This book focuses on sustainable use and protection of transboundary aquifers located along the eastern border of European Union starting from the Baltic Sea and end in the Black Sea. The groundwater resources in this region play a very important role not only as a source of clean and safe drinking water, but also for social, economic and safety reasons. This publication sheds light on a wide range of real problems related to the management of groundwater, problems that are characteristic for most countries situated in the East European region. It also identifies potential threats that may materialise in the absence of cooperation between countries and appropriate measures to jointly manage the shared water resources in the region. Experience from some ongoing projects towards integrated management of transboundary aquifers (research, monitoring and data analysis) is reported. The book is addressed, in particular, to groundwater academics, researchers and experts as well as water management specialists interested in solving environmental issues extended to more than one country territory. On the other hand presented knowledge and experience would be also useful for decision makers especially to support environmental decision processes in border areas and work on preparation of international agreements on groundwater management.

This book focuses on sustainable use and protection of transboundary aquifers located along the eastern border of European Union starting from the Baltic Sea and end in the Black Sea. The groundwater resources in this region play a very important role not only as a source of clean and safe drinking water, but also for social, economic and safety reasons. This publication sheds light on a wide range of real problems related to the management of groundwater, problems that are characteristic for most countries situated in the East European region. It also identifies potential threats that may materialise in the absence of cooperation between countries and appropriate measures to jointly manage the shared water resources in the region. Experience from some ongoing projects towards integrated management of transboundary aquifers (research, monitoring and data analysis) is reported. The book is addressed, in particular, to groundwater academics, researchers and experts as well as water management specialists interested in solving environmental issues extended to more than one country territory. On the other hand presented knowledge and experience would be also useful for decision makers especially to support environmental decision processes in border areas and work on preparation of international agreements on groundwater management.

This volume is the result of work carried out under the NATO SPS Study Pilot Project "Sustainable Use and Protection of Groundwater Resources - Transboundary Water Management." It contains basic information on hydrogeological conditions, groundwater management and monitoring in areas of the Belarus, Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian borders, simultaneously borders of the European Union with its eastern partners. In view of the importance of the rational utilization of groundwater reserves, which is essential for our future existence, the book presents recommendations for a united methodology of an integrated groundwater monitoring system in this transnational area. The contributions also cover environmental and surface water issues that have direct effects on groundwater resources. The financial dimension of resource mobilization for environmental projects in Eastern Europe also features as part of a complex project solution.

This book examines the development of international law applicable to Transboundary Aquifers (TBAs) considering the Human Right to Water and Sanitation (HRWS). The purpose is to determine how International Water Law (IWL) and the HRWS can be harmonized in the context of TBAs. This is important given rules and instruments adopted to address this topic are relatively nascent, and the field itself is still in the process of developing regulatory frameworks. Taking the application of the HRWS to shared aquifers as a case study, the work discusses whether IWL and International Human Rights Law complement each other. The response to this question requires an analysis of the development of International Groundwater Law and its challenges, the evolution of the HRWS, the nature of transboundary groundwaters, and the interplay between these two fields. The author argues that IWL agreements should contain a provision related to the HRWS to ensure the protection of this right with a stipulation included in the nonbinding instrument that tackles shared groundwaters: the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers adopted in 2008 through the United Nations General Assembly Resolution. The book will be of interest to international lawyers, water and human right experts, geologists, and anyone interested in water and human rights issues.

Pollution has been a developing problem for quite some time in the modern world, and it is no secret how these chemicals negatively affect the environment. With these contaminants penetrating the earth’s water supply, affecting weather patterns, and threatening human health, it is critical to study the interaction between commercially produced chemicals and the overall ecosystem. Understanding the nature of these pollutants, the extent in which they are harmful to humans, and quantifying the total risks are a necessity in protecting the future of our world. The Handbook of Research on Emerging Developments and Environmental Impacts of Ecological Chemistry is an essential reference source that discusses the process of chemical contributions and their behavior within the environment. Featuring research on topics such as organic pollution, biochemical technology, and food quality assurance, this book is ideally designed for environmental professionals, researchers, scientists, graduate students, academicians, and policymakers seeking coverage on the main concerns, approaches, and solutions of ecological chemistry in the environment.

This book is related to disaster risk reduction in agriculture particularly under changing climate. Climate change refers to significant, long-term changes in the global climate. There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause. The planets average surface temperature has risen to about 1oC since the late 19th century and most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on the record. Similarly, other evidence of rapid climate change includes warming of oceans, shrinking of ice sheets, retreating glaciers, decreasing snow cover, rising of sea level, declining artic sea ice, increased frequency of extreme events, ocean acidification and loss of biodiversity. Hence, climate change impacts, both extreme weather and slow-onset events, have impacted several sectors of the national economies and activities, in particular agriculture and food production, augmented by other challenges be it geopolitical, cost of finance or supply chain related, and in a time of increased food insecurity. Without CO2 fertilization, effective adaptation, and genetic improvement, each degree-Celsius increase in global mean temperature would, on average, reduce global yields of wheat by 6.0%, rice by 3.2%, maize by 7.4%, and soybean by 3.1%. Hence this book is useful as a study material to teach in the field of agriculture and climate change. The book is useful for instructors and postgraduate as well as undergraduate students involved in the study of climate change. The book also provide guidance to multiple stakeholders to design mitigation and adaptation efforts to climate change and ensure food security in the developing world.

Globally, freshwater ecosystems are considered to be under severe threat from human pressure and climate change (Vörösmarty et al., 2010). Malmqvist and Rundle (2002) suggest that running water is the most impacted upon ecosystem on Earth due to being surrounded by dense human settlements and exploited for domestic and industrial water supply, irrigation, electricity generation and waste disposal. For example, the progressive over-exploitation of surface water resources for irrigation and urban uses in the Colorado River Basin has resulted most years in no runoff reaching the river’s delta (Gleick, 2003). [...] Hereafter, natural and anthropogenic driving forces will be referred to as global and regional driving forces, respectively. The future effects of these forces up to the 2050s will be assessed in quantitative scenarios implemented in a hydrological model. It is believed that using this nomenclature (i.e. global and regional instead of natural and anthropogenic) better reflects considered environmental stressors, since global-scale driving forces will include not only climatic change but also changes in CO2, atmospheric carbon dioxide and plant physiological parameters, whereas regional-scale driving forces will include changes in land use, agriculture development and agricultural water management. Hence, the difference is that the first group of driving forces acts globally and independently on the study area, whereas the second group includes factors that are specific to the study area. Furthermore, in order to expand on the title of this thesis, impacts in the present study will be assessed not only on the flow regime as such, but also on its ecological functions, i.e. on the environmental flow regime. This is motivated mainly by the semi-natural character of the study area, that is unique in Poland and in Europe, but it also underlines the novelty of this thesis, as going beyond the pure impacts on the flow regime in a scenario-modelling framework is rare in hydrological science, if achieved at all.

Groundwater amounts to 97% of available global freshwater resources. Emphasising the crucial importance of this in the context of increasing population, climate change and the overall global water crisis, Francesco Sindico offers a comprehensive study of the emerging body of international law applicable to transboundary aquifers.