Optimizing the effect of hydrochar on anaerobic digestion of organic fraction municipal solid waste for biogas and methane production.

Background: Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the biological waste treatment method for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). AD is notable for its ability to reduce volume and produce biogas from waste. However, the conventional AD of OFMSW has a low degradation rate.

Integrated strategic planning and multi-criteria decision-making framework with its application to agricultural water management.

Sustainable water resources management involves social, economic, environmental, water use, and resources factors. This study proposes a new framework of strategic planning with multi-criteria decision-making to develop sustainable water management alternatives for large scale water resources systems. A fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model is developed to rank regional management alternatives for agricultural water management considering water-resources sustainability criteria.

The effect of reducing per capita water and energy uses on renewable water resources in the water, food and energy nexus.

This study assesses the feedbacks between water, food, and energy nexus at the national level with a dynamic-system model, taking into account the qualitative and quantitative environmental water needs. Surface and groundwater resources are considered jointly in the water resources subsystem of this dynamic system. The developed model considers the effects of reducing the per capita use water and energy on its system's components.

Evaluation of cooperative and non-cooperative game theoretic approaches for water allocation of transboundary rivers.

Efficient water allocation in a transboundary river basin is a complex issue in water resources management. This work develops a framework for the allocation of transboundary river water between the countries located in the river basin to evaluate the characteristics of allocation approaches. The allocation of river water is obtained based on initial-water conditions, cooperative, and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches.

Sensitivity of non-conditional climatic variables to climate-change deep uncertainty using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation.

There is substantial evidence suggesting climate change is having an adverse impact on the world's water resources. One must remember, however, that climate change is beset by uncertainty. It is therefore meaningful for climate change impact assessments to be conducted with stochastic-based frameworks.

Machine-learning algorithms for forecast-informed reservoir operation (FIRO) to reduce flood damages.

Water is stored in reservoirs for various purposes, including regular distribution, flood control, hydropower generation, and meeting the environmental demands of downstream habitats and ecosystems. However, these objectives are often in conflict with each other and make the operation of reservoirs a complex task, particularly during flood periods. An accurate forecast of reservoir inflows is required to evaluate water releases from a reservoir seeking to provide safe space for capturing high flows without having to resort to hazardous and damaging releases.

Developing water, energy, and food sustainability performance indicators for agricultural systems.

Water use by the agricultural sector along with inefficient irrigation methods and climate change has led to the depletion and insecurity of water resources and consequent instability of the agricultural system. Defining benchmarks and comparing them is essential for sustainable system management performance. The sustainability performance of an agricultural system depends on various factors related to water, energy, and food.

Optimal virtual water flows for improved food security in water-scarce countries.

The worsening water scarcity has imposed a significant stress on food production in many parts of the world. This stress becomes more critical when countries seek self-sufficiency. A literature review shows that food self-sufficiency has not been assessed as the main factor in determining the optimal cultivation patterns.

A robust multiple-objective decision-making paradigm based on the water-energy-food security nexus under changing climate uncertainties.

From the perspective of the water-energy-food (WEF) security nexus, sustainable water-related infrastructure may hinge on multi-dimensional decision-making, which is subject to some level of uncertainties imposed by internal or external sources such as climate change. It is important to note that the impact of this phenomenon is not solely limited to the changing behavior patterns of hydro-climatic variables since it can also affect the other pillars of the WEF nexus both directly and indirectly. Failing to address these issues can be costly, especially for those projects with long-lasting economic lifetimes such as hydropower systems.

Analysis of long-term strategies of riparian countries in transboundary river basins.

Transboundary river basins give rise to complex water-sharing decision making that can be analyzed as a game in the sense of dynamic game theory, as done in this work. The sharing of transboundary water resources depends on the long-term shifting interactions between upstream and downstream countries, which has received limited research attention in the past. The water-sharing strategy of a riparian country depends on the strategies of other countries over time.

Uncertainty analysis of model inputs in riverine water temperature simulations.

Simulation models are often affected by uncertainties that impress the modeling results. One of the important types of uncertainties is associated with the model input data. The main objective of this study is to investigate the uncertainties of inputs of the Heat-Flux (HFLUX) model.

Reallocation of water resources according to social, economic, and environmental parameters.

Population growth, urbanization, and industrial development have significantly increased water demands in many countries, raising the concerns about water resources sustainability to meet the needs of humans and the environment. Furthermore, the economy-oriented allocation of water resources has caused many socio-environmental problems. The main goal of this study is to develop a system dynamics modeling framework that integrates economic, social, and environmental dimensions for the decision of water resources allocation.

Assessment of global hydro-social indicators in water resources management.

Water is a vital element that plays a central role in human life. This study assesses the status of indicators based on water resources availability relying on hydro-social analysis. The assessment involves countries exhibiting decreasing trends in per capita renewable water during 2005-2017.

Developing a novel parameter-free optimization framework for flood routing.

The Muskingum model is a popular hydrologic flood routing technique; however, the accurate estimation of model parameters challenges the effective, precise, and rapid-response operation of flood routing. Evolutionary and metaheuristic optimization algorithms (EMOAs) are well suited for parameter estimation task associated with a wide range of complex models including the nonlinear Muskingum model. However, more proficient frameworks requiring less computational effort are substantially advantageous.

Integrated virtual water trade management considering self-sufficient production of strategic agricultural and industrial products.

The uneven distribution of water on earth causes its scarcity in many countries, hindering economic and human development. Virtual water trading takes place by the export and import of agricultural and industrial products whose production involves water and, so, is one of the methods to cope with water scarcity. This work investigates the integrated management of the virtual water trade of strategic agricultural and industrial products with the goals of maximizing economic revenue and minimizing the consumption of virtual water.

Reservoir water quality simulation with data mining models.

Water pollution is a concern in the management of water resources. This paper presents a statistical approach for data mining of patterns of water pollution in reservoirs. Genetic programming (GP), artificial neural network (ANN), and support vector machine (SVM) are applied to reservoir quality modeling.

Inter-basin hydropolitics for optimal water resources allocation.

Efficient, just, and sustainable water resources' allocation is difficult to achieve in multi-stakeholder basins. This study presents a multi-objective optimization model for water resources allocation and reports its application to the Sefidrud basin in Iran. Available water resources are predicted until 2041with the artificial neural network algorithm (ANN).

Groundwater safe yield powered by clean wind energy.

Wind energy has been used by humans for thousands of years. Yet, the relatively low economic cost and availability of fossil fuels upstaged the use of wind power. Fossil fuel resources are not renewable and will decline until exhaustion in the future.

Application of particle swarm optimization to water management: an introduction and overview.

Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a stochastic population-based optimization algorithm inspired by the interactions of individuals in a social world. This algorithm is widely applied in different fields of water resources problems. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the basic PSO algorithm search strategy and PSO's applications and performance analysis in water resources engineering optimization problems.

Analysis of the effect of inputs uncertainty on riverine water temperature predictions with a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm.

Water temperature is a key characteristic defining chemical, physical, and biologic conditions in riverine systems. Models of riverine water quality require many inputs, which are commonly beset by uncertainty. This study presents an uncertainty analysis of inputs to the stream-temperature simulation model HFLUX.

State-of-art of genetic programming applications in water-resources systems analysis.

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have become competitive solvers of a wide variety of water-resources optimization problems. Genetic programming (GP) has become a leading EA since its inception in 1985. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of GP and its applications in water-resources systems analysis.

Climate-environment-water: integrated and non-integrated approaches to reservoir operation.

Integrated water planning and management face multiple challenges, among which are the competing interests of several water-using sectors and changing climatic trends. This paper presents integrated and non-integrated climate-environment-water approaches for reservoir operation, illustrated with Karkhe reservoir, Iran. Reservoir operation objectives are meeting municipal, environmental, and agricultural water demands.

Assessment of potential of intraregional conflicts by developing a transferability index for inter-basin water transfers, and their impacts on the water resources.

Rapid population growth, rising water demands, inefficient management, and various distributions of water are the major causes of increased pressure on water resources and the consequent increased water-based conflicts especially in arid and semi-arid regions in Iran being a case in point. Iran is the second largest country in the Middle East. The country-wide average annual precipitation is about 250 mm, which is about one third of the world's average.

Logical genetic programming (LGP) application to water resources management.

Genetic programming (GP) is a variant of evolutionary algorithms (EA). EAs are general-purpose search algorithms. Yet, GP does not solve multi-conditional problems satisfactorily.