Water Papers

183 items available

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Water Papers are produced by the Water Global Practice, taking up the work of the predecessor Water Unit, Transport, Water and ICT Department, Sustainable Development Vice Presidency.

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Remote Sensing of Water Quality in Laguna del Sauce, Uruguay
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05) World Bank
    Laguna del Sauce is a water supply reservoir located in the Department of Maldonado (Uruguay), approximately 15 kilometers west of Punta del Este and 100 kilometers east of Montevideo. This case study assessed ongoing initiatives to address surface water pollution issues in Uruguay, working in partnership with a team of government agencies charged with water resource management. This assessment will contribute to better understanding of options for water-quality remote sensing capabilities and needs. It will also assist the government of Uruguay in identifying appropriate remote sensing tools and devising an application strategy to provide information needed to support decision making regarding the targeting and monitoring of nutrient pollution prevention and mitigation measures.
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    Resilient Water Infrastructure Design Brief
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020) World Bank
    The purpose of the Resilient Water Infrastructure Design Brief is to guide users on how resilience can be built into the engineering design of their project. With a focus on the three natural hazards most likely to affect water and sanitation infrastructure (droughts, floods, and high winds from storms), the document provides a six-step process to help users address weather and climate related challenges that are most likely to affect an infrastructure component at some point in its operational lifetime. In order to achieve both systems level resilience and infrastructure level resilience, this design brief should be used in tandem with other World Bank publications, such as the 2018 guidance document “Building the Resilience of WSS Utilities to Climate Change and Other Threats: A Road Map,” which emphasizes systems level resilience and analysis. The design brief highlights the relationship between these two documents and the unique function that each serves in improving overall resilience in the water sector. It also includes guidance for users to incorporate resilience design principles into projects’ appraisal documents and a sample module/task description for applying the two documents to an engineering design or feasibility study terms of reference.
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    Building Urban Water Resilience in Small Island Countries: The Case of South Tarawa, Kiribati
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-10) World Bank
    The water sector in South Tarawa, the capital city of Kiribati, is entering a time of deep transition. In a small island context risks can materialize faster than elsewhere and have disproportionate consequences. Strengthening water sector resilience is therefore critical to people’s welfare and to the economy. This report was conducted in parallel to the preparation of the South Tarawa Water Supply Project, to provide a diagnostic of the remaining vulnerabilities the capital city’s water supply sector may face after the completion of this project. Its main objective is to inform decisions by the Government of Kiribati on how to address these vulnerabilities. Section one gives introduction. Section two sets the stage with a brief presentation of the concept of water supply resilience in a context of water scarcity. Section three provides a summary of water supply conditions in South Tarawa and analyzes the impacts of various stresses and shocks on freshwater availability. Section four discusses potential measures to reduce water supply deficits during major crises. Section five offers an overview of these measures, in the form of an action plan, and presents several lessons that can be applied in water scarce cities in small islands and elsewhere.
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    New Avenues for Remote Sensing Applications for Water Management: A Range of Applications and the Lessons Learned from Implementation
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06) World Bank
    Water management agencies in many parts of the world are currently missing big opportunities to increase their capacity to monitor water resources. This report presents a range of remote sensing applications to support water resources management and decision-making, and discusses implementation approaches and their sustainability going forward. These were developed within the second phase of the global initiative on remote sensing for water resources management, conceived to help mainstream beneficial remote sensing uses in operational projects of the Bank, and to facilitate the adoption in World Bank client countries. This report is addressed to water practitioners in general, technical staff in national water agencies, and project leads from development and financing institutions. The goal of the report is to present insights from innovative remote sensing applications to help address specific water resources management challenges. The results presented include constraints identified in the adoption of remote sensing, the approaches adopted to make applications functional in different contexts, the project applications themselves, insights on their sustainability, and ways forward.
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    Preparing for Future Droughts in Lima, Peru: Enhancing Lima’s Drought Management Plan to Meet Future Challenges
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05) Groves, David G. ; Bonzanigo, Laura ; Syme, James ; Engle, Nathan L. ; Rodriguez Cabanillas, Ivan
    Lima is the capital of and largest city in Peru, with an estimated population of about 10 million people. SEDAPAL, Lima’s water utility, provides water to most of the metropolitan region. While SEDAPAL is generally able to meet the current needs of its customers and respond effectively to most drought conditions that have been experienced in the past, it faces a number of challenges doing so in the future. A rapidly growing population and expanding city will likely increase demand. Currently available surface and groundwater supplies that SEDAPAL relies on are also just adequate to meet current needs. Changes in these supplies would challenge SEDAPAL’s ability to manage drought conditions. This study evaluates the performance of SEDAPAL’s current drought management plan against future droughts and proposes augmentations. This study takes a deeper look into the operation of the system, the different triggers, other possible augmentations than those related to increasing supply. The audience of this report includes SEDAPAL and stakeholders from Lima as well as other water managers and researchers interested in drought management planning methodologies and case studies. This study is novel, as it uses methods for Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty to explore uncertainty in near-term drought management conditions and identify drought management strategies robust to these uncertainties
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    Securing Potable Water Supply under Extreme Scarcity: Lessons and Perspectives from the Republic of Cyprus
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06) Marin, Philippe ; Charalambous, Bambos ; Davy, Thierry
    Cyprus is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Starting in 1960, massive dam development was carried out under the motto “not a drop of water lost to the sea.” This supply-side policy proved its limit after two major droughts hit the island in 1997-2000 and 2008-09. This pushed for the massive development of seawater desalination and wastewater reuse through public-private partnership schemes. As of 2018, the Republic of Cyprus has successfully achieved potable water security—a remarkable achievement for one of the most water-scarce countries in the world. Despite these worthy successes, Cyprus still faces several important remaining challenges to move toward fully sustainable water management: (i) focusing on demand management, (ii) modernizing the financial and institutional framework, (iii) complying with the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, and (iv) developing a sustainable strategy for irrigated agriculture.
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    Wastewater: From Waste to Resource - The Case of New Cairo, Egypt
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) World Bank
    A set of case studies was prepared as part of the World Bank's Water Global Practice initiative "Wastewater. Shifting paradigms: from waste to resource" to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic. The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents New Cairo, Egypt.
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    Wastewater: From Waste to Resource - The Case of Durban, South Africa
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03) World Bank
    A set of case studies was prepared as part of the World Bank’s Water Global Practice initiative “Wastewater. Shifting paradigms: from waste to resource” to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic. The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents Durban, South Africa.
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    Water and Climate Change: Impacts on Groundwater Resources and Adaptation Options
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06) Clifton, Craig ; Evans, Rick ; Hayes, Susan ; Hirji, Rafik ; Puz, Gabrielle ; Pizarro, Carolina
    Adaptation to climate impacts on groundwater resources in developed and developing countries has not received adequate attention. This reflects the often poorly understood impacts of climate change, the hidden nature of groundwater and the general neglect of groundwater management. Many developing countries are highly reliant on groundwater. Given expectations of reduced supply in many regions and growing demand, pressure on groundwater resources is set to escalate. This is a crucial problem and demands urgent action. This report addresses the impacts of climate change on groundwater and adaptation options. The Earth's climate is projected to become warmer and more variable. Increased global temperatures are projected to affect the hydrologic cycle, leading to changes in precipitation patterns and increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme events; reduced snow cover and widespread melting of ice; rising sea levels; and changes in soil moisture, runoff and groundwater recharge. Increased evaporation and the risk of flooding and drought could adversely affect security of water supply, particularly surface water. Due to these pressures, as well as global population growth, demand for groundwater is likely to increase.