United Nations University: Water Management and Climate Change Review

This literature review examines the multifaceted impacts of climate change on water management. It highlights the crucial link between climate change and the water cycle, detailing how factors like droughts, rising sea levels, and altered rainfall patterns affect water security and availability. The review addresses the challenges posed by a rapidly increasing population, which exacerbates water scarcity and strains resources. It also explores the concept of social resilience in response to environmental and political changes, emphasizing the importance of adaptive strategies and political interventions to mitigate adverse effects. The review covers strategies for improving water management, emphasizing the need for proactive measures to conserve water, reduce risks, and ensure sustainable practices. The document also addresses the impact of industries on water resources and the shift towards old water management systems. It emphasizes the need for understanding the impact of climate change to create water management strategies.

INVESTIGATION OF THE IMPACT
OF CLIMATIC CHANGE IN
WATER MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
Overview......................................................................................................................................1
Effects of climate changes on water management.......................................................................1
Rapidly increasing population and climatic change and the threats they impose on to water
supply...........................................................................................................................................3
Insights into the social resilience due to political and environmental change.............................4
Challenges limiting of Water Management due to climate changes...........................................5
Strategies on improving Water Management..............................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
Water is one of the most important resource which is used by individuals. People are
completely dependent upon water for various things such as drinking, agriculture etc. So, it is
important to save and protect water and water bodies that are mostly used in daily lives of people
especially freshwater resources. But it has been observed that today due to adverse and
unpredictable change in climate, change in water cycle and reduction of fresh water resources
have been observed. Most of the people today are facing issues such as scarcity of water. Climate
change has adversely affected water management and has increased threat to water resources and
supply is increasing other than this further reduction of availability of water resources has also
been observed. Other than climate change rapidly increasing population is also becoming a major
threat for water supply and management (Stefanov, Sarac and Kukuseva, 2015). So, it is
important to focus on strategies that can be used for improving water management and can
improve Social resilience so that people can cope up with any kind of changes. This helps in
reducing adverse effect of climate change on water management such that usage of water and
protection of water resources can be improved.
Effects of climate changes on water management
As per the view of Sidiropoulos, Mylopoulos and Loukas, (2016) First and the foremost
effect of climatic change is seen on water Cycle as there is a strong connection between climatic
change and water cycle. As the climate changes in water bodies and management is also seen
such as droughts, increase in sea level etc. When there are changes in earth’s climate that results
in changes in earth’s atmosphere is called climate change. It is important to understand impact
and effect of changes in climate as it directly affect’s water management such as impact on
drinking water, sanitation etc. In today’s world water security, water management and water
conflict are directly affected by climate change. Climatic changes have a potential of affecting
overall water security. Not only this other factor that are affected by climatic change also
indirectly affects management, security and all the other resources of water. For example,
because of climate change global warming is increasing sea level because of glacier melting and
many more reasons. Sidiropoulos, Mylopoulos and Loukas, (2016) further explains that, climate
change is a topic of concern as it is distorting pattern of rainfall, availability of water within
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water resources. Not only this, it is also affecting ground water level on which most of the people
are dependent.
According to Wani and Garg, (2015) climate change is affecting water management and
water security. Majorly all the fresh water bodies or resources are continuously becoming
vulnerable which is indirectly not only affecting the society but is also affecting ecosystem as
well. If is slowly becoming quite difficult to conserve clean drinking water for drinking,
agriculture, manufacturing etc. As a result, water management tactics and ways are also
changing. It has also been seen that many people today are again shifting to old methods of water
management. In order to reduce this risk of water various local, national and international water
corporation departments and organizations have been build whose major focus is to reduce water
scarcity risk and improve water management ways for water conservation. Wani and Garg,
(2015) further explains that, Impact of water change can majorly be felt by observing changes in
water availability patterns, reducing or shrinking glaciers, increasing likelihood of flood and
droughts. Due to these factors water management is getting disturbed which is further affecting
availability of resources. Further it can also be said that advancement in business industries is
also affecting climatic change as the harmful gases that are been released results in climatic
change. Not only this many times because of these industries ground water resources also gets
contaminated.
According to the view of Bhattacharjee and Hasan, (2016) it is important to focus on
climatic changes as it impacts water sector the most which further affects development of a
country in many ways. This will also help in reducing shifts in precipitation. Seasonal variation
in rivers, water bodies drying, reduction of availability of fresh water and many more are getting
affected because of this change and shift in climatic change. Bhattacharjee and Hasan, (2016)
explains that this change also affects rainfall intensity and frequency. Every year there is a need
to develop a water management strategy based on climate change impact and availably of water
in water bodies and rainfall. Other than this all the risk associated with the change in climate are
also important to be considered for proper and effective water management such as risk of
drought, risk of flood, reduction in fresh water bodies and ground level etc. On the basis of these
factors changes in water management strategies are made such that these risks can be reduced
and availability of water can be increased. As scarcity of water is increasing people are again
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shifting towards old or ancient-time water management system such as rain water harvesting
system.
Rapidly increasing population and climatic change and the threats they impose on to water
supply
As per the view of Banuelos, (2018) one of the main and the biggest threat to the plant in
future decades will be disruption in global climate which will be mainly due to rapidly increasing
population. Because of tis increasing population greenhouse gases present are increasing which
are further resulting in increasing climate change. No doubt that today people around the world
are focusing on addressing this problem and focusing on reducing this climatic change but
drastically increasing human population in adverting this effect due to which threat to water
bodies is increasing. Many countries are focusing on decreasing their carbon foot print in order
to decrease climate change but on the other side their population is increasing rapidly. In addition
to this Banuelos, (2018) further explains that, population growth and climate change are directly
related which is a threat for water supplies or water resources. This is mainly because as the
population increases, consumption of energy or resources also increases which further affects or
force changes within the climate. As a result threat to ware resources and supply increases.
Banuelos, (2018) says that, there are many places in the world where demand of water is
increasing drastically but water resources are decreasing. This shift in balance of consumption
and availability is affecting water resources and is forcing water managers to simultaneously
focus on growing population needs and requirements, ecosystem sensitivity, manufacturing and
production of energy and many more things so that the balance between water availability and
water consumption can be maintained.
As further explained by Yu, Yu and Wang, (2015) Due to this rapidly increasing
population and climatic change there is another side of this climatic change rather than shortage.
As there are many other places in the world where shortage of water will be less of a problem but
as a result of climatic change rise in sea level, floods, runoff increase will be one of the major
problem as it will drastically degrade the overall quality of water and can also damage
infrastructure which is mainly used for water supply, delivery or storage. Because of this many
fresh water resources or water bodies can also get damaged. Yu, Yu and Wang, (2015) says that,
there is another factor because of which rapidly increasing population is affecting water bodies
as because of increasing population consumption of each and every resource is increasing. As a
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result, demand of industrial manufacturing and plant setup for manufacturing is also increasing.
Most of the times waste products of these industries is directly released or dumped into nearby
water bodies which are dangerously getting contaminated or are becoming harmful for drinking
or for further use. So, it can be said that this rapidly increasing population is no only affecting
water supply or water bodies directly but is also becoming a reason for drastic change or shift in
climate due to which threat of change in water resources or water management is getting
affected.
According to the view of Oyoh, (2017) demand of fresh water is increasing continuously
more than its availability because of factors such as population growth, excessive use of land,
climate change etc. Due to this threat on water bodies and water supply is increasing. There are
many places in the world where there used to be various water resources but with time
availability of water resource within those areas have reduced due to excess consumption. Many
water bodies have disappeared and there is no proof of existence of those water bodies. Initially
it was a risk but now this increasing population and change in climate is becoming a threat for
present fresh water bodies, water supplies, availability of water resources and most important it
is becoming a challenge for water manager for water management. Due to this uncertain climate
change current population is not only facing challenges related to water but there are multiple
other challenges that are being faced by today’s current generation and is also increasing
uncertainty for future generation.
Insights into the social resilience due to political and environmental change
As per the view of Siroosi, Heshmati and Naseri, (2018) Ability of human community to
cope up with changes such as political, economic, environmental changes is known as Social
resilience. Humans have the ability to understand type of changes, understand vulnerability of
change and focus on efforts to reduce effect of those changes. Major effect of climate change can
be seen on poor or lower middle-class people. Poor people’s contribution to climatic change is
extremely less but they are the one who suffer the most because of this. Climate change topic is
global concern but its effect is lower level concern. It has been observed that most of the people
are resilient to two major types of changes first is political change and second is environment
changes. Social resilience of people helps in increasing the sustainable growth of economies of
all developed and developing counties. As changes in climate or politics majorly affect people of
those nations and their resilience ability helps the country to cope up with those changes. Social
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resilience due to environmental changes can be understood by understanding consequences of
such changes, level of adoptability among people, level of its effect on people. This will help
people or government to understand the ways or strategies through which effect of climatic
change can be addressed.
Takada and et.al., (2015) Further explains that, it is important to balance this resilience and
change as both of them are directly related to each other. If social resilience within people is
lower then impact of climatic or environmental changes on people will be drastic and if social
resilience is high then automatically impact of environmental changes decreases. If impact of any
kind of environmental change is quite adverse on countries then they need to focus on bringing
some changes politically as well. Political changes also play a vital role in increasing or
decreasing social resilience of people in order to cope up with environmental changes. It is
important for countries to focus mainly on poor or middle-class people in terms of political
changes so that they can easily adopt adverse effects of environmental changes. As risk of social
inclusion or exclusion is majorly seen on poor por lower middle-class people. Political changes
focus on factors that would help in increasing social resilience so that adverse effect of
environmental changes can be reduced.
According to the view of Jeranyama, (2017) social resilience can be strengthened by
decreasing social vulnerability so that people can cope up with the changes in a positive manner.
this will help people to decrease their sensitivity to the environmental changes which completely
depends upon climatic change. Because adverse climatic change disturbs and bring changes
within the environment as well and in order to reduce their effect on society nation focuses on
bringing changes politically. Jeranyama, (2017) further says that, it is important for the
organizations to understand exposure to changes that people can cope up with and changes that
they would be facing such as economic changes, environmental changes, political changes,
social changes and many more.
Challenges limiting of Water Management due to climate changes
According to the view of Bhattacharjee and Hasan, (2016) Water security and management
is one of the major challenges which is faced by organizations because climate change. There are
various challenges that are faced by people for limiting water management due to climatic
changes. One of the major challenges of limiting water management due to climatic change is
fulfilment of basic needs of people. Due to continuously rising global temperature fresh water
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resources are getting reduced, glaciers are meting and merging into sea water etc. According to a
survey it was observed that more than 75 percent of glaciers are majorly on retreat and will
disappear completely by 2035 (Oyoh, 2017), Due to these effects challenges for water
management are increasing as due to decreasing fresh water resources availability of water
resources in decreasing. All the glaciers are made up of fresh water and as most of the glaciers
are melting not only sea level is rising but fresh water is getting merged into sea water which
cannot be used for any further activity. As a result of this climate change and its adverse effect
on environment, challenges for water managers in terms of water management is increasing.
As cited by Wani and Garg, (2015) Water management is itself a challenge and climatic
change is making it even worse. Due to climatic change many places that are at high risk of
getting flooded. It is another one of the challenges for water management as overall quality of
water gets degraded because of flood and all the other water management equipment, places, or
strategies also get damaged because of these flood situations which only occur because of
climate change. Another challenge for water management is draught situation. Due to climate
change many places are under situation of draught which is one of the major challenges for water
management as water managers need to deal with scarcity of water challenge that can last for
moths to years. Even in case of flood water management challenge is not much bigger but
draught situation is much bigger challenge as water managers need to deal with scarcity of water,
water resources and many times ground level water is also at much lower level. Wani and Garg,
(2015) further explains that, climate change is also affecting precipitation and intensity of
rainfall. One of the main sources that water managers focus on for water management is density
of rainfall that occur within that particular region. And if level of rainfall occurred within that
particular region is excessively high and causes flood then it creates a challenge but if amount of
rainfall occur within a particular region is lower than also it creates a challenge for water
managers for water management.
As per the view of Yang and et.al., (2018) All the challenges for water management are
mainly due to uncertainty and lack of details of future climatic changes. These uncertainties and
lack of details creates issues in understanding water regional situation that would affect water
management. Due to these uncertainties, challenges in terms of water management planning,
water supply etc. increases. Many times, due to these uncertain climatic change adverse
environmental situations can be created which further helps in increasing challenges related to
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water management. Yang and et.al., (2018) further elaborates that, every time because of new
climatic changes creates new obstacles in terms of water management planning, development.
Not only this nowadays climatic change is so much adverse that it has become almost difficult to
predict a reliable water availability detailed information. As a result, challenges for management
are increasing which is further limiting water management policy development, development of
water resource planning, difficulties for water related policy negotiation.
Strategies on improving Water Management
As per the view of Wang, Liang, and Wang, (2015) there are various techniques through
which water management can be improved with the help of various kinds of water saving
techniques or strategies. One of the most common strategy through which water management can
be improved is by combining two main strategies that are: groundwater management and
conjunctive use. Combination of both the strategies can help in improving ground water level
through which further water supply reliability can be increased. These techniques together will
also help in conserving water that can be used for various other purposes such as drinking,
irrigation, agriculture and many more. Wang, Liang, and Wang, (2015) further elaborates that,
Authorities who manage and maintain growing water level and supply can further focus on
developing a plan through which overall quality of ground water can be improved. For this they
need to monitor change in ground water level after rainfall or because of climate change or effect
of climate change like flood change in ground water level will help the authorities to build a
groundwater management strategy that can further be used for fulfilling increasing number of
water demand and supply. This will help them in provision of sustainability and stability which
further help them in fulfilment of all kinds of water needs.
In addition to this, Abhisheka and Kumar, (2018) further explains that, conjunctive water
monitoring and management can also be used as another strategy that can be used for bringing
improvement in water management. This strategy can help water managers in improving water
supply reliability. Using this strategy water managers can manage all of their water resources and
if this technique is used with ground water management then it can help water managers to
understand all kinds of ground water resources present in the region and usage of such resources
these resources are used economically and by maintaining environment sustainability. As
explained by Wang, Liang, and Wang, (2015) by bringing improvement in ground water
monitoring and management groundwater can be conserved in a proper and efficient manner.
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Improvement in this strategy can help in protection of ground water and can also help in
protecting it in an appropriate manner and monitoring will help in checking whether there is
requirement of building wells or extraction of ground water then it can be done. As proper
extraction technique helps in managing ground water level such that it can be used for longer
time period.
According to the view of Jianhua, (2015) another strategy that can be used for water
management is ground water recharge. These strategies focus on protecting and recharging
groundwater levels and if any construction is required in recharging or using groundwater
facilities that it can be done using this technique. These techniques can be used for conserving or
developing of land water resources as well. Stefanov, Sarac and Kukuseva, (2015) further
elaborates that, there are other techniques as well that can be used for bringing improvement in
water management is by focusing on regional coordination. Using this strategy local
governments of nearby regions can coordinate among themselves and distribute fresh water
bodies, ground water lands etc. this can be done by identifying all kinds of water resources, and
lack of information gaps present with respect to present water bodies. Focusing on all kinds of
factual information and identifying all kinds of future opportunities that can be focused on. Then
on the basis of this information building policies for distribution of water resources and if any
kind of improvement is required to be done then it can be done.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abhisheka, V.R. & Kumar, R.B., (2018). Groundwater Quality Assessment for Domestic and
Irrigational Suitability in Kallada River Basin, South Kerala, India. Nature Environment
and Pollution Technology. 17(1). pp.153-159.
Banuelos, L., (2018). Overcoming Barriers to Institutionalize Climate Change Resiliency
Practices: MassDOT (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
Bhattacharjee, R. & Hasan, M.A., (2016). The activities of Bangladesh water development board
on the social environment of Bhadrabila union, Narail sadar upazila, Bangladesh. Asian
Journal of Medical and Biological Research. 2(2). pp.297-303.
Bhattacharjee, R. & Hasan, M.A., (2016). The activities of Bangladesh water development board
on the social environment of Bhadrabila union, Narail sadar upazila, Bangladesh. Asian
Journal of Medical and Biological Research. 2(2). pp.297-303.
Jeranyama, P., (2017). Chart Book: Irrigation Water Managenent.
Jianhua, L., 2015. Study on Pavement Performance of Steel Slag Asphalt Concrete. Urban Roads
Bridges & Flood Control. (5). p.72.
Oyoh, T.D., (2017). Desalination In Water Treatment And Sustainability.
Oyoh, T.D., (2017). Desalination In Water Treatment And Sustainability.
Sidiropoulos, P., Mylopoulos, N. & Loukas, A., (2016). Reservoir-aquifer combined
optimization for groundwater restoration: the case of Lake Karla watershed, Greece.
Water Util. J. 12. pp.17-26.
Siroosi, H., Heshmati, G.A. & Naseri, H.R., (2018). Threshold of potential concern: an early way
to identify the ecosystem structural thresholds in a grazing gradient. Environmental
Resources Research. 6(1). pp.1-14.
Stefanov, G., Sarac, V. & Kukuseva, M., (2015). Analysis of parallel resonat converters with
computer simulations.
Takada, M., & et.al., (2015). Spatial variation in soil respiration in relation to a logging road in
an upper tropical hill forest in Peninsular Malaysia. Tropics. 24(1). pp.1-9.
Wang, Q., Liang, D. & Wang, J., (2015), March. Electric vehicle self-adaptive energy-saving
cooling system design based on fuzzy control methods of fan and pump electromotors. In
2015 Tenth International Conference on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies
(EVER) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Wani, S.P. & Garg, K.K., (2015). Restoring lands and livelihoods in rain fed areas through
community watershed management. Living Land. pp.97-100.
Wani, S.P. & Garg, K.K., (2015). Restoring lands and livelihoods in rain fed areas through
community watershed management. Living Land. pp.97-100.
Yang, Y., & et.al., (2018). An Efficient Simulation–Optimization Approach for Controlling
Seawater Intrusion. Journal of Coastal Research. 84(sp1). pp.10-18.
YU, C., YU, Y. & WANG, W., (2015). Minimum Temperature Difference under the Different
Types of Weather Conditions at the Meteorological Stations in Yueyang. Desert and
Oasis Meteorology. (2). p.9.
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