This research explores the limitations and opportunities of Water Accounting Plus (WA+) for addressing water management issues in the MENA, focusing on Jordan. A comprehensive literature review and interview-based analysis were conducted to identify prevalent water management issues and evaluate information used in decision-making and strategy appraisals. The findings suggest that WA+ can enhance the spatio-temporal coverage of water resource assessments, refine estimates of irrigation water consumption, and facilitate demand management. Quantifying recharge and surface runoff requires integrating WA+ with hydrological models. Addressing climate change’s impact on future water resources requires integrating climate change projections with WA+.

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Water resources assessments are essential for effective planning in water-scarce regions such as Jordan. Such assessments require sufficient data in space and time. The WaPOR-based Water Accounting Plus (WA +) framework is relevant as it integrates remote sensing data and the Pixel-Based Soil Water Balance model to simulate a basin’s water balance. However, since it relies on remote sensing, this framework only tracks water consumption in irrigated agriculture and does not consider non-irrigation water use and its return flow. This paper modifies the WaPOR-based WA + framework to include non-irrigation manmade consumption and its return flows. The modified framework provides a more comprehensive water budget for the Amman-Zarqa (AZ) basin, presented in a modified WA + resource base sheet for 2018 through 2021. The results show that water availability in the AZ basin is highly responsive to precipitation changes. Average precipitation was approximately 926 Mm³/year between 2018 and 2020, corresponding to an average available water of 485 Mm³/year. However, a reduction in average precipitation by 28% in 2021 corresponded to a reduction in available water to 243 Mm³/year. Nevertheless, substantial groundwater outflows to neighbouring basins may indicate that available water is being overestimated. Manmade consumption increased by 18% from 2018 to 2021, and the total demand exceeded the available supply by 150%. This underscores the pressing need to investigate supply augmentation and conservation methods. Future studies could focus on improving the representation of groundwater dynamics in the modified framework by improving groundwater dynamics in PixSWAB and testing the modified framework with other remote sensing datasets.

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Water resources management (WRM) models have traditionally distributing water based on system capacities, economic efficiency, and demand (Loucks and Van Beek 2017). However, these efficiency-oriented models often fail to address water distribution inequities (Savenije and Van Der Zaag 2002, Hanemann 2005, Garrick et al 2020). As challenges around water scarcity and distribution inequity intensify, the need for models integrating justice principles to ensure fair and equitable resource allocation is evident.

Ideas of morality have long been central to human thought, shaping essential debates about equity and justice in modern political philosophy. Prominent philosophers like John Rawls and Amartya Sen have significantly contributed to these discussions, offering influential frameworks for understanding these concepts (Rawls 1958, Sen 2008). They argue for the inseparability of justice and fairness, that individuals should have not only equal opportunities (justice) but also equal chances to utilize those opportunities (fairness). Equity is thus achieved when justice and fairness are consistently applied to all.

Justice considerations in WRM broadly encompass distributive justice, focusing on fair resource allocation, and procedural justice, emphasizing transparency in decision-making. Water resources equity may concern distribution between upstream and downstream states in a transboundary basin (Zeitoun et al 2014, Yalew et al 2021), rights and access to clean water in communities (Syme et al 1999) or governance issues addressing multi-sectoral water demands, such as irrigation water demands in the agriculture sector (Gross 2014, Neal et al 2014).

Distributive justice addresses the questions of 'what' (what to distribute), 'to whom' (to whom to distribute), and 'how' (how to distribute) of allocation of common pool resources. This aligns with the principle of 'equitable and reasonable use' of water resources outlined in the United Nations Watercourses Convention (United Nations 1997). It is also reflected in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which aims to 'Ensure access to water and sanitation for all' (United Nations 2015). Despite some attempts to incorporate equity aspects in water resources assessments (Dore et al 2012), a significant gap remains in effectively integrating justice principles into WRM models. Addressing these challenges requires the operationalization of specific fairness and justice principles within WRM models. By incorporating insights from socio-economic and philosophical theories, such as welfare economics and Rawlsian justice, into water resource assessments, hydro-economic models could be significantly improved to deliver operational and policy alternatives that balance efficiency and equity.@en

Satellite remote sensing (RS) data are increasingly being used to estimate total evaporation, often referred to as evapotranspiration (ET), over large regions. Since RS-based ET (RS-ET) estimation inherits uncertainties from several sources, many available studies have assessed these uncertainties using different methods. However, the suitability of methods and reference data subsequently affects the validity of these evaluations. This study summarizes the status of the various methods applied for uncertainty assessment of RS-ET estimates, discusses the advances and caveats of these methods, identifies assessment gaps, and provides recommendations for future studies. We systematically reviewed 676 research papers published from 2011 to 2021 that assessed the uncertainty or accuracy of RS-ET estimates. We categorized and classified them based on (i) the methods used to assess uncertainties, (ii) the context where uncertainties were evaluated, and (iii) the metrics used to report uncertainties. Our quantitative synthesis shows that the uncertainty assessments of RS-ET estimates are not consistent and comparable in terms of methodology, reference data, geographical distribution, and uncertainty presentation. Most studies used validation methods using eddy-covariance (EC)-based ET estimates as a reference. However, in many regions such as Africa and the Middle East, other references are often used due to the lack of EC stations. The accuracy and uncertainty of RS-ET estimates are most often described by root-mean-squared errors (RMSEs). When validating against EC-based estimates, the RMSE of daily RS-ET varies greatly among different locations and levels of temporal support, ranging from 0.01 to 6.65 mm d−1, with a mean of 1.18 mm d−1. We conclude that future studies need to report the context of validation, the uncertainty of the reference datasets, the mismatch in the temporal and spatial scales of reference datasets to those of the RS-ET estimates, and multiple performance metrics with their variation in different conditions and their statistical significance to provide a comprehensive interpretation to assist potential users. We provide specific recommendations in this regard. Furthermore, extending the application of RS-ET to regions that lack validation will require obtaining additional ground-based data and combining different methods for uncertainty assessment.@en

The construction of the Akosombo and Kpong dams in the Lower Volta River basin in Ghana changed the downstream riverine ecosystem and affected the lives of downstream communities, particularly those who lost their traditional livelihoods. In contrast to the costs borne by those in the vicinity of the river, Ghana has enjoyed vast economic benefits from the affordable hydropower, irrigation schemes and lake tourism that developed after construction of the dams. Herein lies the challenge; there exists a trade-off between water for river ecosystems and related services on the one hand and anthropogenic water demands such as hydropower or irrigation on the other. In this study, an Evolutionary Multi-Objective Direct Policy Search (EMODPS) is used to explore the multi-sectoral trade-offs that exist in the Lower Volta River basin. Three environmental flows, previously determined for the Lower Volta, are incorporated separately as environmental objectives. The results highlight the dominance of hydropower production in the Lower Volta but show that there is room for providing environmental flows under current climatic and water use conditions if the firm energy requirement from Akosombo Dam reduces by 12% to 38% depending on the environmental flow regime that is implemented. There is uncertainty in climate change effects on runoff in this region; however multiple scenarios are investigated. It is found that climate change leading to increased annual inflows to the Akosombo Dam reduces the trade-off between hydropower and the environment as this scenario makes more water available for users. Furthermore, climate change resulting in decreased annual inflows provides the opportunity to strategically provide dry-season environmental flows, that is, reduce flows sufficiently to meet low flow requirements for key ecosystem services such as the clam fishery. This study not only highlights the challenges in balancing anthropogenic water demands and environmental considerations in managing existing dams but also identifies opportunities for compromise in the Lower Volta River. @en

Remote sensing (RS) data are becoming an increasingly important source of information for water resource management as they provide spatially distributed data on water availability and use. However, in order to guide appropriate use of the data, it is important to understand the impact of the uncertainties of RS data on water resource studies. Previous studies have shown that the degree of closure of the water balance from remote sensing data is highly variable across basins and that different RS products vary in their levels of accuracy depending on climatological and geographical conditions.

In this paper, we analyzed the water-balance-derived runoff from global RS products for 931 catchments across the globe. We compared time series of runoff estimated through a simplified water balance equation using three precipitation (CHIRPS, GPM, and TRMM), five evapotranspiration (MODIS, SSEBop, GLEAM, CMRSET, and SEBS), and three water storage change (GRACE-CSR, GRACE-JPL, and GRACE-GFZ) RS datasets with monthly in situ discharge data for the period 2003–2016. Results were analyzed through the lens of 10 quantifiable catchment characteristics in order to investigate correlations between catchment characteristics and the quality of RS-based water balance estimates of runoff and whether specific products performed better than others under certain conditions.

The median Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) for all gauges and all product combinations was −0.02, and only 44.9 % of the time series reached a positive NSE. A positive NSE could be obtained for 73.7 % of stations with at least one product combination, while the overall best-performing product combination was positive for 58.4 % of stations. This confirms previous findings that the best-performing products cannot be globally established. When investigating the results by catchment characteristic, all combinations tended to show similar correlations between catchment characteristics and the quality of estimated runoff, with the exception of combinations using MODIS evapotranspiration, for which the correlation was frequently reversed. The combinations with the GPM precipitation product generally performed worse than the CHIRPS and TRMM data. However, this can be attributed to the fact that the GPM data are available at higher latitudes compared to the other products, where performance is generally poorer. When removing high-latitude stations, this difference was eliminated, and GPM and TRMM showed similar performance.

The results show the highest positive correlation between highly seasonal rainfall and runoff NSE. On the other hand, increasing snow cover, altitude, and latitude decreased the ability of the RS products to close the water balance. The catchment's dominant climate zone was also found to be correlated with time series performance, with the tropical areas providing the highest (median NSE = 0.11) and arid areas the lowest (median NSE = −0.09) NSE values. No correlation was found between catchment area and runoff NSE. The results highlight the importance of further studies on the uncertainties of the different data products and how these interact when combining them, as well as of new approaches to using the data rather than simple water-balance-type approaches. Efforts to improve specific satellite products can also be better targeted using the results of this study.@en

The provision of flows for the environment, e-flows, is a means to restore the benefits of naturally flowing rivers. Despite the development of numerous methodologies to determine e-flows and optimize dam releases, actual implementation is relatively limited. Examples of successful e-flows implementation through dam reoperation exist in scientific literature; however, there is a missing narrative on cases where dam reoperation has been attempted but not successfully implemented. This study explores this impasse narrative and presents four hypotheses for further research on this subject: (1) Scientists are important stakeholders in the process of dam reoperation, but should play a supportive role rather than drive the process; (2) In undertaking scientific studies for determination of e-flows, a consensus on the priorities, knowledge gap, and solutions must be reached together with local stakeholders; (3) Local-level legislation and policy on e-flows provide the enabling environment for dam reoperation for e-flows; and (4) Genuine, carefully designed consultations of, and negotiations between, stakeholders can overcome hurdles encountered in the process of dam reoperation for e-flows implementation. @en

The growing competition for finite land and water resources and the need to feed an ever-growing population require new techniques to monitor the performance of irrigation schemes and improve land and water productivity. Datasets from FAO's portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open access Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) are increasingly applied as a cost-effective means to support irrigation performance assessment and identify possible pathways for improvement. This study presents a framework that applies WaPOR data to assess irrigation performance indicators, including uniformity, equity, adequacy, and land and water productivity differentiated by irrigation method (furrow, sprinkler, and centre pivot) at the Xinavane sugarcane estate, Mozambique. The WaPOR data on water, land, and climate are in near-real time and spatially distributed, with the finest spatial resolution in the area of 100gm. The WaPOR data were first validated agronomically by examining the biomass response to water, and then the data were used to systematically analyse seasonal indicators for the period 2015 to 2018 on g1/48000gha. The WaPOR-based yield estimates were found to be comparable to the estate-measured yields with ±20g% difference, a root mean square error of 19±2.5gtgha-1 and a mean absolute error of 15±1.6gtgha-1. A climate normalization factor that enables the spatial and temporal comparison of performance indicators are applied. The assessment highlights that in Xinavane no single irrigation method performs the best across all performance indicators. Centre pivot compared to sprinkler and furrow irrigation shows higher adequacy, equity, and land productivity but lower water productivity. The three irrigation methods have excellent uniformity (g1/494g%) in the four seasons and acceptable adequacy for most periods of the season except in 2016, when a drought was observed. While this study is done for sugarcane in one irrigation scheme, the approach can be broadened to compare other crops across fields or irrigation schemes across Africa with diverse management units in the different agroclimatic zones within FAO WaPOR coverage. We conclude that the framework is useful for assessing irrigation performance using the WaPOR dataset.

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Evapotranspiration (ET), a key variable in both water and energy cycles. It is very challenging to measure or estimate in large regions. Among many approaches to estimate ET indirectly (e.g. through hydrological modelling), models that are based on satellite remote sensing data (RS) are increasingly being used. However, the RS-based models inherit uncertainty from many sources, such as the model’s algorithm and parameters, input satellite data, and processing techniques. It is challenging to assess this uncertainty due to limitations of validation data, high volume and high dimensionality of RS data. Many studies have evaluated uncertainty in RS-based estimation of ET using different methods and reference data. The suitability of methods and reference data subsequently affect the validity of these evaluations. Therefore, it is necessary to have an overview of different evaluation methods and their uses. This study aimed to systematically review original research papers that assessed uncertainty or accuracy of RS-ET model or data products. We categorized these papers and quantified based on (i) spatial and temporal scale of ET estimation, (ii) types of uncertainty, and (iii) methods used to assess uncertainty. Studies have been geographically concentrated in North Asia, North America, and Europe. Most studies used the validation method, which quantifies the discrepancy between pixel-based ET estimation with an in-situ estimation. Although a standardized validation approach for satellite-based ET estimates is not yet ready, most validation studies employed Eddy Covariance (EC) flux towers for reference estimation at field-scale. In regions where in-situ measurements are limited, many studies use the residual of the water balance as reference. However, few studies considered uncertainty in the reference estimation and mismatch of spatial and temporal scales. For monitoring agricultural fields, most RS-ET methods have been reported with high accuracy. When applying these methods to larger extent, additional assessments are required to better inform data users of the quality of RS-ET estimation. These include cross-validation, sensitivity, and uncertainty analyses. Overall, this review showed the progress in evapotranspiration estimation using satellite data in terms of uncertainty assessment.

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The Volta clam, Galatea paradoxa, is a freshwater macrobenthic bivalve which is endemic to the Lower Volta River in Ghana. The range of occurrence of the clam has been influenced by the flow regime in the Lower Volta which is in turn controlled by operation of two dams located upstream. Previous research has documented the changes to the Lower Volta due to the dams and attempts have been made to design environmental flows (e-flows), freshwater flows to sustain ecosystems, to inform the re-operation of the dams. The past attempts were based on the pre-dam, natural flow regime of the Lower Volta. In this study, a designer e-flow approach is explored using the Volta clam as an indicator species. Using knowledge garnered from various sources on the lifecycle, habitat and the local conditions corresponding to historical and current states of the Volta clams, the factors influencing its extent are visualized and quantified in a Bayesian belief network (BBN). Based on this BBN, an e-flow recommendation for the Lower Volta is for low flows, between 50 m3/s and 330 m3/s, for four months during the Volta clam veliger larva and recruitment life stages which occur in November to March. In addition, it is recommended that full breaching of the sandbar which regularly builds up at the Volta Estuary is done annually and that sand winning on the river bed is prohibited. These e-flow and management recommendations will have consequences for other water users and these have to be investigated, for instance by flow experiments and trade-off analysis. The results show that a BBN is potentially suitable for modelling the linkages between flows, management practices and the status of ecological indicators for the development of e-flows for highly modified rivers in data scarce regions.@en

Dam construction and operation are known to alter the hydrology of rivers and degrade riverine ecosystems. In recent decades, the call to reverse these negative impacts by re-operating dams has become stronger. Dams can support riverine ecosystems by releasing environmental flows (e-flows). Unfortunately, despite the development of numerous methodologies to determine e-flows and optimise dam releases, actual implementation has not followed suit. Integrating e-flow requirements in the design of new dams is relatively easier than changing operations of existing dams; however, re-operating existing dams is essential to restore ecosystems and ecosystem services that have already been affected by the construction and operation of dams. This study provides insights into how e-flows evolve from recommendation to practice through a systematic literature review on practical experiences to integrate e-flows in dam operations. Sixty-nine cases of successful dam re-operation have been identified, ranging from the well-documented case of the Glen Canyon Dam in the United States to less known cases such as the Katse Dam in Lesotho. We find that the most important factors that facilitate the successful implementation of e-flows are the existence of e-flows legislation or policy, the development of a research base in the form of an environmental impact study, and then flow experimentation. Illustrations of the important role of collaboration between various stakeholders and set timelines for implementation of recommendations are also given. These insights will inform how existing dams can be re-operated and governed more equitably and sustainably for both humans and the environment.

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Scarcity of information on the water productivity of different water, land, and other ecosystems in Africa, hampers the optimal allocation of the limited water resources. This study presents an innovative method to quantify the spatial variability of biomass production, crop yield, and economic water productivity, in a data scarce landscape of the Pangani Basin. For the first time, gross return from carbon credits and other ecosystem services are considered, in the concept of Economic Water Productivity. The analysis relied on the MODIS satellite data of 250 m and eight-day resolutions, and the SEBAL model, utilizing Monteith's framework for ecological production. In agriculture, irrigated sugarcane and rice achieved the highest water productivities in both biophysical and economic values. Rainfed and supplementary irrigated banana and maize productivities were significantly lower than the potential values, reflecting a wide spatial variability. In natural landscapes, forest and wetland showed the highest biomass production. However, the transition to economic productivity was low but showed the potential to increase significantly when non-market goods and services were considered. Spatially explicit information, from both biophysical and economic water productivity, provides a holistic outlook of the socio-environmental and the economic water values of a land-use activity, and can identify areas for improvement, and trade-offs in river basins.

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The concept of integrated water resource management (IWRM) attempts to integrate all elements of water resources. Different tools are developed to assist in developing sound IWRM plans. One such tool is multiobjective analysis using an integrated hydro-economic model (IHEM). However, IHEM mainly deals with the optimization of river flow (blue water) in a river basin. This paper linked a distributed model of green water (landscape water uses) in the upper catchment with mainly blue water uses in the lower catchment of the Pangani Basin. The results show that agricultural water use has the highest water productivity and competes with all other objective functions in the catchment. The generation of firm energy competes with the downstream ecosystem requirements. The integrated study shows that improving rainfed cropping through supplementary irrigation has comparable marginal water values to full-scale irrigation but are much higher compared with hydropower. However, hydropower has more benefits if used in conjunction with the environment. The methodological approach has increased the understanding of trade-offs between green and blue water uses that are highly interdependent in African landscapes.

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To meet growing population demands for food and other agricultural commodities, agricultural land-use intensification and extensification seems to be increasing in the Abbay (Upper Blue Nile) basin in Ethiopia. However, the amount, location and degree of suitability of the basin for agriculture seem not well studied and/or documented. From global data sources, literature review and field investigation, a number of agricultural land suitability evaluation criteria were identified. These criteria were pre-processed as raster layers on a GIS platform and weights of criteria raster layers in determining suitability were computed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A weighted overlay analysis method was used to compute categories of highly suitable, moderately suitable, marginally suitable and unsuitable lands for agriculture in the basin. It was found out that 53.8 % of the basin’s land coverage was highly suitable for agriculture and 23.2 % was moderately suitable. The marginally suitable and the unsuitable lands were at 11 and 12 % respectively. From the analysis, regions of the basin with high suitability as well as those with higher susceptibility for land degradation and soil erosion were identified.

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Land-use and land-cover changes are driving unprecedented changes in ecosystems and environmental processes at different scales. This study was aimed at identifying the potential land-use drivers in the Jedeb catchment of the Abbay basin by combining statistical analysis, field investigation and remote sensing. To do so, a land-use change model was calibrated and evaluated using the SITE (SImulation of Terrestrial Environment) modelling framework. SITE is cellular automata based multi-criteria decision analysis framework for simulating land-use conversion based on socio-economic and environmental factors. Past land-use trajectories (1986–2009) were evaluated using a reference Landsat-derived map (agreement of 84%). Results show that major land-use change drivers in the study area were population, slope, livestock and distances from various infrastructures (roads, markets and water). It was also found that farmers seem to increasingly prefer plantations of trees such as Eucalyptus by replacing croplands perhaps mainly due to declining crop yield, soil fertility and climate variability. Potential future trajectory of land-use change was also predicted under a business-as-usual scenario (2009–2025). Results show that agricultural land will continue to expand from 69.5% in 2009 to 77.5% in 2025 in the catchment albeit at a declining rate when compared with the period from 1986 to 2009. Plantation forest will also increase at a much higher rate, mainly at the expense of natural vegetation, agricultural land and grasslands. This study provides critical information to land-use planners and policy makers for a more effective and proactive management in this highland catchment.@en

The Upper Blue Nile is home to a large human and livestock population that live in diverse biophysical and socio-economic environment. The basin is increasingly experiencing multi-dimensional pressures including population growth, climate change and variability, deforestation, land/soil degradation, as well as increasing upstream-downstream tension on water use rights. Understanding the dynamic interactions of land use and water resources in the basin comes at the forefront of any effort to improving the livelihood and sustainability in the basin. As part of a study to develop a decision support system for an integrated natural resources management for the Upper Blue Nile basin, methods and techniques are developed to identify land use suitably based on various biophysical and socio-economic factors, and water resources availability in the basin. Possible biophysical and socio-economic land use change drivers on a mesoscale catchment, Jedeb, were identified using historical remote sensing data as well as primary data sources such as field observations, questionnaires and interviewing key stakeholder informants. Then, major land use change drivers were ranked using regression analysis (PCA). A hydrological model was setup using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the Jedeb catchment. Based on the identified high impact land use change drivers and additional factors such as agro-ecological zones and water resources availability (output from the hydrological model), a land use suitability analysis for the catchment was developed using the SITE (SImulation of Terrestrial Environments) generic land use change modeling framework. The land use and hydrological models exchange yearly simulation results to determine land use suitability analysis and impacts of land use change on components of the basin's hydrology, and vice-versa. Land use scenario was analyzed by assuming a 20% increase in population in the catchment. Preliminary results indicate a clear shift mainly from grassland land use type to cultivation land use type. It is concluded that the techniques and methodologies used in this study especially for integrating the two models can be used for a more realistic and thorough analysis of land use suitability and water resources dynamics and assessment study. Outputs of this study are used as inputs to develop a spatial decision support system for an integrated assessment and management of land use and water resources in the basin.

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