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Concept
Water conflict
Summary
Water conflict or water war is a term describing a conflict between countries, states, or groups over the rights to access water resources. The United Nations recognizes that water disputes result from opposing interests of water users, public or private. A wide range of water conflicts appear throughout history, though rarely are traditional wars waged over water alone. Instead, water has long been a source of tension and one of the causes for conflicts. Water conflicts arise for several reasons, including territorial disputes, a fight for resources, and strategic advantage.
Water conflicts can occur on the intrastate and interstate levels. Interstate conflicts occur between two or more neighboring countries that share a transboundary water source, such as a river, sea, or groundwater basin. For example, the Middle East has only 1% of the world's fresh water shared among 5% of the world's population. Intrastate conflicts take place between two or more parties in the same country. An example would be the conflicts between farmers and industry (agricultural vs industrial use of water).
These conflicts occur over both fresh water and salt water, and both between and within nations. Conflicts occur mostly over freshwater; because freshwater resources are necessary, yet scarce, they are the center of water disputes arising out of need for potable water, irrigation and electricity generation. As freshwater is a vital, yet unevenly distributed natural resource, its availability often impacts the living and economic conditions of a country or region. The lack of cost-effective water supply options in areas like the Middle East, among other elements of water crises can put severe pressures on all water users, whether corporate, government, or individual, leading to tension, and possibly aggression.
There is a growing number of water conflicts that go unresolved, largely at the sub-national level, and these will become more dangerous as water becomes more scarce, climate changes alter local hydrology, and global population increases.
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Related publications (1)
Energy performance of a high BHEs density at district scale
It is known that the ground represents a vast heat energy reservoir but the main challenge relies how technically exploit it in a sustainable way. Vertical BHEs represent a non-invasive application to improve the decarbonisation of the heating sector for dense populated urban areas. The conflicts arise when a large number of BHEs is installed. The present project investigated the energy performance of a high BHEs deployment for a district in Chicago (USA). The analytical approach developed for a specific BHEs field design pointed out that 24% and 39.3% of the total heating and respectively cooling demand can be satisfied. Numerical calculations are performed for two identified urban blocks using the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysicsr to consider the energy performance losses due to adjacent geothermal installations. For five smaller adjacent BHEs fields a temperature drop of 1.2 − 2.1!C occurred in the heat carrier fluid due to their mutual operation. The scenario is worse for three larger neighbouring BHEs fields recording a fluid temperature decrease of 3.7 − 5.9!C. Obtained results highlighted that there is a need to better frame the thermal performance losses due to a high BHEs deployment and to integrate them in design requirements. We applied correction factors to adjust the energy performance of isolated BHEs field in order to avoid a potential cooling of the ground and conflicts between neighbours. The thermal e↵ect of heated buildings basements on the BHEs energy performance is also investigated. An increase ranging from 0.3!C to 0.4!C occurred in the mean temperature fluid after 50 years
2021Related concepts (18)
Water conflict
Water conflict or water war is a term describing a conflict between countries, states, or groups over the rights to access water resources. The United Nations recognizes that water disputes result from opposing interests of water users, public or private. A wide range of water conflicts appear throughout history, though rarely are traditional wars waged over water alone. Instead, water has long been a source of tension and one of the causes for conflicts.
Water resources
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slightly over two-thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction present above ground or in the air. Natural sources of fresh water include surface water, under river flow, groundwater and frozen water.
Water security
The aim of water security is to make the most of water's benefits for humans and ecosystems. The second aim is to limit the risks of destructive impacts of water to an acceptable level. These risks include for example too much water (flood), too little water (drought and water scarcity) or poor quality (polluted) water. People who live with a high level of water security always have access to "an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production".
Related lectures (51)
Follow-up with Partner Families
Covers the phase 4 follow-up with partner families in a research project on diseases of poverty.
Water and Disease: Impact on Human Health
Discusses the vital role of water in human health and its impact on disease.
Homotheties and Fixed Points
Explores homotheties, fixed points, and composition of water in transformations.