Hydroinformatics and Water Scarcity

The growing population in many developing countries and their race towards industrialisation is placing enormous strains on water resources, especially potable water. Such strains are being exacerbated by the changing climate that seems to be becoming more extreme. Whereas there is a growing frequency of flooding in some areas there appears to be an increasing trend towards serious drought conditions in others. Evidently the population is increasing faster than appears to be sustainable. This places an urgent need on water resources authorities to conserve existing resources through water reuse and other means and to provide more resources if possible.
Hydroinformatics is concerned with information flows associated with modelling water-based systems and facilitating these flows by appropriate use of information and communication technology. The flows of information provide effective support for decision making associated with integrated water management. In particular hydroinformatics can help with the integrated modelling of scarce surface and ground water, modelling rainfall runoff in ephemeral streams, optimising the location of wells, assessing better use of water for irrigation, and tracking the movement of pollution in the environment.
Hydroinformatics includes a wealth of experience in using decision support tools for advising stakeholders at all levels. These include GIS, databases and information systems. What is more, there is a range of other knowledge management facilities also available, ranging from document and content management through to knowledge sharing and collaborative working in communities of practice. Of great importance is enhancing the knowledge base of how to deal with water scarcity through sharing knowledge hard won in different areas of the world that can be of assistance elsewhere. Hydroinformatics is concerned with the dissemination and proper use of such a knowledge and facility base.

A number of MScs are being carried out at IHE in the present academic year to do with the forecasting and evaluation of water scarcity in a large Chinese catchment

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