Water

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), like many other regions in the world, are areas that are prone to hydrometeorological disasters, which threaten livelihoods and cause economic losses. To derive LAC’s status in the field of flood risk-related research, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the region’s publication record using the Web of Science journal database (WoS). After analysing a total of 1887 references according to inclusion-exclusion criteria, 302 articles published in the last 20 years were selected. The research articles published in the period 2000–2020 revealed that Mexico, Brazil, and certain South American countries such as Chile, Peru, and Argentina are more productive in flood risk research. Scientific research is increasing, and most of the available studies focus on lowland areas. The frequently-used keywords are generic, and there is often verbatim copying from the title of the article, which shows the poor coherence between the title, abstract, and keywords. This limited diversification of keywords is of little use in bibliometric studies, reducing their visibility and negatively impacting the citation count level. LAC flood studies are mainly related to hydrometeorological assessments, flood risk analyses, geomorphological and ecosystem studies, flood vulnerability and resilience approaches, and statistical and geographic information science evaluations. This systematic review reveals that although flood risk research has been important in the last two decades, future research linked with future climatic scenarios is key to the development of realistic solutions to disaster risks.

The sustainability of small island developing states (SIDS) of the Caribbean is fragile because of island size and topography, limited resources, population growth, natural disasters, and climate change. Current and projected sustainability in 2050 were assessed within the framework of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus for 10 of 16 SIDS with the best databases. Values for each WEF sector below either Falkenmark indicators or regional averages were considered unsustainable (failing) for that sector. Overall, SIDS were considered unsustainable if they failed at least two of three sectors. Projected water sustainability for 2050 was based on population growth and climate change effects on precipitation and per capita water availability. All SIDS failed the food sector, and four failed the energy sector. Water was considered the ultimate control for long-term sustainability. Five SIDS currently fail the water sector, but all but the largest two SIDS are likely to fail this sector by 2050. The role of poor governance and associated lack of long-term planning for population growth, disasters, and climate change, adaptative management strategies, infrastructure investment with an emphasis on nature-based solutions, decentralized energy grids emphasizing renewable energy, and local food production are clearly impediments for reaching sustainability goals for Caribbean SIDS.

Water scarcity is a problem of global relevance that is affecting more and more people in the world. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have around 35% of the world’s renewable water resources. However, the management of water resources and inequality in access to water has made water scarcity a problem of growing interest in the region. The reuse of water could be an efficient measure to reduce the demand for water resources in the area. In particular, the reuse of greywater is a simple and decentralized method of water reuse, which would mitigate the impact of the lack of water in isolated or difficult-to-access areas. Using the Aquastat database, water consumption in the world and water availability in LAC were studied. In addition, the regulatory framework for water in LAC countries was studied, with an emphasis on water reuse and greywater legislation. Agriculture is one of the most demanding of water in the world, particularly, in LAC, which demands around 70% of renewable water resources. Furthermore, in LAC, the availability of drinking water in rural areas is lacking, with seven countries having less than 80% access to healthy drinking water. The water regulation in LAC is quite heterogeneous. The most general regulation around water is found in the political constitutions of each country. Some constitutions explicitly indicate access to water as a human right, while other constitutions do not include information in this regard. Although some countries have specific regulations on the reuse of wastewater, there is a general lack of regulations related to the reuse of greywater. In most cases, the term “greywater” is not even defined in the general water and wastewater laws. As of the date of this article, only Chile, Peru, and Brazil have bills to regulate the reuse of greywater, of which only the Chilean is approved. The reuse of greywater could help reduce water demand for non-drinking uses. However, the implementation of greywater treatment systems represents a cost that is difficult to cover, especially in the poorest countries of the region. Countries must improve their public policies to improve the management, use and reuse of water to mitigate water scarcity that severely affects human consumption in the region. The relevance of this study lies in providing a general framework of the water situation in LAC for studies and public policies focused on promoting water reuse as a measure to mitigate water scarcity.

Following the global shutdown of tourism at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, small island developing states such as The Bahamas had their economies immobilized due to their heavy dependence on the industry. Beyond economic recovery in a post COVID-19 paradigm, the blue economy, blue growth, and associated activities offer pathways for a more resilient economy and is well-suited for The Bahamas. This paper suggests conduits for economic development using a traditional strength, coastal and marine tourism, in conjunction with the emerging fields of ocean renewable energy, offshore aquaculture, marine biotechnology, and bioprospecting. The interlinkages between each activity are discussed. Knowledge gaps in offshore aquaculture, ocean renewable energy, marine biotechnology, and marine environment monitoring are identified. In each sector case, strategic and tactical decision-making can be achieved through the exploitation of ocean numerical modeling and observations, and consequently should be invested in and developed alongside the requisite computational resources. Blue growth is encouraged, but instances of blue injustice are also highlighted. Crucially, pursuing blue economy activities should be given top national priority for economic recovery and prosperity.

In the context of climate change and increasing urbanization, Small Island Developing States are increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters. In response to urbanization in at risk areas, the concept of territorial resilience has potential as an approach to urban flood issues. The objective of this research is to develop a spatial decision support tool based on a collaborative assessment method of territorial resilience. The proposed methodology consists of: the adaptation to the French Polynesian context, three existing resilience assessment methods applied to a case study in the Punaruu Valley’s (Punaauia, French Polynesia) and the use of geovisualization techniques: use of GIS for data processing and analysis, visualization, mapping and model processing. This methodology integrates the technical, urban and social components of the territory, while highlighting the various levers available to improve territorial resilience and facilitate its understanding through collaborative work efforts and the use of a visual tool. The results demonstrate the reproducibility of these methods for assessing resilience in French Polynesia. They underline the potential of a collaborative approach to highlight critical infrastructures and generate possible decision support to improve the territory’s ability to function despite a disruption and the ability to rebuild following this disruption.

Five years after its establishment (2016), the LTER-Greece network outlines its vision, aims, objectives and its achievements through a series of case studies. The network consists of eight observatories, focusing on innovative research topics, aiming to be both cooperative and complementary, while currently being in the process of expanding. LTER-Greece acknowledges the complexity of ecosystems and the fact that effective management of natural resources may only be achieved by addressing every sector of a nexus system in order to understand inter-dependencies, thus accounting for solutions that promote resilience. Hence, LTER-Greece focuses on the holistic study of the water-environment-ecosystem-food-energy-society nexus, in order to face environmental and socio-ecological challenges at local and global scales, particularly climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, natural disasters and unsustainable water and land management. Framed around five research pillars, monitoring and research targets nine research hypotheses related to climate change, environmental management, socio-ecology and economics, biodiversity and environmental process dynamics. As environmental monitoring and related research and conservation in Greece face critical shortcomings, LTER-Greece envisages confronting these gaps and contributing with interdisciplinary solutions to the current and upcoming complex environmental challenges.

The expense and logistical difficulties of groundwater assessment in geographically dispersed, small landmasses, prevent it from being widely applied in small island developing countries. We propose a survey-based approach for screening groundwater quality using crowd-sourced information. A household-level survey was conducted in 45 selected inhabited islands across 11 atolls of the Maldives. In each island, covering a sample size between 16 and 85 (median 50) households, use of groundwater, the perceived quality and household groundwater treatment methods applied, were surveyed. The respondents perceived groundwater as highly contaminated and non-potable, but due to the lack of alternative water resources, almost all respondents used it for non-potable purposes. Over 84% of the surveyed islands reported varying degrees of elevated salinity. The water quality indicators of odor, color, and debris were seen to be significantly correlated to each other, but salinity did not show such a correlation. Salinity increased with population density and decreased with the area of the island as well as the latitude. Household treatment of groundwater was rare. Due to the ease of deployment, rapidity of assessment, low cost, and good spatial coverage, crowd-sourced water quality screening can be a viable and important approach alongside detailed groundwater investigation studies.

The review aims to report the state-of-the-art constructed wetlands (CW) in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region not limited to national and local conditions. The aim is with a broader view, to bring updated and sufficient information, to facilitate the use of the CW technology in the different countries of LAC. Thus, 520 experiences extracted from the 169 reviewed documents in 20 countries were analyzed. According to the data, horizontal subsurface flow wetlands are the most reported CW in the region (62%), the second most common CW technology in the region is free water surface CW (17%), then vertical flow systems (9%), followed by intensified constructed wetlands (8%), and finally French systems (4%). The performance for nutrient removal is analyzed, finding that the mean of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Nitrogen (TN), and Total Phosphorous (TP) removal efficiencies varies from 65% to 83%, 55% to 72%, and 30% to 84%, respectively. The results suggest a generally good performance for COD and TN removal, but a low performance for TP removal. Regarding plant species used for CWs, 114 different plant species were reported, being until now the most extensive report about plant species used in CWs in the LAC region.

Small island developing states (SIDS) are typically characterized by being environmentally and socio-economically vulnerable to disasters and climate change. Additionally, they often have limited resources for freshwater provisioning services. This article presents an assessment of disaster risk and water security-related challenges in SIDS focusing on three major dimensions: (a) how disaster risks are perceived and addressed in the SIDS context using a case study method, (b) analyzing the current status of water security in these regions using an indicator-based approach and (c) assessing gaps and needs in institutions and policies that can facilitate sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets, adaptation and resilience building in SIDS. In this regard, information on all SIDS is collected to be able to distinguish trends in and between SIDS based on amongst others geographical location and characteristics. This synthesis noted two key observations: first, that in SIDS, the number of disasters is increasing at a higher rate than the global average, and that the frequency and intensity of the disasters will likely increase because of climate change. These combined factors will impact SIDS on the societal level and on environmental levels, reducing their adaptive capacity, resources, and resilience. Second, most SIDS are already water-scarce with low groundwater volumes. Because of increasing demand (e.g., population growth and tourism) and decreasing supply (e.g., pollution and changes in precipitation patterns) freshwater resources are becoming increasingly limited, often suffering from the spillover effects of competing and conflicting uses. Threatened ecosystems and limited economic resources further influence the adaptive capacities of communities in SIDS. In this light, key solutions to address disaster-risk and water security-related challenges can be found by sharing best practices and lessons learned—from examples of good governance, integrated policies, improved community-resilience, and capacity-building. Added to their fragile situation, SIDS struggle to find enough funding to put their development plans, programs, and policies into action.

Education can help secure inclusive and resilient development around water resources. However, it is difficult to provide the latest science to those managing water resources (both now and in the future). Collectively, we hypothesize that dissemination and promotion of scientific knowledge using students as central agents to transfer theoretical knowledge into practice is an efficient way to address this difficulty. In this study, we test this hypothesis in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region as a representative case study region. First, we use a literature review to map a potential gap in research on education around water resources across the LAC region. We then review potential best practices to address this gap and to better translate water resources education techniques into the LAC region. Integral to these efforts is adopting students as agents for information transfer to help bridge the gap between the global state-of-the science and local water resources management. Our results highlight the need to establish a new standard of higher educational promoting exchange between countries as local populations are vulnerable to future shifts in climate at global scales and changes in land usage at regional scales. The new standard should include peer-to-peer mentoring achieved by jointly exchanging and training students and practitioners in water management techniques, increasing access to water data and pedagogic information across the region, and lowering administration roadblocks that prevent student exchange.

The “nexus” is a potentially very appropriate approach to enhance resource efficiency and good governance in transboundary basins. Until now, however, evidence has been confined to isolated case studies and the nexus approach remains largely undefined. The methodology presented in this paper, developed for preparing a series of nexus assessments of selected river basins under the Water Convention of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), is a timely contribution to this ongoing debate. The nexus assessment of a transboundary basin has the objective of identifying trade-offs and impacts across sectors and countries and to propose possible policy measures and technical actions at national and transboundary levels to reduce intersectoral tensions. This is done jointly with policy makers and local experts. Compared to an Integrated Water Resource Management approach, the water energy food ecosystems nexus approach concurrently considers multiple sectors and their evolution. This offers the opportunity to better involve key economic sectors—energy and agriculture in particular—in the dialogue over transboundary water resource uses, protection and management.