The turmoil in oil-producing nations is triggering turmoil at home as rising oil prices force Americans to pay more at the pump. Meanwhile there's a growing industry that's promising jobs and access to cheaper energy resources on American soil, but it's not without its controversy.
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The report provides information on key challenges in assessing the quality of different types of offsets and options for addressing key challenges associated with offset quality. This information would be important if the US adopts a program to limit emissions. GAO reviewed relevant literature and interviewed selected experts and stakeholders such as project developers, verifiers, and program officials. However, the report contains no recommendations.
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GAO was asked to describe what is known about (1) the energy needed for the urban water lifecycle and (2) technologies and approaches that could lessen the energy needed for the lifecycle and barriers that exist to their adoption. To address these issues, GAO reviewed scientific studies, government-sponsored research, and other reports and interviewed specialists from a variety of organizations, including drinking water and wastewater utilities; federal, state, and local government offices responsible for water or energy; and relevant nonprofit groups, about the energy needed to move, use, and treat water.
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This study links the Maastricht Globalization Index with Sustainability Indices to analyze whether more globalized countries are doing better in terms of sustainable development and its dimensions.
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A new report reveals the increasingly international and strategic nature of water resources research.
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Models of preparedness plans were devised, ready to be customized according to local or regional natural and socio-economic conditions. Guidelines for facing water shortages and road maps for effective participation of stakeholders, administration officers, institutions and the public in decision making, were formulated. Simplification of the multiple character of droughts (severity, areal extent, duration, etc.) led to a uni-dimensional approach, which can be easily understood and implemented by people of different backgrounds and disciplines.
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Water and energy systems constitute the foundation for modern infrastructures around the world. Water and energy infrastructure are interdependent. In the U.S., energy production and power generation systems are major users of freshwater resources besides agriculture. The major goal of this report is to show dependency of energy production and power generation systems on water availability.
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Natual gas extracted from shale formations has a greater greenhouse gas footprint than conventional gas, oil, and coal over a 20 year period. This calls into question the logic of its use as a climate-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, according to researchers.
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This paper presents a detailed assessment and definition of three concepts of “peak water”: peak renewable water, peak nonrenewable water, and peak ecological water. These concepts can help hydrologists, water managers, policy makers, and the public understand and manage different water systems more effectively and sustainably.
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This USGS assessment provides the most geographically extensive analysis to date of streamflow alteration. Findings show that the amount of water flowing in streams and rivers has been significantly altered from land and water management in nearly 90 percent of waters that were assessed in the nationwide USGS study.
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On June 21st, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC about the water impacts of hydraulic fracturing of shale gas deposits. Speakers included representatives from both domestic and international organizations. The full set of results, with audio and video, can be found at the link above.
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This report provides input into the discussions at the 2012 World Water
Week in Stockholm, which is held under the theme of Water and Food Security. It features brief overviews of new knowledge and approaches on emerging and persistent challenges to achieve water and food security in the 21st century. -
The report presents a framework for incorporating sustainability into EPA principles and decision making. It intended to help the agency better assess the social, environmental, and economic impacts of options as it makes decisions.
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The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), in cooperation with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), has completed a research effort to help communities overcome their challenges. The project, which considered the real-life challenges of two communities in Tucson/Pima County Arizona and Northern Kentucky, developed a new water management paradigm to support communities’ efforts to organize around and operate under key sustainability principles and practices.
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The global future lies before us as a highly uncertain and contested landscape with numerous perils along the way. This study explores possible pathways to sustainability by considering four different scenarios for the twenty-first century.
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Clean water and on-demand energy are intimately intertwined. Clearly each is necessary for a productive, healthy society. But more importantly, neither can exist without the other. Read this white paper by Snehal Desai, Global Director of Marketing, Dow Water & Process Solutions.
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To enhance the quality of discussion and decision-making on the water-energy nexus, this policy paper provides the context needed to evaluate key tradeoffs. We present a comprehensive, user friendly guide to the most credible available data about water consumption per unit of energy produced across a spectrum of traditional and alternative energy technologies. We identify data holes and important issues that merit further attention. We also have created a glossary to help non-experts decipher energy jargon.
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A new paper is available about Arab water security in the relevant nations. The study reviews freshwater scarcity in the Arab countries, at present and in the future. A number of references to work in the area are included. Key problematic concerns are outlined. Ways of dealing with these problems in part or in total through the framework provided by UNESCO/IHP and related initiatives are highlighted.
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Estimates for self-supplied domestic withdrawals and the population served for 20 aquifers in the United States for calendar year 2005 are provided in this report. These estimates are based on county-level data for self-supplied domestic groundwater withdrawals and the population served by those withdrawals, as compiled by the National Water Use Information Program, for areas within the extent of the 20 aquifers.
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Water consumption was analyzed for a number of sources, such as ethanol, conventional fuel feedstocks, oil sands, etc. It appears that water consumption varies not only with region, but also according to the technologies employed, and recovery processes.
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This paper provides an overview of a broad range of methods developed to enable accounting and impact assessment of water use.
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A recent study on this subject is Schieder, Tina-Maria, Analysis of Water Use and Crop Allocation for the Khorezm Region in Uzbekistan Using an Integrated Hydrologic-Economic Model, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, Bonn, Germany, 2011
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This study considers Hydrology, Environment, Life, and water resources Policy (HELP) as the most important elements in the watershed, and combines them with a pressure-state-response approach to develop an overall watershed sustainability index.