Water
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Featured Projects:
Improving Rural Water and Livelihood Outcomes in India, China, Africa and Brazil
Sustainable Development of Water Resources in Northern Ethiopia
Conflict and Cooperation in Transboundary River Basins in the Western United States
Climate-Informed Adaptive Management and Planning in the Delaware River Basin
Climate Variability, Water Flow and Ecological Restoration in the Everglades
Water is precious. Its value is communicated by the stray street dog seen lapping up the last few drops of visibly contaminated water; by parched fields where the wind plucks and spreads the feathers of a bird whose quest for water led to a dusty end; and by the caucus of women, young and old, who gather around a well with their canteens at the end of a many-mile daily trek for water.
Today, regions in every continent experience periodic water stress in one form or another. In places such as China, India, the Sahel, the Middle East, Southern Europe, Northern Africa and the American Southwest, water constraints and their impacts may soon be chronic, posing a significant challenge to the lives of billions of humans. The associated ecological impacts may be devastating.
Sustainable water resource development, planning and management have emerged as a global challenge in the 21st century. A changing climate and increasing water use by rapidly growing populations is constraining fresh water availability in many regions. The problems of water pollution and the lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation are emphasized as scarcity increases. Principles of water allocation and governance need to be revised to promote efficient water use as part of a sustainable development strategy, and to recognize that water supply and consumption are changing in significant ways.
The Columbia Water Center, in collaboration with other Earth Institute units and external partners, is leading intellectual inquiry into the assessment, understanding and resolution of the potentially global crisis of freshwater scarcity. Our goals are to:
- Develop a multi-scale predictive capability for water resource assessment at the local, regional and global levels that recognizes changing climate, demographics and water needs.
- Develop a capacity for the analysis of public and private investment in water resource development.
- Develop appropriate technologies for the storage, treatment and conveyance of water to improve reliable, cost-efficient access and policy instruments that facilitate the implementation of incentives for efficient and equitable water use, and test them in real world settings to demonstrate their applicability.
- Develop and disseminate the results of our research to support global water resource development and decision-making and develop the Global Roundtable on Water (GROW) as a forum to facilitate the development of international policies and activities to improve our collective water future.
The Columbia Water Center is a new initiative of the Earth Institute and faculty involved with the center are working on a range of projects that address sustainable water resource development and management. The Water Center will provide a focal point for new and ongoing water related projects, some of which are described below.
Improving Rural Water and Livelihood Outcomes in India, China, Africa and Brazil
The new Columbia Water Center is undertaking a landmark $6 million project, sponsored by the PepsiCo Foundation, which seeks to effect change in water use and supply in some of the most challenging settings in the world. The projects range from efforts to design irrigation and cropping systems that can be operated and maintained under local technological and economic systems in villages in the West African nation of Mali, to sophisticated climate-based forecasting systems used for water allocation decisions across diverse use sectors in Brazil. Local partners in each country will help facilitate project formulation and implementation and the projects will emphasize the role of market forces and public-private partnerships.
Water Security in Asia
Water security is a dominant concern in Asia, especially in countries with high population density, high climate variability, and aridity. Continuing population growth and the prospects of an uncertain future climate exacerbate the problem. An underlying thesis of the collaborative research project is that problems such as water pollution and groundwater depletion can be addressed through strategic investments in climate risk management and adaptation initiatives. The initial phase of the research is developing a critical assessment of the leading causal factors of water stress and identifying how specific mechanisms can be devised and implemented to improve risk management and adaptation through appropriate investments.
Sustainable Development of Water Resources in Northern Ethiopia
Water is a key limiting factor for sustainable development in the arid region of Northern Ethiopia. Drinking water is limited due to poor water quality and limited access and agricultural productivity is low due to degraded lands and the pronounced seasonality and high inter-annual variability of rainfall. Research by the Earth Institute will address the water needs of villages within Koraro, site of an ongoing Millennium Village project, and adjacent areas within the larger scale context of the Hawzien Valley, located in the eastern zone of the Tigray region.
Conflict and Cooperation in Transboundary River Basins in the Western United States
The western United States is currently facing a seventh consecutive year of severe drought, yet populations in the West continue to grow, leaving watersheds in this region under increasing strain. This study examines the governance and management of 14 interstate river basins in the western United States.
The goal of the project is to understand the policy dilemmas and conflicts that arise in these interstate basins. Researchers are assessing both the nature of the conflicts that arise and how these dilemmas are resolved by different institutional settings (e.g. interstate commissions, legislatures, state and federal agencies, courts and mediation). As part of the project, researchers are also collecting and analyzing longitudinal data on water laws and administrative rules governing water use in these basins, the demographic and economic characteristics of these basins, as well as changes in water supply conditions over time.
Climate-Informed Adaptive Management and Planning in the Delaware River Basin
The goal of this project is to incorporate climate and weather information into water resources management for the Delaware River Basin (DRB) in the context of the existing problems identified by stakeholders in the region. One problem is the lack of flexible operating rules that equitably meet the competing demands on the basin such as federally mandated upstream diversions and instream flow rates for the New York City water supply. The other is the exclusion of climate variability and change considerations in the existing operating rules, which can have a substantial impact on the basin (e.g., recent floods and droughts).
Seasonal prediction and long-term simulation of inflows into the Delaware River reservoirs are being used to formulate and test new proposals for climate sensitive operating rules and drought management, while considering the stated needs and constraints of the key stakeholders in the process. The DRB stakeholders will be able to use the tools and scenarios developed as part of a participatory process for improved system operation.
Climate Variability, Water Flow and Ecological Restoration in the Everglades
The federal Everglade project is the most ambitious ecosystem restoration project in the history of the United States. It is working to reverse the significant habitat degradation and species loss caused by reduced flows to the Everglades National Park that resulted from the construction of extensive water drainage and control systems in southern Florida, while continuing to offer drought and flood protection, as well as a reliable water supply for existing human use.
Research at the Earth Institute has developed scenarios to describe long-term climate (rainfall) variations in the Everglades region, assessed the rainfall statistics of future climates according to different anthropogenic scenarios, and applied these scenarios to the prediction of water levels in the Everglades. In collaboration with researchers from the National Park Service, we have also assessed the outcomes from different operating policies on potential populations of two bird species over the climate variations recorded in the last century.
Results of this research will help formulate and test strategies to manage water flow systems to both improve the health of specific ecological targets and provide a sustainable water supply to the areas served by the South Florida Water Management District. It will also address changing climate and water use patterns.