ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0322-0271
Current Organisation
North Dakota State University
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2021
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Date: 21-10-2019
Abstract: Water resources in the Middle East region are becoming scarce, while millions of people already do not have access to adequate water for drinking and sanitary purposes. Water resources depletion has become a significant problem in this region that is likely to worsen. Current research by remote sensing analysis indicates a descending trend of water storage in the Middle East region, where agriculture plays a crucial role in socio-economic life. This study introduces an approach quantifying water depletion in the Middle Eastern countries, which are being challenged in the management of their water resources. Furthermore, this paper presents results of a survey assessing the status of water use and supply in Middle Eastern countries and outlines some potential remedies. Specifically, Iran's water use is evaluated and compared with its neighbors'. The water equivalent anomaly (WEA) and total water storage (TWS) depletion are two indexes of water scarcity calculated for Middle Eastern countries surveyed herein. Our analysis reveals that Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran are countries with very negative water scarcity indexes. These estimates prove that international cooperation is needed to manage available regional water resources and reverse depletion of natural water sources. It is demonstrated herein that virtual water trade can help remediate regional water shortage in Middle Eastern countries.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 09-07-2023
DOI: 10.3390/W15142518
Abstract: In semi-distributed hydrologic models, it is difficult to account for the impacts of wetlands on hydrologic processes, as they are based on lumped, subbasin-scale wetland concepts. It is a challenge to incorporate the influences of in idual small wetlands into watershed-scale models by using lumped parameterization. The objective of this study was to improve watershed-scale hydrologic modeling by taking into account real wetland features during the wetland parameterization. To achieve this objective, a joint modeling framework was proposed to couple a surface delineation algorithm with a semi-distributed hydrologic model and then applied to the Upper Turtle River watershed in North Dakota, USA. The delineation algorithm identified the topographic properties of wetlands, which were further utilized for wetland parameterization. A nonlinear area–storage relationship was determined and used in the estimation of the wetland-related parameters. The results demonstrated that the new joint modeling approach effectively avoided misestimating the wetland-related parameters by accounting for real topographic characteristics (e.g., storage, ponding area, and contributing area) of identified wetlands and their influences, and provided improved modeling of the hydrologic processes in such a wetland-dominated watershed.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-04-2022
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-10-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-021-99637-7
Abstract: 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. Ideally, a robust plan can tolerate these projected changes in climatic behavior and their associated impacts on other sectors, while maintaining an acceptable performance concerning environmental, socio-economic, and technical factors. This study, thus, aims to develop a robust multiple-objective decision-support framework to address these concerns. In principle, while this framework is sensitive to the uncertainties associated with the climate change projections, it can account for the intricacies that are commonly associated with the WEF security network. To demonstrate the applicability of this new framework, the Karkheh River basin in Iran was selected as a case study due to its critical role in ensuring water, energy, and food security of the region. In addition to the status quo , a series of climate change projections (i.e., RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5) were integrated into the proposed decision support framework as well. Resultantly, the mega decision matrix for this problem was composed of 56 evaluation criteria and 27 feasible alternatives. A TOPSIS/Entropy method was used to select the most robust renovation plan for a hydropower system in the basin by creating a robust and objective weighting mechanism to quantify the role of each sector in the decision-making process. Accordingly, in this case, the energy, food, and environment sectors are objectively more involved in the decision-making process. The results revealed that the role of the social aspect is practically negligible. The results also unveiled that while increasing the power plant capacity or the plant factor would be, seemingly, in favor of the energy sector, if all relevant factors are to be considered, the overall performance of the system might resultantly become sub-optimal, jeopardizing the security of other aspects of the water–energy–food nexus.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-04-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-04-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-022-09212-X
Abstract: Lake Urmia, the twentieth largest lake in the world, is the most valuable aquatic ecosystem in Iran. The lake water level has decreased in recent years due to human activities and climate change. Several studies have highlighted the significant roles of climatic and anthropogenic factors on the shrinkage of the lake. Management policies for water resources harvesting must be adopted to adapt to climate change and avoid the consequent problems stemming from the drought affecting Lake Urmia, and rationing must be applied to the upstream water demands. This study analyzes strategies and evaluates their effectiveness in overcoming the Urmia Lake crisis. Specifically, system dynamics analysis was performed for simulating the water volume of Lake Urmia, and the Hadley Centre coupled model was applied to project surface temperature and precipitation for two future periods: 2021–2050 and 2051–2080. Six management scenarios were considered for decreasing the allocation of agricultural water demand corresponding to two options: (1) one-reservoir option (Bukan reservoir only), and (2) six-reservoir option. The net inflow of Urmia Lake was simulated for the two future periods with the IHACRES model and with artificial neural network models under the six management scenarios. The annual average volumes of Lake Urmia would be 30 × 10 9 and 12 × 10 9 m 3 over the first and second future periods, respectively, without considering the management scenarios. The lake volumes would rise by about 50% and 75% for the first and second periods, respectively under the management scenarios that involve strict protective measures and elimination of the effect of all dams and their reservoirs. Implementing strict measures would increase the annual average lake volume to 21 × 10 9 m 3 in the second period yet, this volume would be less than the long-term average and strategic volume. The human water use would be completely eliminated under Scenario 6. Nevertheless, Lake Urmia would experience a considerable loss of storage because of drought.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-02-2021
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2023
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 07-2017
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Date: 23-04-2018
DOI: 10.2166/WCC.2018.099
Abstract: The natural vulnerability to the climate change phenomenon due to the unique topographic and climatic conditions in the Middle East adds significance to an already important issue of evaluating the simulations of general circulation models (GCMs) in this region. To this end, this study employed time series analysis to evaluate GCMs' simulations, in terms of the air temperature variable, with regard to the observed climatic behaviors of Karkheh River basin, Iran. Resultantly, each of the GCMs' time series was broken down into three principal components (i.e., periodicity, trend, and stochastic component), and each component was analyzed accordingly. Results demonstrated that the simulations from different models significantly differed. Even though some models like CSIR-MK3.5 and INGV-SXG outperformed others in representing an accurate estimation of the historical climatic behavior of the southern plains of the Karkheh River, the GCMs could not provide a realistic simulation of the historical climatic behavior for the topographically challenging areas, like the northern mountainous parts of the basin. It should be noted that while the results from such analyses would shed light on the variability of the GCMs' simulations in regional-scale studies, the results, under no circumstances, provide evidence indicating that one model is more accurate than another.
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Date: 02-02-2018
DOI: 10.2166/WCC.2018.120
Abstract: This study's objective is to assess the potential impact of climate change on an ex le under-design hydropower system in the Karkheh River basin, Iran. Based on three water resources performance criteria (reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability), a novel framework was proposed to interpret and cope with the uncertainties associated with such assessments. The results demonstrated the acceptable performance of the system in most months, while there were certain signs for rare low-inflows, and consequently low hydropower generated by the system, due to the climate change. It was found that in terms of these three criteria, the best performances in the climate-change condition occurred in May (80% reliability), December (45% resiliency), and April (19% vulnerability). Yet the worst performances occurred in September (2% reliability), July and August (0% resiliency), and in October (39% vulnerability). These results indicated that the reliability and resiliency of the system would be improved under the climate change condition, while due to the increase of low-inflow incidences, the vulnerability of the system would increase. This suggests that, although the system may not face frequent failures, severe blackouts may occur. With timely consideration of future climatic conditions and appropriate adaptive actions, including additional backup systems for reliable and safe electricity generation, future undesired conditions can be avoided in the basin.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2022
No related grants have been discovered for Xuefeng Chu.