River System Analysis and Management

TLDR: Sharma et al. as discussed by the authors have shown that changes in hydrological cycle will certainly alter the precipitation and evapo-transpiration patterns, resulting in significant changes in the discharge regime of rivers.

Abstract: Water is required to ensure food security, feed livestock, and industrial production and to conserve the environment. Human population has always been dependent on the rivers for survival. Management of rivers has been attempted by humans since the ancient times as the civilizations developed in the vicinity of the rivers. As the world’s population grows, the demand for water mounts and pressure on finite water resources intensifies. But the importance of population is major factor to consider. However, the brutal challenge of climate change resulting in changes in rainfall regimes, threatening surface as well as groundwater, contributes to making water resource scarcity a reality. Changes in hydrological cycle will certainly alter the precipitation and evapo-transpiration patterns, resulting in significant changes in the discharge regime of rivers. Moreover, it may lead to greater unreliability of dry season flows that possess potentially serious risks to water and energy supplies in the lean season. Therefore, before planning and management of any long-term water resources, the assessment of climate change impacts on the hydrological resources is of prime importance. The two main policy responses to climate change are mitigation and adaptation which is necessary to deal with the impacts of climate change. Adaptation measures may be planned in advance or put in place spontaneously in response to a local pressure. Incidences of waterrelated disasters are showing an upward trend due to climate change impacts thereby increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather. These issues intensify the phenomenon of erosion, land– water degradation, and pollution which demand for river restoration and training, as rivers are the essential element for sediment transport from N. Sharma (*) • S.P. Rai • D. Kumar • H. Tiwari Department of Water Resources Development and Management, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India e-mail: nayanfwt@gmail.com # Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 N. Sharma (ed.), River System Analysis and Management, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1472-7_1 1 surface land to oceans. The complexity of implementing the Integrated Land and Water Resources Management (ILWRM) increases manifold when the river crosses political border, thus making it a transboundary in nature which are not regulated by ratified international laws. Hence the need for transboundary international water law is overwhelming, constant, and immediate. 1.1 Rising Demand on Freshwater Glaciers and ice caps (constitute 70 % of the world’s freshwater resources) cover about 10 % of the world’s landmass mostly concentrated in Greenland and Antarctica. Unfortunately, these resources are not readily accessible for human use as they are majorly located at places far from human habitation. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) “96 % of the world’s frozen freshwater is at the South and North Poles, with the remaining 4 % spread over 550,000 km of glaciers and mountainous icecaps measuring about 180,000 km” (UNEP 1992; Untersteiner 1975). Apart from the poles, the Himalayas is a source of huge freshwater reserves. Numerous glaciers are found in the Himalayas making it apt to be called the third pole of the Earth. Figure 1.1 shows the volume of glaciers and permanent ice caps continent wise. Management of rivers has been attempted by humans since the ancient times as the civilizations developed in the vicinity of the rivers. Flow control structures (dams) and bank protection works (dyke) were found in the Fig. 1.1 Glaciers and permanent ice caps (km) 2 N. Sharma et al.