Publications Directory

Publications Directory

Impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on land use and transboundary freshwater resources
Marc François Müller, Jim Yoon, Steven Gorelick, Nicolas Avisse, Amaury Tilmant

Study uses satellite imagery of war-torn Syria to show an unexpected effect of the conflict was increased flow in the Yarmouk River to Jordan. The study illustrates that conflict and human displacement can significantly alter a basin’s water balance with dramatic effects on the transboundary partitioning of water resources.

Jordan Water Project North Africa/Middle East Wednesday, December 27, 2017 Visit Website
Closing the irrigation deficit in Cambodia: Implications for transboundary impacts on groundwater and Mekong River flow
Laura Erban, Steven Gorelick

Study uses satellite data to show groundwater irrigation at current rates will deplete water table below the lift limit of suction pump wells, used for domestic supply by more than 1.5 million people, throughout much of the area within 15 years. Extensive groundwater irrigation jeopardizes access for shallow domestic water supply wells, raises the costs of pumping for all groundwater users, and may exacerbate arsenic contamination and land subsidence that are already widespread hazards in the region.

Arsenic in Asia South Asia Friday, April 1, 2016 Visit Website
Global Analysis of Urban Surface Water Supply Vulnerability
Julie Padowski, Steven Gorelick

A global analysis of urban water supply vulnerability or failure to simultaneously meet demands from human, environmental and agricultural users. The research finds that by 2040, without additional measures, 44% of cities will be vulnerable due to increased agricultural and urban demands.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015 Visit Website
Assessment of Human–Natural System Characteristics Influencing Global Freshwater Supply Vulnerability

An evaluation of freshwater vulnerability in 119 lower per capita income countries, which finds that every nation experiences some form of vulnerability. The most vulnerable countries, according to the analysis, are Jordan, Yemen and Djibouti.

Identifying Water Supply Vulnerability Friday, October 23, 2015 Visit Website
Water Security and Development: Assessing Groundwater Management Strategies

A review of the latest developments in analytic tools for groundwater and groundwater–surface water policy evaluation and management.

Monday, September 14, 2015 Visit Website
Declining Rainfall and Regional Variability Changes in Jordan
Kazi Rahman, Steven Gorelick, P. James Dennedy-Frank, Jim Yoon, Bala Rajaratnam

An analysis of modern rainfall data in Jordan, one of the world's most water-poor countries, finding statistically significant regional rainfall decline, among other results.

Jordan Water Project North Africa/Middle East Sunday, May 31, 2015 Visit Website
Global Change and the Groundwater Management Challenge
Steven Gorelick, Chunmiao Zheng

A study of competing needs for groundwater, and the importance of developing a new generation of aquifer management models that address broad impacts of global change.

Sunday, May 3, 2015 Visit Website
Release of Arsenic to Deep Groundwater in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, Linked to Pumping-Induced Land Subsidence
Laura Erban, Steven Gorelick, Howard Zebker, Scott Fendorf

Proposal of a previously unrecognized mechanism in which deep groundwater extraction is causing interbedded clays to compact and expel water containing dissolved arsenic or arsenic-mobilizing solutes (e.g., dissolved organic carbon and competing ions) to deep aquifers over decades. The implication for the broader Mekong Delta region, and potentially others like it across Asia, is that deep, untreated groundwater will not necessarily remain a safe source of drinking water.

Arsenic in Asia Southeast Asia Monday, August 5, 2013 Visit Website
The impact of urbanization on water vulnerability: A coupled human-environment system approach for Chennai, India
Veena Srinivasan, Karen Seto, Ruth Emerson, Steven Gorelick

An examination of the relationship between urbanization and water vulnerability for a fast-growing city, Chennai, India, using a coupled human–environment systems (CHES) modeling approach. Taken together, the results suggest that in order to reduce vulnerability to water shortages, there is a need for new forms of urban governance and planning institutions that are capable of managing both centralized actions by utilities and decentralized actions by millions of households.

Chennai, India South Asia Friday, February 1, 2013 Visit Website
The nature and causes of the global water crisis: Syndromes from a meta-analysis of coupled human-water studies
Veena Srinivasan, Eric Lambin, Steven Gorelick, Barton Thompson, Jr., Scott Rozelle

A meta-analysis of 22 coupled human-water system case studies using quantitative comparison analysis to identify water resource system outcomes and the factors that drive them. Findings suggest that by considering basins as members of syndrome classes and tracing common causal pathways of water crises, water resource analysts and planners might develop improved water policies aimed at reducing vulnerability, inequity and unsustainability of freshwater systems.

Global Water Crisis Analysis Friday, October 5, 2012 Visit Website
Water Resources Management in the Yaqui Valley (Chapter in "Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution")
Gerrit Schoups, C. Lee Addams, David S. Battisti, Ellen McCullough, Jose Luis Minjares

Managing water for sustainable use and economic development is a technically and politically difficult challenge for many regions of the world (Lach et al. 2005; Jacobs et al. 2010). Because water is the lifeblood of agriculture in the Yaqui Valley and has been used almost exclusively for irrigation purposes, it is intimately tied to sustainability transitions in agriculture. Moreover, as demands increase for other uses, including supplying urban growth and maintaining environmental flows, broader sustainability concerns are being added.

Yaqui Valley Project North America Sunday, January 1, 2012 Visit Website
Sustainable urban water supply in south India: Desalination, efficiency improvement, or rainwater harvesting?
Veena Srinivasan, Steven Gorelick, Lawrence Goulder

Proposal of a framework that makes it possible to evaluate a wider range of centralized and decentralized water policies than previously considered in Indian megacities. Results show that a combination of rainwater harvesting and efficiency improvement is most effective.

Chennai, India South Asia Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Visit Website
A hydrologic-economic modeling approach for analysis of urban water supply dynamics in Chennai, India
Veena Srinivasan, Steven Gorelick, Lawrence Goulder

An attempt to use a hydrologic-engineering-economic model to reconstruct past system behavior and diagnose the causes of a major water crisis in Chennai, India. The model's results highlight the inadequacy of the reservoir system and the buffering role played by the urban aquifer and consumers' coping investments during multi-year droughts.

Chennai, India South Asia Friday, July 30, 2010 Visit Website
Solution Brief: Global Freshwater Supplies

While the demand for water is increasingly driven by global forces (e.g., urbanization, climate change, population growth and food trade), water supplies are often managed by decentralized local authorities who fail to meet the needs of people and the environment.

Other Monday, March 1, 2010
Sustainable conjunctive water management in irrigated agriculture: Model formulation and application to the Yaqui Valley, Mexico
Gerrit Schoups, C. Lee Addams, Jose Luis Minjares, Steven Gorelick

An investigation of strategies to alleviate the effects of droughts on the profitability and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Mexico’s fertile Yaqui Valley. Results indicate that the impact of historical 8-year drought could have been significantly reduced without affecting profit in wet years by better managing surface water and groundwater resources.

Yaqui Valley Project North America Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Visit Website

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