Water Security Assessment of the Grand River Watershed in Southwestern Ontario, Canada

Baljeet Kaur, Narayan Kumar Shrestha, Prasad Daggupati, Ramesh Pal Rudra, Pradeep Kumar Goel, Rituraj Shukla and Nabil Allataifeh
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Baljeet Kaur: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Narayan Kumar Shrestha: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Prasad Daggupati: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Ramesh Pal Rudra: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Pradeep Kumar Goel: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Etobicoke, ON M9P 3V6, Canada
Rituraj Shukla: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Nabil Allataifeh: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: Water security is the capability of a community to have adequate access to good quality and a sufficient quantity of water as well as safeguard resources for the future generations. Understanding the spatial and temporal variabilities of water security can play a pivotal role in sustainable management of fresh water resources. In this study, a long-term water security analysis of the Grand River watershed (GRW), Ontario, Canada, was carried out using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT). Analyses on blue and green water availability and water security were carried out by dividing the GRW into eight drainage zones. As such, both anthropogenic as well as environmental demand were considered. In particular, while calculating blue water scarcity, three different methods were used in determining the environmental flow requirement, namely, the presumptive standards method, the modified low stream-flow method, and the variable monthly flow method. Model results showed that the SWAT model could simulate streamflow dynamics of the GRW with ‘good’ to ‘very good’ accuracy with an average Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency of 0.75, R 2 value of 0.78, and percentage of bias (PBIAS) of 8.23%. Sen’s slope calculated using data from over 60 years confirmed that the blue water flow, green water flow, and storage had increasing trends. The presumptive standards method and the modified low stream-flow method, respectively, were found to be the most and least restrictive method in calculating environmental flow requirements. While both green (0.4–1.1) and blue (0.25–2.0) water scarcity values showed marked temporal and spatial variabilities, blue water scarcity was found to be the highest in urban areas on account of higher water usage and less blue water availability. Similarly, green water scarcity was found to be highest in zones with higher temperatures and intensive agricultural practices. We believe that knowledge of the green and blue water security situation would be helpful in sustainable water resources management of the GRW and help to identify hotspots that need immediate attention.

Keywords: water security; blue water; green water; Grand River watershed; soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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