This paper assesses the energy and water consumption practices of existing housing in Saudi Arabia, with the ultimate aim of establishing guidelines for delivering sustainable residential buildings in the near future. In order to achieve this aim the current status of a typical Saudi residence (i.e. an apartment complex) is investigated in terms of energy and water consumption using simulation ...

International agri-food trade has expanded rapidly during the past decades and changed considerably in structure with important implications, especially for developing economies. One of the main environmental concerns regarding international trade is the exploitation and redistribution of water resources. In this paper, we use the virtual water approach for analyzing the relationship between gl...

In this study, eight different surface water resources located in five villages of Gölcük, Kocaeli, were tested between June 1999 and 2000 to determine the NO 3 -N, Cl and pH values. Temporal variation in these parameters reflects changes in precipitation. The test results showed that the NO 3 -N, Cl and pH levels varied between 0.65-0.11 mgL, 0.54-0.04 mgL and 8.33-5.15, respectively. Data sho...

The study of the impact of economic activities on natural resources through global supply chains is increasingly demanded in the context of the growing globalization of economies and product fragmentation. Taking Spain as a case study and a sector with significant economic and environmental impacts, the agri-food industry, the objective of this work is two-fold. First, we estimate the associate...

The urgent demand of integrated water resources management has drawn attention to the issue of transnational water bodies that comprise exploitable resources for two or more countries. It is estimated that 50% of the global surface is lying on transboundary catchments and this percentage is continually increasing due to the creation of new nations, while around 40% of the earth’s population res...

Water scarcity constrains the livelihoods of millions of people in tropical drylands. Tree planting in these environments is generally discouraged due to the large water consumption by trees, but this view may neglect their potential positive impacts on water availability. The effect of trees on soil hydraulic properties linked to groundwater recharge is poorly understood. In this study, we per...

Trends in concentrations of nonpoint-source contaminants in wells, springs, and streams are related to the history of contamination in groundwater recharge and the age distribution in the groundwater discharge. The age distribution in discharge depends on the groundwater age distribution in the aquifer and the subset of flowpaths that are sampled by the discharge. Groundwater travel times from ...

This article represents the second report by an ASCE Task Committee "Infrastructure Impacts of Landscape-driven Weather Change" under the ASCE Watershed Management Technical Committee and the ASCE Hydroclimate Technical Committee. Herein, the 'infrastructure impacts" are referred to as infrastructure-sensitive changes in weather and climate patterns (extremes and non-extremes) that are modulate...

China is a country with significant but unevenly distributed water resources. The water stressed North stays in contrast to the water abundant and polluted South defining China's current water environment. In this paper we use the latest available data sets and adopt structural decomposition analysis for the years 1992 to 2007 to investigate the driving forces behind the emerging water crisis i...