Designing Eco-Friendly Water Intake Portfolios in a Tropical Andean Stream Network

Autor: Thomas Condom, B. De Bièvre, T. Walter, Olivier Dangles, Pablo Lloret, Rafael Guerreiro Osorio, Dunia González‐Zeas, Alexander S. Flecker, Daniela Rosero‐López
Přispěvatelé: Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [France-Sud])-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes [2016-2019] (UGA [2016-2019])
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Water Resources Research
Water Resources Research, 2019, 55, pp.6946-6967. ⟨10.1029/2019WR025190⟩
Popis: International audience; In view of the rapid proliferation of water infrastructures worldwide, balancing human and ecosystem needs for water resources is a critical environmental challenge of global significance. While there is abundant literature on the environmental impacts of individual water infrastructures, little attention has been paid to their cumulative effects in river networks, which may have basin-to-global impacts on freshwater ecology. Here we developed a methodological framework based on Pareto frontier analysis for optimizing trade-offs between water withdrawal and ecological indicators. We applied this framework to a mountainous Ecuadorian headwater river network that is part of a continental water transfer for supply and demand management to optimize ecological conditions and the operation of 11 water intake structures used to provide potable water to the city of Quito. We found that the current water intake configuration has an important effect on the total length of fifth-order stream sections (65% reduction compared to premanaged condition) and isolates 70.9% of the headwater stream length. The Pareto frontier analysis identified water intake portfolios (i.e., different combinations of intake sites) that decreased ecological impacts by 7.8% points (pp) and 13.0 pp for connectivity and stream order change, respectively, while meeting Quito's water demands. Additional portfolios accounting for monthly variability in water demand and resources further decrease the ecological impact up to 9.6 pp in connectivity and 13.4 pp in stream order. These eco-friendly portfolios suggest that adaptive management at basin level may help optimize water withdrawal to fulfill urban demands while preserving ecological integrity.
Databáze: OpenAIRE