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Global freshwater resources have faced critical water security challenges during the 21st century in the world's river basins. Shortages of water have impaired economic development by disrupting regimes of river flows, ecosystem functioning and food security. Excessive surface and groundwater withdrawals have almost reached the threshold. The current withdrawals of total water (4700 km3·y−1) suggest the imbalance of water use and renewal rates in the world's river basins. The water security issues are further intensified by phosphate and nitrate pollution from land use and climate change. Today, about 400 million people worldwide experience extreme shortages of water for daily use. Limited availability of water which needs to meet the basic needs of hygiene and sanitation for consumption and other uses has increased competition among users. While the society demands more water-intensive goods and services, the ecosystems are however left behind, consequently leading to increased conflicts and insecurity. Equitable water allocation for people and nature is becoming increasingly urgent. However, understanding the complex interactions between the society and nature in the world's river basins is limited. This paper aims to unravel some key strategies that enhance future water security through the advancement of science, knowledge and technologies in the world's river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resources are an integral part of the socio-economic-environmental system. Water resources have dynamic interactions with related social, economic and environmental elements, as well as regulatory factors that are characterized by non-linear and multi-loop feedbacks. In this paper, a complex System Dynamic (SD) model is used to study the relationship among population growth, economic development, climate change, management strategies and water resources, and identify the best management strategy to adapt with the changing environment in the Tuwei river basin of Northwest China. Three management alternatives viz. business as usual, water supply management and water demand management are studied under different climate change scenarios. Results indicate that water shortage rate in Tuwei river basin may increase up to 80 % by the year 2030 if current management practices are continued or the supply based management strategy is adopted. On the other hand, water demand management can keep the water shortage rate within a tolerable limit and therefore can be considered as the sustainable strategy for water resources management to maintain the economic growth and ecological status of the Tuwei river basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water stress is increasingly intense all over the world owing to rapid economic development and global climate change. Floodwater utilization can mitigate water shortages and provide multiple water use benefits. The priority of evaluating the utilization status and potential of floodwater should be taken into account at a basin scale. However, few studies have focused on the assessment approach. This paper argues that the amount of available floodwater is a function of the ability to regulate and utilize floodwater, and that floodwater can be classified into two parts: unavailable floodwater and available floodwater. Based on this definition, the logical relationships among current floodwater utilization potential, theoretical floodwater utilization potential, and the current and theoretical amounts of available floodwater in a basin were derived using limit analysis theory. The concepts and evaluation methods of basin floodwater utilization were unified in this paper. Finally, the status and potential of floodwater utilization of the Nansi Lake Basin were evaluated. The results showed that the current and theoretical amounts of available floodwater were 1629-1808 million m3 and 2050-2155 million m3, respectively, and the current and theoretical amounts of floodwater utilization potential were 266-386 million m3 and 678-733 million m3, respectively. The application in the Nansi Lake Basin offers some practical information for assessing floodwater utilization scientifically and provides some significant guidelines for other basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pearl River Basin (PRB) is a significant area for economic development (ED) and ecological protection in China. Studying the relationship between carbon emission (CE) and ED is crucial for China and the world to cope with climate change and achieve CO2 reduction. For 48 cities in the PRB, we used the coupling coordination model and geographically weighted regression model to analyze the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between CE and ED and investigate the main influencing factors. The results suggested that (1) the CCD presents spatial heterogeneity, with the Pearl River Delta having the highest value and the middle reaches having the lowest value; (2) the coupling coordination type between CE and ED changes from incoordination to coordination in general; and (3) the resident income and population size have a positive influence on the CCD of the cities in the lower reaches, while the secondary industry scale has a beneficial impact on the upstream. Finally, we put forward corresponding policy suggestions to achieve sustainable development in terms of reducing economic inequities, enhancing public expenditure and innovation capability, and streamlining the industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ecologically fragile areas with arid climate, such as the Heihe River Basin in northwestern China, sustainable social and economic development depends largely on the availability and sustainable uses of water resource. However, there is more and more serious water resource shortage and decrease of water productivity in Heihe River Basin under the influence of climate change and human activities. This paper attempts to identify the severe water scarcity under climate change and presents possible solutions for sustainable development in Heihe River Basin. Three problems that intervened land use changes, water resource, the relevant policies and institutions in Heihe River basin were identified, including (1) water scarcity along with serious contradiction between water supply and demand, (2) irrational water consumption structure along with low efficiency, and (3) deficient systems and institutions of water resource management along with unreasonable water allocation scheme. In this sense, we focused on reviewing the state of knowledge, institutions, and successful practices to cope with water scarcity at a regional extent. Possible solutions for dealing with water scarcity are explored and presented from three perspectives: (1) scientific researches needed by scientists, (2) management and institution formulation needed by governments, and (3) water resource optimal allocation by the manager at all administrative levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on topics related to history and planning including attitudes towards menstruation in Elizabethan England, sexual fantasy in modern America, and feminism.

The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra (IGB) river basins provide about 900 million people with water resources used for agricultural, domestic, and industrial purposes. These river basins are marked as "climate change hotspots", where climate change is expected to affect monsoon dynamics and the amount of meltwater from snow and ice, and thus the amount of water available. Simultaneously, rapid and continuous population growth as well as strong economic development will likely result in a rapid increase in water demand. Since quantification of these future trends is missing, it is rather uncertain how the future South Asian water gap will develop. To this end, we assess the combined impacts of climate change and socio-economic development on the future "blue" water gap in the IGB until the end of the 21st century. We apply a coupled modelling approach consisting of the distributed cryospheric–hydrological model SPHY, which simulates current and future upstream water supply, and the hydrology and crop production model LPJmL, which simulates current and future downstream water supply and demand. We force the coupled models with an ensemble of eight representative downscaled general circulation models (GCMs) that are selected from the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, and a set of land use and socio-economic scenarios that are consistent with the shared socio-economic pathway (SSP) marker scenarios 1 and 3. The simulation outputs are used to analyse changes in the water availability, supply, demand, and gap. The outcomes show an increase in surface water availability towards the end of the 21st century, which can mainly be attributed to increases in monsoon precipitation. However, despite the increase in surface water availability, the strong socio-economic development and associated increase in water demand will likely lead to an increase in the water gap during the 21st century. This indicates that socio-economic development is the key driver in the evolution of the future South Asian water gap. The transgression of future environmental flows will likely be limited, with sustained environmental flow requirements during the monsoon season and unmet environmental flow requirements during the low-flow season in the Indus and Ganges river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scenario forecasting technique for assessing changes of water balance components of the northern river basins due to possible climate change was developed. Three IPCC global emission scenarios corresponding to different possible scenarios for economic, technological, political and demographic development of the human civilization in the 21st century were chosen for generating climate change projections by an ensemble of 16 General Circulation Models with a high spatial resolution. The projections representing increments of monthly values of meteorological characteristics were used for creating 3-hour meteorological time series up to 2063 for the Northern Dvina River basin, which belongs to the pan-Arctic basin and locates at the north of the European part of Russia. The obtained time series were applied as forcing data to drive the land surface model SWAP to simulate possible changes in the water balance components due to different scenarios of climate change for the Northern Dvina River basin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the main driving forces that affect both the temporal and spatial variability of water availability. Besides climatic change, current demographic trends, economic development and related land use changes have direct impact on increasing demand for freshwater resources. Taken together, the net effect of these supply and demand changes has led to a growing water scarcity in major international river basins. The Brahmaputra River Basin is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world, as it is subject to combined effect of climate change and development pressures. A robust assessment of water scarcity considering both climatic and socio-economic changes is therefore vital for policy makers of the basin. In this study, we analyze future water scarcity of the Brahmaputra Basin in a geographically and temporally detailed manner, incorporating several novel approaches: (i) the application of consistent set of scenarios to estimate future water scarcity; (ii) estimation of water demand in terms of both water withdrawals and consumptive water use; (iii) comparison of water demand and availability on different temporal scales i.e., yearly, seasonal and monthly rather than only annual basis. (iv) assessment of groundwater recharge affected by climate change together with future demands for groundwater abstraction. Although the Brahmaputra Basin is one of the water abundant regions of the world, our analysis illustrates that during dry season water scarcity for the Basin will become more severe in the coming decades, which requires special attention to the decision makers of the authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstract on planning including a micro-level analysis of the Black voting during the civil rights movement, the influence of land-use planners on flood hazard mitigation and the use on public transport timetable data into health care accessibility modelling.

The article presents abstracts on city planning-related topics, including visions of waterfront development in postindustrial Philadelphia, the construction of a town planning perception of Colombo, and city planning and the U.S. census.

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."

Presents abstracts of environmental planning research. They include "Integrating a performance-based approach into practice: A case study," "Local commitment to state-mandated planning in coastal North Carolina" and "Fiscal consequences of concentrated poverty in a metropolitan region."