Author Archive for Sami Oueida

Texas Agency Likely to Cut Water to Rice Farms

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.claimsjournal.com

“Thousands of farmers in Texas’ rice-producing region are likely to be affected by action taken in response to one of the most severe droughts in state history. With water management agencies implementing emergency plans never used before, the Lower Colorado River Authority is widely expected to announce March 1 that it will not release water to rice farmers in three counties.

“Texas usually produces about 5 percent of the nation’s rice. Production also is dropping this year in the other five major rice-growing states, including No. 1 Arkansas, as farmers are pressed by rising production costs and dropping prices.

“Many farmers in the region alternate between growing rice and ranching, but those with cattle sold off much of their livestock last year as the drought parched rangeland and pushed up hay prices. That leaves them with few alternatives now.

“To turn the tide in Texas, Mother Nature needs to dump 5 to 8 inches of rain in the Hill Country to produce about 32.6 billion gallons of runoff into the region’s lakes, LCRA meteorologist Bob Rose said. It’s possible, but Rose “wasn’t very optimistic” about it happening soon.”

Read more: Claims Journal

Sami Oueida

Study: No Evidence Hydraulic Fracturing Pollutes Water

Published on 02/22/2012 in contaminated water, fracking, groundwater, hydrology, natural gas drilling and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Citizens march against fracking at the "Shale Gas Outrage Rally" in Philadelphia.

Photo retrieved from: www.voanews.com

“A new study finds no evidence that the controversial practice to extract natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing is contaminating ground water.
The report, “Separating Fact from Fiction in Shale Gas Development,” published by the University of Texas Energy Institute, attempts to allay fears that fracking poses a threat to public health and the environment.

According to Charles Groat, associate director of the institute, fracking, which injects water and chemicals into a well at high pressure to shatter the gas-bearing rock deep underground, is not to blame for polluted wells.

“University of Texas environmental engineer Danny Reible believes natural sources of gas leaks must also be considered.

“There are certainly examples of natural gas wells that have casing leaks and have led to natural gas moving into drinking water wells,” Reible says. “There are certainly examples of natural sources of gas both in the deep or subsurface as well as in the near subsurface that have also contaminated water supplies.”

Read more: Voice of America

Sami Oueida

Farmers warn food prices could go up because of drought

Published on 02/22/2012 in agriculture, drought, hydrology, management, peak water, policy, water shortage, water technology and world water supply. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

A combine harvester making it's way along a field of wheat in East Norton in Leicestershire. Farm, agriculture, farming, drought, British farming

Photo retrieved from: The Telegraph

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union, said ongoing drought in the South East and Anglia, the “bread basket of Britain”, will cut yields and force up prices.

“As sure as night follows day if it doesn’t rain, food prices will go up. I can guarantee you that,” he said. “If there is less water across bigger areas of northern Europe food will cost more money.”

Drought-afflicted areas need 120 per cent of normal rainfall between now and March to avoid drought but the Met Office is forecasting a dry period.

“Mr Kendall said in the past, when the UK relied on imported food, farmers were ignored during a drought. For example golf courses would continue to be watered – but farmers banned from irrigating crops.”

Read more: The Telegraph

Sami Oueida

Giving an invasive water pest the bullet

Published on 02/03/2012 in invasive species, policy, water filtering and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

David Aldridge and a handful of zebra mussels

Photo retrieved from: BBC News

“An invasive species, the zebra mussel clogs up water works and systems across the UK, costing millions of pounds each year to remove.

“With each female zebra mussel able to produce up to a million eggs per year, serious infestations can quickly form.

“Thankfully a Cambridge-based company called Biobullets has come up with a much easier – and cheaper – means of removing them. A method that owes much to the ancient Greeks and their Trojan horse.

“The toxin in question, potassium chloride, is safe to use in the water supply system as anything that is not eaten by the zebra mussels degrades in less than three hours.”

Read more: BBC News

Sami Oueida

Super models – using maths to mitigate natural disasters

Published on 02/03/2012 in climate change, dams, floods, management and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

3t429ysb-1327966354

Photo retrieved from: theConversation.edu.au

“Last year will go on record as one of significant natural disasters both in Australia and overseas. Indeed, the flooding of the Brisbane River in January is still making news as the Queensland floods inquiry investigates whether water released from Wivenhoe Dam was responsible. Water modelling is being used to answer the question: could modelling have avoided the problem in the first place?

This natural disaster – as well as the Japanese tsunami in Marchand the flooding in Bangkok in October – involved the movement of fluids: water, mud or both. And all had a human cost – displaced persons, the spread of disease, disrupted transport, disrupted businesses, broken infrastructure and damaged or destroyed homes. With the planet now housing 7 billion people, the potential for adverse humanitarian effects from natural disasters is greater than ever.

Here in CSIRO’s division of Mathematical and Information Sciences, we’ve been working with various government agencies (in Australia and China) to model the flow of flood waters and the debris they carry. Governments are starting to realise just how powerful computational modelling is for understanding and analysing natural disasters and how to plan for them.

“So how does it work?

Well, fluids such as sea water can be represented as billions of particles moving around, filling spaces, flowing downwards, interacting with objects and in turn being interacted upon. Or they can be visualised as a mesh of the fluids’ shape.”

Read more: The Conversation

Sami Oueida

Google Brings Water Data to Life

Published on 01/30/2012 in contaminated water, drought, peak water, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Photo retrieved from: circleofblue.org

“Fusion Tables, which was developed by Google engineers using sample research data about the global fresh water crisis provided by the Pacific Institute and Circle of Blue, is specifically designed to unlock a treasure trove of facts, trends, and scientific findings that until now have been sequestered in databases and spreadsheets not easily shared.

“Users can also display their data through a variety of visualizations: as a timeline, a graph or a map. The “fusion” of the data sets can link dissimilar information from the far corners of the Web to reveal patterns and trends that might be impossible to spot otherwise. This makes Fusion Tables a central hub for data collaboration, as anyone can publish and access files, which were formerly locked away in Excel spreadsheets, PDF reports, and hard-cover textbooks.

“There is an enormous amount of water data out there, but data by itself doesn’t tell the story; data are only numbers,” said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. “If we can find innovative ways to convert data into action, then data is important.”

“Fusion Tables created a scatter plot that revealed a noticeable and predictable correlation of death by water-related illness, wealth and safe drinking water availability. As the gross domestic product per capita increased, the percentage of a country’s population connected to tap water increased, and child deaths related to diarrhea decreased.

“As Circle of Blue does with front-line reporting of water issues, we hope to provide new ways of looking at problems, collecting vast amounts of information and making it widely relevant, visual and accessible,” Halevy said.”

Read more: circle of blue

Sami Oueida

Flooding and water scarcity ranked as top threat for UK

Published on 01/27/2012 in climate change, drought, floods and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: edieWater

“Water scarcity and flooding is likely to become the main problem for the UK in the future, which will need to adapt to increase its reliance, was the stark warning from the first comprehensive climate change risk study.

“As part of the assessment, 700 potential climate change impacts were investigated, with flooding ranked as the worst risk for the UK, closely followed by water shortages, soil erosion and prolonged heatwaves.

Flood risk is projected to increase significantly across the UK, with analysis for England and Wales showing unless plans to adapt to changing risks are implemented, that by the 2080s climate change and population growth could see damages to buildings and property reach between £2.1bn – £12bn, compared to current costs of £1.2bn.

Water quality is also predicted to be affected, as it depends on water volume and river flows to dilute pollutants. This, states the report is likely to increase water treatment costs and damage the local ecosystem.

“The CCRA also predicts increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources and warns that without action to improve water resources there could be major supply shortages by the 2050s in parts of the north, south and east of England, with the Thames River basin predicted to take the brunt of the drought.”

Read more: edieWater

Sami Oueida

Regional tensions limit Bhutan climate summit aims

Published on 11/18/2011 in displacement of people, floods, peak water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: Iceagenow

“Four Himalayan nations, faced with erratic weather and the threat of melting glaciers and catastrophic floods, are hashing out a plan for preserving the vast mountain range and helping millions living in the foothills cope with climate change.

“But as India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan set to work on a new 10-year management policy, three other major Himalayan nations will be conspicuously absent.

“Organizers have downplayed the fact that Pakistan, China and Afghanistan are not attending the Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas, saying the talks Saturday in Bhutan’s capital of Thimphu are focused on securing ecosystems, endangered species, forests and food and water sources for only the eastern part of the range.

“The summit, to some extent, is the Himalayan answer to an urgent need for action amid the international community’s inability to agree on limiting greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming. Expectations are again low for a breakthrough at the next U.N. climate talks, beginning Nov. 28 in Durban, South Africa.

“Regional tensions have long prevented Himalayan cooperation, including basic research in the world’s largest block of glaciers outside the polar regions, and accounting for 40 percent of the world’s fresh water.”

Read more: APress

Sami Oueida