A holistic view of sustainability in water resources management in the European Union: challenges and threats

Kasra Jam (), Ali Noroozi () and Seyed Habibollah Mosavi ()
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Kasra Jam: Tropical Hydrogeology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of applied Geosciences, Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ali Noroozi: Tarbiat Modares University
Seyed Habibollah Mosavi: Tarbiat Modares University

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 1, No 72, 2083-2116

Abstract: Abstract Sustainable development is a new way to achieve human aspirations while preserving scarce resources and making opportunities for the future. Water resource management is an important issue, especially in the European Union where most of the countries experienced a diminishing trend in their per capita renewable water. Therefore, the key goal of our research is to expand a new comprehensive framework to assess the sustainability status of water resources systems in nineteen European countries with decreasing trend in per capita renewable water (2007–2019). Our hydro-socio-economic-environmental-political index (HSEEPI) consists of eleven indicators which reagents eleven dimensions, including economic, sociology, rural sociology, health and sanitation, tourism, education, research and development, technology, human development, environment and government policies at different spatial scales. The HSEEPI scores were computed via both single and combined-artificial intelligence (combined-AI) approaches. As a threshold to define the stability of water resources systems, the HSEEPI scores were equaled 0.518 and 0.515 for European countries using single and combined-AI approaches, respectively. The results indicated that though the computed indices were at a good level, in general, the trend of instability in water resources management was observed and confirmed. Based on the results, the health and sanitation, education, technology, human development, and environment dimensions were relatively unstable and caused to a declining trend in the sustainability of water resources management across the European continent. Among the studied dimensions, tourism and technology were introduced as the best and worst factors in determining the stability of water resources systems, respectively. Also, current research could provide the vast majority of countrywide results to draw the future path of sustainable water resource management of countries by evaluating historical measures of managers. Graphical abstract

Keywords: Hydro-socio-economic-environmental-political index; Renewable water; Sustainable development; Water resources management; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03956-w

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