Room:
Meeting room 19 (M 19)
Topic:
The role of the subsurface in climate change adaptation
Form of presentation:
Free Session Proposal
Duration:
90 Minutes
The availability of fresh water is under pressure in coastal and (semi-)arid regions due to climate change leading to extended drought periods, sea level rise, and due to increased water demands by industry, agriculture and domestic sectors. This session will debate new regional solutions for securing water availability and the need of cross sectorial cooperation between government, industry, agriculture, and scientists.
Program:
• The global and local perspective and the role of green infrastructure and subsurface in fresh water supply in water scarce regions
Huub Rijnaarts (Wageningen University, NL)
• Global change and the role of government: how to obtain more involvement of industry and research in solving local water availability and the sustainable use subsurface Ruud Cino (Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, NL)
• Cooperation in water management between urban, rural and industrial stakeholders: from regional water management perspective to local implementation Representative of the Barcelona region, Spain
• The ambition of industry in sustainable use of resources including water and subsurface; tailoring industrial operations and regional settings towards self-sufficient water management
Niels Groot / Heenk Pool (Dow Chemical/Dow Benelux, NL)
• Considering the influence of climatic uncertainty in designing measures to protect and restore critical water resources
Scott Warner (ENVIRON International Corporation, US), Devon Rowe (ENVIRON, US); Gretchen Greene (ENVIRON International Corporation, US)
04:00 pm
Securing water availability in fresh water scarce regions: changing stakeholder roles and subsurface and green infrastructure based technologies in climate adaptive water management.
Hans van Duijne | Deltares/WU | Netherlands
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Author:
Hans van Duijne | Deltares/WU | Netherlands
Main idea of the session for the programme: (explain per activity the content, such as topics, and
The availability of fresh water is under pressure in coastal and (semi-)arid regions due to climate change leading to extended drought periods, sea level rise, and due to increased water demands by industry, agriculture and domestic sectors. This session will debate new regional solutions for securing water availability and the need of cross sectorial cooperation between government, industry, agriculture, and scientists. The session will be built with four introductions:
i) Setting the global-local perspective: The global perspective and three case studies will explain different water scarcity situations in the in the world, exemplified by the South West Delta, The Netherlands, Ebro Delta in North East of Spain, and Southern Alberta, Canada.
ii) Explaining the governmental perspective. Governments control international and national water supply (river basin based) but can facilitate local/regional arrangements to arrange self-sufficiency for water supply, i.e. by allowing water storage and treatment in subsurface and green infrastructure.
iii) Explaining the industrial perspective. Many large (multi-national) industries are developing new strategies for sustainable supply of resources, including water, for their productions facilities world-wide. Many companies also produce (waste) water, which can be upgraded to support agriculture, green infrastructure, and ecosystems. However, these industries need local partners and governments to arrange such robust water supply systems.
iv) Trans-disciplinary Science and Technology. To contribute to solutions scientist need to develop a systems approach interactive with all stakeholders involved. New concepts for climate adaptive water management at regional and local scale, and new water technologies enabling re use and recycling of water and use of saline impacted waters need to be tailored to local situations and demands. Storage and treatment of water in subsurface and green infrastructure is a corner stone in many situations.
The form – e.g. presentation, discussion by panel/audience etc.),
Three presentations will be given on items i), ii), iii), i.e. Introduction and explaining the case studies (10 minutes), perspective of government (10 min), and the perspective of industry (2 presentations of 10 min). This will be followed by an audience interactive trans-disciplinary design studio session (iv; 45 minutes), creating “BluePrints” envisioning subsurface and green infrastructure based solutions for the three case studies.
Names of presenters and titles of presentations,
Huub Rijnaarts (10 min): The global and local perspective and the role of green infrastructure and subsurface in fresh water supply in water scarce regions.
Ruud Cino NL Ministry of Infra and Environment (10 min): Global change and the role of government: how to obtain more involvement of industry and research in solving local water availability and the sustainable use subsurface.
Representative of Barcelona region Spain (10 min): cooperation in water management between urban, rural and industrial stakeholders: from regional water management perspective to local implementation
Niels Groot / Heenk Pool - Dow Chemical/Dow Benelux: The ambition of industry in sustainable use of resources including water and subsurface; tailoring industrial operations and regional settings towards self-sufficient water management.
Moderator of the session (session convenor).
Jan Vreeburg, together with PhD’s, for instance: Ilse Voskamp, Elvira Bozileva, and Water Nexus PhD’s
05:12 pm
Considering the Influence of Climatic Uncertainty in Designing Measures to Protect and Restore Critical Water Resources
Devon Rowe | ENVIRON | United States
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Authors:
Scott Warner | ENVIRON International Corporation | United States
Devon Rowe | ENVIRON | United States
Gretchen Greene | ENVIRON International Corporation | United States
The manifestation of climatic conditions, both short term and long term, are observed to have an influence on the design of reliable and protective groundwater and surface water contamination mitigation measures. Predictions from leading national science affiliations, such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) are for a continuing trend of big heat events and big rain events as well as less total rainfall, more rain than snow, and longer dry periods in currently arid to semi-arid areas such as California and much of Australia. For northern latitudes including along the North Sea organizations such as the European Environment Agency (EEA) are studying observed and potential impacts from climatic change and note that along with increases in temperature and changes in precipitation patterns, increased vulnerability to dramatic hydrologic events (coastal and inland) should be anticipated. The conditions associated with these predictions will severely test our ability to develop effective and robust contaminant clean up and water resource protection measures. Challenges may be focused on (1) developing passive measures that can withstand moderate to high swings in the direction and rate of groundwater flow, as well as groundwater level; and, (2) developing measures that can tolerate gradual changes in geochemical conditions (e.g., salinity, dissolved solids, nitrate, dissolved oxygen, and, temperature conditions, etc.) that may accompany the hydraulic changes. Above ground and active treatment also may be stressed as hydraulic pumping regimes have to be robust enough to accompany higher or lower rates and volumes of groundwater flow within short operational time frames. For low lying coastal areas that have historically been used for industrial and agricultural sites, the challenges on how to assure contaminant clean up and environmental protection coincident with rising sea levels and increased storm surge activity will require innovative design and flexible but robust engineering to assure long-term protection from contaminant impact to sensitive resources. The use of economic models that are parameterized by climate change scenarios will become more commonplace with respect to drive decision making on appropriate clean up measures. This presentation will work to align the dire predictions concerning the influence of changes in the total climatic sphere (i.e., both above and below ground) on our current state of environmental and water resource conditions with the reality and challenge of how we are changing our approach to protecting sensitive water resources in agricultural and urban landscapes by using science and principles of adaptive environmental engineering. Examples and discussions will utilize case studies and information from both implemented and developing concepts.