is greater than 0.9 and the level of assurance of the forecast plan ranges from 80% to 90% in both cases. In addition, the calculation time is much reduced compared to the requirement of PBM, which is its limitation in hydrological forecasting for large river basins such as the Red River in Vietnam. Therefore, SANN and LSTM are expected to help increase lead time, thereby supporting water resource management for sustainable development and management of water-related risks in the Red River Delta.

THE FLOOD OF THE NENJIANG RIVER AND THE SONGHUA RIVER IN 1998 AND THE COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT OF THE RIVER BASINS

In the summer of 1998, an exceptionally serious flood, with the characteristics of high water level, large volume of flow, long duration and serious losses caused by the disaster, occurred in the Nenjiang River basin and the Songhua River basin. Greater flood peak occurred three times in the trunk stream of the Nenjiang River for the floods occurred in its tributaries one after another. At Jiangqiao Hydrometric Station, the water level was 141.90 m and the rate of flow was 12?000 m 3/s. The flood is ranged to a catastrophic one, which occurs once in 50 years. Ranged to a catastrophic flood at Qiqihar Hydrometric Station that occurs once in 400 years, its water level, 0.89 m higher than the former all time highest, was 149.30?m and the corresponding rate of flow was 14?800?m 3/s. The water level that exceeded the all time highest lasted for 7 days. At Harbin Hydrometric Station, the water level, 0.59?m higher than the former all time highest, was 120.89?m and the corresponding rate of flow was 17?400?m 3/s. The water level that exceeded the all time highest lasted for 9 to 10 days. The flood here is ranged to a catastrophic one, which occurs once in 150 years. The flood of the Nenjiang River damaged 456×10 4?ha of crops and 115×10 4 rooms and the direct loss of economy exceeded 40 billion yuan(RMB). The main reasons of the flood are great rainfall, long flood season, unreasonable land use, regional ecological environment degradation and lack of water control projects. It is obvious that the following measures are greatly needed: the comprehensive management of the river basins; the formulation of development planning of the river basins, especially the water control projects; the development of agriculture based on ecological security.

Impact of land use change on water resource allocation in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China

In recent decades, China has been experiencing rapid economic development, population growth and urbanization. These processes have stressed the shortages of water resources in China, especially in the arid re- gions of northwestern China. In order to sustain the expanding cropland, people increased groundwater exploitation in these regions. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the changes in land use and water resources, and their relationship in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin, a typical inland river basin in northwest China. The data of land use change were interpreted using aerial photographs （1965） and Landsat TM images （1986 and 2007）. The data of irrigation water volume in the irrigation districts were spatialized in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin. The spatial variation of the groundwater depth was interpolated using the geo- statistical method. The results showed that the cultivated cropland area along oasis fringe increased by 15.38% and 43.60% during the periods 1965-1986 and 1986-2007, respectively. Surface water amount for irrigation had almost doubled from 1956 to 2010. The decrease of grassland area mainly occurred at the alluvial fan in front of the Qilian Mountains, with 36.47% during 1965-1986 and 38.56% during 1986-2007, respectively. The groundwater depth in front of the mountain constantly increased from 1986 to 2007. We found that the overuse of surface water and overexploitation of groundwater had direct consequences on the natural environments. We suggests that the efficiency of surface water resources use among different irrigation distdcts needs to be improved, which will significantly ease the conflicts between increasing water demand for irrigation and a shortage of water resources in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin.

Water accounting for conjunctive groundwater and surface water irrigation sources: A case study in the middle Heihe River Basin of arid northwestern China

Oases in arid northwestern China play a significant role in the region＇s economic stability and development. Overex- ploitation of the region＇s water resources has led to serious environmental consequences. In oases, irrigated agriculture is the primary consumer of water, but water shortages resulting from dramatically growing human needs have become a bottleneck for regional sustainable development, making effective management of the limited available water critical. Effective strategies must be formulated to increase agricultural productivity while reducing its environmental impacts. To support the development of such strategies, water use patterns were analyzed during the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons, from May to early October, to identify opportunities for improving water management using the Mold- en-Sakthivadivel water-accounting method, which combines groundwater and surface water into a single domain and can provide a good estimate of the uses, depletion, and productivity of water in a water basin context. The study area lies in Linze County, Gansu Province, China. In the study area, the inflow water resources consist of irrigation, precipita- tion, and soil water, which accounted for 89.3%, 8.9%, and 1.8% of the total in 2007, and 89.3%, 4.8%, and 5.9% in 2008, respectively. The irrigation depends heavily on groundwater, which accounted for 82.1% and 83.6% of the total irrigation water in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In 2007 and 2008, deep percolation accounted for 50.1% and 47.9% of the water outflow, respectively, with corresponding depleted fractions of 0.51 and 0.55, respectively. For the irrigation district as a whole, the water productivity was only 1.37 CNY/m^3. To significantly increase crop water productivity and prevent depletion of the region＇s groundwater aquifer, it will be necessary to reduce the amount of water used for ir- rigation. Several water-saving agricultural practices are discussed and recommended.

A Study on Ecological Management for the Yellow River Basin in Sichuan

Promoting ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin is a major national strategy that is planned and promoted by President Xi Jinping.As an important ecological formation in the Yellow River Basin and an important part of the“China Water Tower,”the Sichuan part of the Yellow River Basin plays an important role in ecological management of the whole basin.Therefore,based on the present situation and the rich experience of ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin in Sichuan,this study puts forward a feasible plan for long-term ecological management of the Yellow River Basin in Sichuan.

The coordination of regional interest in developing river basin

River basin is a special region with the characteristics of entireO, and relation, regionality and dlversity, gradation and network, openness and dissipation etc. It is an important unit that organizes and governs national economy as well as a natural re, on. In river basin, all natural essential factors relate closely each other, and there is remarkable influence between inter-regions. In the process of developing river basin, the multiplex main interest body, the diverse interest demand and the multi-ways of interest realization constitute a complicated interest network, and result in various contradictions and conflicts. Therefore, egective regional interest coordination mechanism should be estabfished to coordinate various regional interest relations. They are the public interest realization mechanism, the fair interest assignment mechanism, the effective interest integration mechanism, the expedited interest expression mechanism and the reasonable interest compensative mechanism.

Yellow River Basin management and current issues

Soil loss, water shortage, flooding, sedimentation and water pollution are the major problems affecting the sustainable development of the Yellow River basin. Their impacts and management strategies are briefly discussed in this paper. The integrated management strategy, which includes one ultimate goal, four standards, nine countermeasures, and the concept of 'three Yellow Rivers,' is a contemporary management strategy and represents the vision of the Chinese government and engineers for the sustainable development of the Yellow River basin.

SWOT Analysis and Challenges of Nile Basin Initiative:An Integrated Water Resource Management Perspective

River Nile is one of the longest transboundery rivers and it is shared and used by Burundi,Democratic Republic of Congo,Egypt,Ethiopia,Eritrea,Kenya,Rwanda,Sudan,Tanzania and Uganda.As of today,the Nile is a crucial resource for the economic development of the Nile Basin countries and a vital source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300 million people living in the 10 riparian countries.The Nile Basin Initiative(NBI) is one of the international cooperative river basin management program and regional partnership where all the Nile Basin countries except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development,improved land use practices and management.This review therefore focused on the challenges not faced on NBI in terms of integrated use of the river and conducted analysis of strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and threats(SWOT) based on secondary data.The result of the review revealed that for decades,the Nile Basin people have been facing many complex environmental,social,economic and political challenges that have made it difficult for the proper management and sustainability of Nile water.The initiative provides training to develop skills in government ministries,non-governmental organizations and local communities in each country.It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks of environmental education practitioners;developing curriculum in the education sector.The challenges of NBI include the involvement and funding of World Bank,lack of sufficient staff,procedural and policies conflicts,lack of coordination and linkage with other regional institutions and lack of recognition as river basin organization.Considering the complex nature of the project,it is recommended that the NBI should come up with a strong multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to follow up all implemented projects.The NBI should carry out participatory land use planning in communities along the river basin.Moreover,livelihood analysis should be carried out especially in communities along the Nile to come up with poverty eradication projects which are socially acceptable,applicable,economically viable and affordable.

Torrential flood prevention in the Kolubara river basin

One of the most vulnerable parts to natural hazards in Serbia is Kolubara river basin. In the past, during the period from 1929 to 2013, 121 torrential flood events in the Kolubara river basin were recorded which show that this territory is extremely vulnerable to the torrential floods. The extreme event which occurred in May 2014 causing the catastrophic material damages and casualties was the latest and historical flood. The analysis of natural conditions in the Kolubara basin uniformly showed that this area is predisposed to a greater number of torrential floods due to its geomorphological, hydrological and land use properties. Torrential floods are closely related to the intensity and spatial distribution of erosive processes in the upper part of the Kolubara basin. The estimation of soil erosion potential is generally achieved by Erosion Potential Model(EPM). For the purposes of determining the degree of torrential properties in various water streams in the Kolubara basin, the calculation ofsusceptibility to torrential floods was assessed by Flash Flood Potential Index(FFPI). More than half of the basin area(57.2%) is located within the category of very weak and weak erosion(Z_(sr) = 0.35), but the category of medium erosion is geospatially very common. Such a distribution of medium erosion category provides conditions for generating, i.e. production of sediment which would boost torrential properties of water streams. After the classification of the obtained FFPI values it was determined that 25% of the Kolubara basin is very susceptible to torrents and this data should be seriously taken into consideration. Based on the analyses, the best and most successful manner of defence is prevention which consists of the integrated river basin management system(integrated torrent control system) so that technical works in hydrographic networks of torrents and biological and biotechnical works on the slope of the basin would be the best solution. Permanent control of erosive and torrential processes in the river basin will be not only important for flood control but it can also protect the existing and future water reservoirs and retentions fromsiltation with erosion sediment which is of great significance to the water management, agriculture, energy sector, and the entire society.

Spatial matching and flow in supply and demand of water provision services: A case study in Xiangjiang River Basin

Global climate change and increased human consumption have aggravated the uneven spatiotemporal distribution of watershed water resources, affecting the water provision supply and demand state. However, this problem has often been ignored. The present study used the Xiangjiang River basin(XRB) as the study area, and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs(InVEST) model, demand quantification model,supply–demand ratio, and water flow formula were applied to explore the spatial heterogeneity, flow, and equilibrium between water supply and demand. The results demonstrated significant spatial heterogeneity in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions.The areas of water shortage were mainly located the downstream of the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration, and the Hengyang basin was the most scarcity area. Affected by terrain gradients and human needs, water flow varied from-16.33 × 10^(8) m^(3) to 13.69 × 10^(8) m^(3)from the upstream to the downstream area, which provided a possibility to reduce spatial heterogeneity. In the future, measures such as strengthening water resource system control,sponge city construction, and dynamic monitoring technology should be taken to balance the supply and demand of water in different river sections of the basin. This study can provide references for regulating water resources allocation in different reaches of the basin.

Integrated hydrologic modeling in the inland Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

As a typical inland river basin in arid Northwest China, having distinct hydrological characteristics and severe and repre- sentative water problems, the Heihe River Basin （HRB） has attracted considerable research interest worldwide and in 2007 became a pilot basin of the G-WADI network of UNESCO/1HR Many research programs have been conducted in the HRB since the 1980s, producing rich knowledge and data about the basin, which will be very helpful to further studies. This paper reviews research efforts related to hydrologic modeling and ongoing model integration studies performed in the HRB in re- cent years. Recently, an observation network covering the whole area and a Web-based data-sharing system have been estab- lished which can greatly improve data acquisition. This paper tabulates modeling activities in past years, including model ap- plications, model modifications and enhancements, and model coupling efforts. Also described is a preliminary modeling in- tegration tool designed to quickly build new models, which has been developed for hydrologic modeling purposes. Challeng- es and issues confronted in current studies are discussed, pointing toward key research directions in the future.

Spatiotemporal drivers of urban water pollution:Assessment of 102 cities across the Yangtze River Basin

Effective management of large basins necessitates pinpointing the spatial and temporal drivers of primary index exceedances and urban risk factors,offering crucial insights for basin administrators.Yet,comprehensive examinations of multiple pollutants within the Yangtze River Basin remain scarce.Here we introduce a pollution inventory for urban clusters surrounding the Yangtze River Basin,analyzing water quality data from 102 cities during 2018e2019.We assessed the exceedance rates for six pivotal indicators:dissolved oxygen(DO),ammonia nitrogen(NH_(3)-N),chemical oxygen demand(COD),biochemical oxygen demand(BOD),total phosphorus(TP),and the permanganate index(COD_(Mn))for each city.Employing random forest regression and SHapley Additive exPlanations(SHAP)analyses,we identified the spatiotemporal factors influencing these key indicators.Our results highlight agricultural activities as the primary contributors to the exceedance of all six indicators,thus pinpointing them as the leading pollution source in the basin.Additionally,forest coverage,livestock farming,chemical and pharmaceutical sectors,along with meteorological elements like precipitation and temperature,significantly impacted various indicators'exceedances.Furthermore,we delineate five core urban risk components through principal component analysis,which are(1)anthropogenic and industrial activities,(2)agricultural practices and forest extent,(3)climatic variables,(4)livestock rearing,and(5)principal polluting sectors.The cities were subsequently evaluated and categorized based on these risk components,incorporating policy interventions and administrative performance within each region.The comprehensive analysis advocates for a customized strategy in addressing the discerned risk factors,especially for cities presenting elevated risk levels.

Mitigating the catastrophic impacts of torrential rivers in semi-arid environments: a case of the Gash River in eastern Sudan

The climatic, geomorphic, hydrologic and aquifer characteristics of the torrential Gash River across mountainous areas, in far eastern Sudan, were analyzed in order to mitigate its recurring catastrophic impacts. Hydrologic and climatic data and interpretation of Gash River satellite images were from relevant research works carried out in Gash Basin from 1985 to 2008. The results indicated that the total catchment area of Gash River is about 21,000 km2, and the basin area is 31,000 km2. The total length of Gash River is 450 km and the average slope is 200 cm/km. The width of the catchment varies from 30 m to 90 m and that of the basin is from 100 m to 800 m, and the course of the river is varied. During the period of 1980？2008, the mean annual rainfall was 250 mm and the mean annual discharge was 6.8 ×10~8 m^3, and the flooding is approximately one time per 5 years. Torrential floods measured at Kassala town since 1907 showed that an absolute maximum discharge was 876 m3/s and a mean maximum discharge was 365 m3/s. These characteristics differ widely between catchment and basin areas. The author proposes that, by analyzing the climatic, geomorphic, hydrologic and aquifer characteristics of the Gash River and considering the role of community, a concise database could be provided to formulate the aquifer, geomorphic, hydrologic and climatic （AQUIGEOHYCLIM） regional approach to mitigate Gash River recurring catastrophic impacts.

A holistic approach to creating a new yangtze river basin protection legislation

The protection of the Yangtze River Basin is a top priority in China,and the National People's Congress(NPC)Standing Committee has started to draft a new protection legislation specifically for the Yangtze River Basin.The Basin forms the epicenter of environmental,social,and economic life.Any efforts to protect the Basin must accommodate several competing interests from a multiplicity of interested parties and stakeholders such as local governments,villages,and business enterprises.Current relevant institutions and organizations are unable to sufficiently ensure environmental protection and green development in the Basin.The NPC Standing Committee must thus adopt a more holistic approach when creating new protection legislations aimed at the Yangtze River Basin.

Analysis of River Tributaries’ Streamflow Contribution Using WEAP Model: A Case of the Ngwerere and Kanakatampa Tributaries to the Chongwe River in Zambia

Ngwerere and Kanakatampa Streams are the main tributaries of the Chongwe River. The Ngwerere stream originates from the city of Lusaka and meanders through Lusaka City and Chongwe Town for an approximate distance of 41 km before joining into the upper part of Chongwe River. The Kanakatampa Stream is a tributary of the Chongwe River. It meanders from the Kanakatampa Area for approximately 52 km before discharging into the middle of the upper part of the Chongwe River. The Chongwe River Catchment which is a sub-catchment of the Zambezi Basin drew the attention of researchers and policymakers when the Chongwe River started drying up in the dry seasons causing a water crisis particularly in the downstream regions of the middle catchment. Therefore, it is important from the water resources management perspective, to assess the contribution of tributaries into the flows of the Chongwe River. Ngwerere and Kanakatampa streams are socially, economically, and environmentally important streams for the city of Lusaka and surrounding area. This study, therefore, concentrated on evaluating the flow contribution of the two streams to the Chongwe River using the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) tool. The streamflow data (1970-2010) recorded at the Chongwe Great East Road Bridge gauging station were used in the WEAP embedded Parameter ESTimation (PEST) auto-calibration tool to calibrate (1970-1999) and validate (2000-2010) the model. The monthly streamflow model calibration and validation results were assessed using the correlation coefficient (CC), Coefficient of determination (R2), Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient of Efficiency (NSE), and Percent bias (PBIAS). The model performance results achieved were PBIAS of 1.24%, CC = 0.81, R2 = 0.66 and NSE = 0.62 during the calibration period and a positive PBIAS of 2.94%, CC = 0.81, R2 = 0.67 and NSE = 0.62 during the validation period. The median of the flows (Q50) was obtained from the historical flow duration curves (FDCs) generated in averaged intervals of 10-year from 1970 to 2019. The results showed that on average, the Ngwerere and Kanakatampa Streams contribute 52.8% and 29.6% respectively, to the flow of the Chongwe River in the upper and middle Catchment. The results also showed that the contribution of the Ngwerere and Kanakatampa Streams to the Chongwe River discharge has been reducing historically at a rate of 0.65% per decade and 1.35% per decade respectively over a period of 50 years (1970-2019). Suggestions for sustainable management of the tributaries such as the Ngwerere and Kanakatampa Streams were provided in this study.

A system dynamics approach for water resources policy analysis in arid land:a model for Manas River Basin

The Manas River Basin in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, similar to other arid regions, is facing water constraints which challenge decision-makers as to how to rationally allocate the available water resources to meet the demands from industries and natural ecosystems. Policies which integrate the supply and demand are needed to address the water stress issues. An object-oriented system dynamics model was developed to capture the interrelationships between water availability and increasing water demands from the growth of industries, agri- cultural production and the population through modeling the decision-making process of the water exploration ex- plicitly, in which water stress is used as a major indicator. The model is composed of four sectors： 1 ） natural surface and groundwater resources; 2） water demand; 3） the water exploitation process, including the decision to build reservoirs, canals and pumps; 4） water stress to which political and social systems respond through increasing the supply, limiting the growth or improving the water use efficiency. The model was calibrated using data from 1949 to 2009 for population growth, irrigated land area, industry output, perceived water stress, groundwater resources availability and the drying-out process of Manas River; and simulations were carried out from 2010 to 2050 on an annual time step. The comparison of results from calibration and observation showed that the model corresponds to observed behavior, and the simulated values fit the observed data and trends accurately. Sensitivity analysis showed that the model is robust to changes in model parameters related to population growth, land reclamation, pumping capacity and capital contribution to industry development capacity. Six scenarios were designed to inves- tigate the effectiveness of policy options in the area of reservoir relocation, urban water recycling, water demand control and groundwater pumping control. The simulation runs demonstrated that the technical solutions for im- proving water availability and water use efficiency are not sustainable. Acknowledging the carrying capacity of water resources and eliminating a growth-orientated value system are crucial for the sustainability of the Manas River Basin.

Ecological Land Suitability for Arid Region at River Basin Scale:Framework and Application Based on Minmum Cumulative Resistance(MCR) Model

As an important and typical arid inland region in China,Shiyang River Basin plays an important role in maintaining the sustainable development of eco-environment,whose ecological land suitability restricts the development of the local human activities.Therefore,Shiyang River Basin was selected as the case study,the minimum cumulative resistance(MCR)model and GIS technique were integrated to create land suitability evaluation map.We calculated the MCR value of ecological source and living source,and divided the whole basin into five partitions according to the difference between ecological source and living source,and analyzed the patterns and characteristics of the ecological land suitability evaluation(ELSE)regions,respectively.The results showed that:1)The suitable ecological land includes prohibited development region and restricted development region,which accounts for 15.45%and 23.35%of the total land area of the Shiyang River Basin,respectively.These two regions mainly distributed high altitude region in the southern Qilian Mountain and low altitude region where had high density of rivers.2)The protection of ecological land requires not only conserving existing ecological land but also focusing on ecological buffer belts around ecological sources and improving ecological land service ability.3)Ecological networks should be constructed through artificial planting trees around the boundary of oasis and ecological restoration region.Buffer greenbelts should also be established between optimized development region and ecological restoration region.

Overview of flooding damages and its destructions: a case study of Zonguldak-Bartin basin in Turkey

A number of devastating flood events have oc-curred in the various river basins of Turkey in the last decade. Because floods caused deaths, suffering and extensive damages to both public and private properties in the flood areas, the government had to most of the damage in addi-tion to losing significant revenues due to the consequences of costly social and economic disruption. On the other hand, some social structures such as socioeconomic activities, land-use patterns and hydro-morphological processes are destroyed. Whereas flood control structures are considered as one of the basic strategies that can reduce flood damages and in this context flood protection planning should consider the full range of the hazard mitigation activities. In Turkey, between 1945 and 1990, 737 flooding events were occurred and at least 830 people were killed. In 1998, there was a major flooding in Zonguldak-Bartin region located on north of Turkey. Due to this devastated flooding, people lost their life and numbers of engineer-ing structures built on the river and surrounding area were totally destroyed or heavily damaged. Both side of the canal were covered with muddy soil having 0.10-0.15 m thickness. Cleaning up process took sometimes in the region. In this paper, all these subjects have been investigated in the basin and some engineering proposals have been presented.

Remote Sensing Data Application to Monitor Snow Cover Variation and Hydrological Regime in a Poorly Gauged River Catchment—Northern Pakistan

Snow- and glacier-nourished river basins located in the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindukush (HKH) ranges supply a significant amount of discharge in River Indus upstream Tarbela Dam. It is, hence, important to comprehend the cryosphere variation and its relationship to the stream flow in these high-altitude river catchments. The MODIS remotely sensed database of snow products was chosen to examine the average annual snow and glacier cover (cryosphere) variations in the Shigar River basin (poorly gauged mountainous sub-catchment of the Indus River). Hydrological regime in the area was investigated through monthly database of observed stream fluxes and climate variables (precipitation and mean temperature) for the Shigar River catchment. Analysis indicated the usefulness of remote sensing techniques for estimation of the snow cover variation in the poorly or un-gauged high-elevation catchments of the HKH zone. Results also showed that Shigar River discharge was influenced mainly by the seasonal and annual snow cover area (SCA) variation and the temperature seasonality. Moreover, it is important to uncover such inter-relationship of stream flow, climate variables and snow cover in the poorly gauged high-altitude catchments of Karakoram region for better water resource management and accurate flood hazards predictions at Tarbela.

Improving Water Quantity and Quality Supply Security by Managed Artificial Recharge Technologies in the Lower Llobregat Aquifers Integrated into a Conjunctive Surface and Groundwater Management Scheme for Barcelona,Spain

The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in the sources.A large fraction of these water resources are in the medium-size Llobregat River basin and the remaining ones correspond to a surface water transfer,seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation.Groundwater dominated water resources availability before 1950.Afterwards,water supply has evolved progressively to integrated water resources management,which includes serious water quality concerns to deal with population density,river pollution,seawater intrusion in the main aquifer,and brine generation in the mid Llobregat basin due to old mining of saline minerals.The role of the alluvial aquifers has progressively evolved from being the main water source to reserve storage to cope with seasonal and drought water resources availability.River-enhanced recharge and artificial recharge are needed to assure enough groundwater storage before surface water becomes scarce and/or suffers a serious temporal loss of quality.Enhanced river recharge started in 1950.Treated river water injection in dual-purpose wells was put into operation in the early 1970s.Basin and pond recharge was added later,as well as a deep well injection barrier along the coast to reduce seawater intrusion and to allow increased groundwater abstraction in moments of water scarcity.There is a progressive evolution from solving water quantity problems to consideration of water quality improvement during recharge,with attention to emergent concern pollutants in river water and in reclaimed water to be considered for artificial recharge.Improvement of artificial recharge operation activities has been introduced and research is being carried out on the difficult behavior to degrade organic pollutants during infiltration and in the terrain.This paper presents the different activities carried out and presents the research activities,and comments on the economic,social and administrative issues involved as well.