Implementing ASCE Water-Conservation Policy

A raising awareness of the environmental issues associated with natural resources utilization and degradation has been grown since the past few decades. Depletion of the renewable and non-renewable environmental resources has occurred mainly as a result of unsustainable utilization. This paper presents the idea of water conservation and utilization campaigns based on Islamic principles, since Islamic religion still exerts great influence on societies and because water plays an extremely pivotal role within Islam. Awareness campaigns and water conservation programmes based on religious principles have proved very useful, beneficial and cost effective in different areas of the Muslim world. Teachings regarding practical and correct use of water in the Islamic religion were highlighted, applicable examples from some Muslim countries including the challenges were also highlighted, and it was concluded that public awareness campaigns based on Islamic principles, can be a powerful yet cost effective tool to supplement other water conservation and management policies.

This chapter describes the advanced technologies of energy and water saving on the Uzbekistan largest pumping stations of Karshi Main Canal. The unique Karshi pumping stations stage consumes more than 4% of the total electricity generated in Uzbekistan. Such a significant consumption of electricity by irrigative pumping stations, gives the problem of energy conservation to them a status of special importance and relevance. Advanced technologies of energy saving and non-cavitation work are scientifically substantiated and developed. The results of carried out field tests are described. The scientific results of the research are recommended to allow efficient use of water and energy resources and to ensure reliable operation of the power equipment of pumping stations in the rural branches of economy.

The metering of small irrigation field channels is required for the efficient use and management of irrigation water. The weirs cause high loss of head and affect the sediment flow in the channel. The Pashall flumes of various sizes are not geometrically similar and they require calibration charts for each design. A simple flowmeter with straight boundaries with a contraction and a drop was tested in geometrically similar models of two sizes. It was found that when geometrically similar designs were made, a common design curve could be used to find the discharge under free and submerged conditions using measurements of head upstream and downstream of the meter.

Smart water management systems (SWMS) leverage engineering innovations, such as IoT sensors, machine learning algorithms, and real-time monitoring, to improve water conservation and distribution efficiency. The traditional water systems, characterized by high water wastage (30%) and substantial leakage (15%), are being increasingly replaced by smarter systems that utilize IoT sensors, automated valves, and data analytics to reduce wastage, improve reliability, and increase system efficiency. In a comparison of water usage efficiency, smart systems exhibit a 40% reduction in average daily water usage, from 500,000 liters to 300,000 liters. Water leakage is reduced from 15% to 5%, and water wastage due to improper distribution decreases from 30% to 10%. Consumer satisfaction also improves, with complaints decreasing and system response times dropping from 24 hours to 2 hours. IoT sensors, such as pressure and flow rate sensors, offer high accuracy and low power consumption, ensuring reliable data transmission and energy efficiency, with a mean transmission frequency of 10-15 minutes and power consumption as low as 8 mW. Cost analysis indicates a higher initial setup cost for smart systems (₦150 million) compared to traditional ones (₦100 million), but the reduction in annual maintenance (₦2 million vs. ₦5 million) and operational costs (40% reduction) make smart systems more cost-effective over time. Energy consumption is reduced by 16%, with solar-powered IoT sensors contributing to a decrease in carbon footprint by 60%. Regression and statistical analyses confirm that water pressure uniformity, leak detection time, and daily water demand significantly influence water loss, while machine learning optimization leads to an 18% improvement in water distribution efficiency. A correlation model was developed to assess the relationship between key parameters: the correlation coefficient between leak detection time and water wastage is found to be 0.85, indicating a strong positive correlation. Similarly, the correlation between pressure uniformity and system efficiency shows a value of 0.92, reflecting a strong positive relationship. These innovations collectively represent a transformative shift toward sustainable and efficient water management.

The 2020 4th International Conference on Water Conservancy, Hydropower and Building Engineering (WCHBE 2020) was planned to be held in Lanzhou, China during July 3-5, 2020. WCHBE 2020 was hosted by AEIC Academic Exchange Information Center. Due to the impact of COVID-19, many communities from all over the world were under strict health measures and strict travel restrictions, and participants of 2020 4th International Conference on Water Conservancy, Hydropower and Building Engineering (WCHBE 2020) also meet with the difficulty of travel restrictions. For communities, if our conference was not held in a virtual form, it would add huge work on traffic system, Exit-Entry system, medical system, etc., which is quite a serious issue, to actively respond to the call of the government, to strengthen the protection work, to effectively reduce people gathering and prevent COVID-19, considering the situation that most of the authors would like to publish their articles and make academic communications as scheduled, WCHBE 2020 was held on-line instead of postponing the conference. It was a challenge, not only to the organizers, but also to the participants who were delivering their speeches using videoconference tools, under different time zones.The conference is an international conference for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of water conservancy, hydropower and building engineering. The conference will bring together about 97 leading researchers, engineers and scientists in the domain of interest from China, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand. The conference model was divided into two parts, including keynote presentations and online discussion. In the first part, each keynote speakers were allocated 30 minutes to present their talks via Zoom. After the keynote talks, all participants joined in a WeChat communication group to discuss more about the talks and presentations. We are honored to have invited three distinguished experts as our keynote speakers. Prof. Hengjia Zhang, Gansu Agricultural University, China, was the first one to perform a thought-provoking speech on Optimization of Limited Irrigation Schedules for Spring Maize (Zea mays) in a Desert Oasis Region. He also was the Conference Chair who mainly devoted to the teaching and research work of the efficient use of agricultural water and soil resources. Secondly, Prof. Shaohua Marko Hsu from Feng Chia University held his speech on Using Porous Material for Riverbank and Riverbed Protection. Thirdly, Prof. Ahmad Safuan Bin A. Rashid from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia talked about Application of UAV-TLS Photogrammetry in Determination of Rock Slope Stability. Their insightful speeches had triggered heated discussion in the second session of the conference. The WeChat discussion lasted for about 30 minutes. Every participant praised this conference for disseminating useful and insightful knowledge.We are glad to share with you that we still received lots of submissions from the conference during this special period. Hence, we selected a bunch of high-quality papers and compiled them into the proceedings after rigorously reviewed them. These papers feature following two categories but are not limited to: Civil, Architectural Engineering, Water conservancy and hydropower, and other related fields. All the papers have been through rigorous review and process to meet the requirements of International publication standard.We would like to express our gratitude to everyone involved. Without this dedicated cooperation, it would be impossible to hold the conference at such a high level and prepare the WCHBE 2020 proceedings.Committee of WCHBE 2020The Committee member is available in this pdf.

India has taken up an ambitious goal to double the average income of agricultural households from 2015 to 2022. This mammoth task requiring a sharp accelerated annual growth of over 10% would have to harness all possible sources of growth within as well as outside the agricultural sector and will need strong inclusive measures in the irrigation sector such as water productivity, participatory irrigation management, water conservation, agricultural productivity, etc.Improper water management at the farm level leads to inefficient use of water and inequitable distribution with the tail‐end farmer often not getting water. Though an irrigation potential of 112 Mha (million hectares) has been created against an ultimate potential of 140 Mha, the utilization is only 93 Mha. Moreover, efficiency of water use in irrigation in India is about 30% to 40%. Emphasis now has to shift to resourceful management of water to meet the food grain demand of 450 million tonnes (MT) by 2050 against the present food grain production of 278 MT.This paper highlights the various steps taken by the Government of India, various state governments, non‐governmental organizations, etc. in reforming the irrigation sector of the country.

Despite years of study and substantial investment in remediation and prevention, soil erosion continues to be a major environmental problem with regard to land use in India and elsewhere around the world. Furthermore, changing climate and/or weather patterns are exacerbating the problem. Our objective was to review past and current soil conservation programmes in India to better understand how production-, environmental-, social-, economic- and policy-related issues have affected soil and water conservation and the incentives needed to address the most critical problems. We found that to achieve success in soil and water conservation policies, institutions and operations must be co-ordinated using a holistic approach. Watershed programmes have been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for bringing socio-economic change to different parts of India. Within both dryland and rainfed areas, watershed management has quietly revolutionized agriculture by aligning various sectors through technological soil and water conservation interventions and land-use diversification. Significant results associated with various watershed-scale soil and water conservation programmes and interventions that were effective for reducing land degradation and improving productivity in different parts of the country are discussed.

The extremely arid Tarim Basin in northwestern China is an important cotton and fruit production region. However, extensive agricultural land reclamation combined with unreasonable water use in recent decades resulted in degradation of ecosystems along the Tarim River. With declining water availability, it is becoming increasingly important to utilize this essential resource more efficiently. Water pricing is considered an effective way to advance water allocation and water conservation. To identify whether a strong increase in water price may lead to a wiser agricultural water use along Tarim River, 128 farmers were interviewed with structured questionnaire in different parts of the Basin. Multinomial logistic regression was employed to explain the factors influencing farmers’ reaction towards a strong increase in water price. The results show that under increased water price less than half of the interviewed farmers would opt for decisions that lead to improved water use efficiency. Moreover, the price increase might lead to a further expansion of groundwater exploitation in the region. Fruit farmers, as well as farmers with less land and less cash income are reluctant to adopt advanced irrigation technology or improve their crop production in reaction to increased water price. It was furthermore revealed that the experience of slight water shortage in the past created awareness by farmers to use water more wisely. It is concluded that the sole increase of water price is not a viable option; an integrated approach is necessary, in which creation of awareness and improving agronomic skills of farmers play a key role to overcome the tight water situation and realize a more efficient use of water.

Toward Water Conservation Society: the Connotation and Assessment Indication System

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is planted on more land area than any other crop on the Texas High Plains. Much of this area is considered highly erodible and requires a conservation compliance program to participate in government farm programs. Because this region is semiarid and because irrigation water is increasingly limited, water conservation and efficient use of water are necessary to maximize cotton lint yields. One popular conservation compliance practice used is to plant cotton into a chemically terminated small grain crop, i.e., residue that provides wind protection to the cotton seedlings. Our hypothesis was that in a semiarid region the use of a small grain cover crop under irrigated conditions would use more water than it conserves compared to conventional tilled cotton, thus reducing cotton lint yields. To test the hypothesis separate field studies over two growing seasons and on two soil textures, a loamy fine sand and a clay loam, were conducted. The main treatments were tillage systems (conventional and conservation using terminated wheat residue). The two split plot treatments were water supply based on replacement of calculated grass reference evapotranspiration (ETo). Tillage did not affect the amount of water used by the cotton crop at either location ( 0.05) except for an 80% ETo irrigation treatment at a single location where the bare soil treatment used 10% more water than the residue treatments for both years. The residue treatment decreased (P < 0.05) cotton lint yields at both locations by 12% except for the 50% ETo single irrigation treatment in which the residue treatment yielded 14% more lint than the bare soil treatment. The use of terminated wheat residue had no impact on soil water storage during any part of the year. During a 5-month period associated with wheat growth, the wheat evapotranspiration was 20 to 40 mm more water (P < 0.05) than that lost through soil water evaporation from the conventional treatments. The use of terminated wheat residue did not benefit the water balance of the cotton crop, and was associated with decreased cotton lint yields. The results were consistent with our working hypothesis, and disproved the idea that planting cotton into wheat stubble cover increases water use efficiency.

Effect of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) on the production and quality of pear Triunfo de Viena variety under tropical conditions

Efficient use of water in Mexico is determined by a tariff structure, which is defined according to the type of user and a categorized classification of water availability zones which arises from the scarcity principle, assuming that the water policy for an efficient water use in Mexico follows the economic principle of supply and demand. In this chapter an analysis of changes in water demand for the industrial sector is performed by hydrological regions in relation to variations in tariff structure. Analyzed data take into account a 14-year period where irregular changes can be seen both in tariff and in demand for water in hydrological regions. According to the result of the price elasticity of demand, there is no direct relationship between an increase in tariff and water demand. This implies that, if there is an efficient water use policy, at least with analyzed data, both the pricing by availability zones and the tariff structure by type of user do not behave as an adequate economic instrument, given that there is a significant variation between applying an increase to the water tariff and the expected response of its demand.

Various programs on sustainable forest-soil-water management have been developed and occasionally conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Public Works under various programs. Unfortunately, the achievement of such programs were not satisfactorily. Currently, there exist 2 inter-sectoral initiatives called the National Movement for Water Conservation Partnership (NMWCP) that focused on water conservation and Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) that focused on emission reduction of greenhouse gasses through reducing deforestation and forest and land degradation. Both programs could be closely linked to carbon trade mechanism as a potential of gaining international financial supports. In principal and function-wise, the 2 programs were not distinct, particularly with regard to managing deforestation, forest degradation, forest-land-water conservation, and community empowerment/stakeholders. In principle, water conservation is inherent with forest function. In the other side, Papua is a vast region dominated by mountainous area comprises of many watersheds. In this regards, the need of having an Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) is inevitable. Therefore, collaboration between the 2 inter-sectoral programs could be the best solution for Papua. Through collaboration scheme, it would be possible to involve wider stakeholders and have more potential of generating international financial supports to carry out a more effective and efficient management of forest, land, and water. Keywords: NMWCP, REDD+, watershed management, sustainable forest management

Water education and conservation programs have grown exponentially in Australian primary and secondary schools and, although early childhood services have been slower to respond to the challenges of sustainability, they are catching up fast. One early program targeted at preschools was the Water Aware Centre Program in northern New South Wales developed by the local water supply authority. This paper reports on a qualitative study of children's and teachers' experiences of the program in three preschools. The study's aim was to identify program attributes and pedagogies that supported learning and action taking for water conservation, and to investigate if and how the program influenced children's and teachers' practices. Data were collected through an interview with the program designer, conversations with child participants of the program, and a qualitative survey with early childhood staff. A three-step thematic analysis was conducted on the children's and teachers' data. Findings revealed that the program expanded children and teachers' ideas about water conservation and increased their water conservation practices. The children were found to influence the water conservation practices of the adults around them, thus changing practices at school and at home.

Paradoxes of Decentralization: Water Reform and Social Implications in Mexico