• Energy Research
• social sciences close
• 6. Clean water close

Analyzing the farmer’s behavior and the water-saving incentive mechanism is of great significance to the implementation of the explicit subsidy policy of agricultural water prices. This paper introduces the concept of loss aversion from behavioral economics and conducts a theoretical analysis of the incentive mechanism of agricultural water prices to verify the hypotheses by using survey data from the three inland river basins in the Hexi Corridor, Northwest China. The results show that when farmers believe that their water-saving potential is relatively large, the loss aversion of farmers has a significantly positive impact on water-saving incentives under an explicit agricultural water price subsidy. In addition, irrigation canal evaluation and regional differences have negative and positive influences, respectively. Based on this, suggestions are made to actively promote the implementation of explicit subsidy of agricultural water prices in order to save irrigation water.

Counter tillage is a typical cultivation practice on the Loess Plateau, which can influence the soil erosion process by intercepting runoff and increasing infiltration. However, few studies have investigated the mechanisms of nutrient losses associated with counter tillage. This study was conducted to reveal the effects of counter tillage and slope gradient on the soil nutrient loss mechanism on sloping farmland. In this study, the rainfall simulation was conducted with a rainfall intensity of 90 mm·h−1 and with five slope gradients (5.24%, 8.75%, 17.63%, 26.79%, 36.40%). The runoff plots involved the counter tillage (CT) and traditional plow (CK), in order to investigate the characteristics of soil erosion and available phosphorus (AP), ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) losses. The soil erosion characteristics included the time until runoff generation, RR (runoff rate), and SR (sediment rate); the nutrient loss characteristics included nutrient loss concentrations, nutrient loss and nutrient loss rate in runoff or sediment. The results indicated that the RR and SR with a slope gradient of 5.24~26.79% on CT decreased by 11.77~94.92% and 20.69~99.27%, respectively, compared with that of CK. As the slope gradient increased (36.40%), a break in the ridge occurred and the reduction in the RR and SR was weakened; this was likely to be close to that of the CK. Nutrient losses differed significantly between different slope gradients and tillage practices. Nutrient losses increased with an increasing slope gradient. The nutrient losses of AP, NH4+-N, and NO3−-N in runoff, with the slope gradient of 36.40%, increased 75.75%, 76.34%, 75.63%; meanwhile, in sediment, it increased 32.93, 30.70, 32.18 times, compared with the slope gradient of 5.24% on CT. The CT with the slope gradient of 5.24~26.79% had a good effect in controlling nutrient losses; however, for the slope gradient of 36.40%, the effects of CT in controlling nutrient losses decreased. The nutrient loss rate and RR or SR satisfied a linear positive correlation. The reduction benefits of nutrient losses on CT in runoff and sediment can reach 57.7% to 100% and 45.5% to 100%, respectively. In conclusion, CT is an effective tillage practice to control soil erosion and nutrient losses. This study can provide a reference for soil erosion and nutrient loss control on sloping farmland on the Loess Plateau.

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

Health-related problems and even death among animals and human beings. Agriculture is the main food source, thus, many interventions are made such as that of irrigation by the local county and national government initiated through the National Irrigation Board (NIB). Despite the irrigation projects food insufficiency still persists, therefore their sustainability is questionable. One such approach to improving the sustainability of irrigation projects is participatory monitoring and evaluation which leads to ownership and then higher sustainability. In the study, the objective was to asses if taking corrective action after participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) influence project sustainability. The study used a descriptive survey and correlation designs to collect data from 316 respondents selected using stratification sand purposeful with strict randomization. Questionnaires were administered and interviews were conducted on selected sample respondents on appointed dates. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0 to get descriptive statistics, correlations coefficients were obtained to test association and degree of strength. Testing of the hypothesis was done using linear regression. The study findings were that a large number of respondents were between ages 31 to 40 years and most were female with their highest level of education being primary school. The influence of PME capacity building on the dependent variable and irrigation projects sustainability found that the farmers were not taken for exposure visits and project officers were not accountable for money use. Age, gender, and education level have very minimal influence on PME capacity building. PME capacity building had a weak positive influence of r = 0.290 and it explained only 8.4% of irrigation projects sustainability in Kitui County. The study recommends that to improve project capacity building: project revenue must be controlled on use, farmers must be taken for exposure visits to learn from successors, project officers should be accountable for funds use, and project guidelines should be improved to increase sustainability. Implementation of these recommendations will reduce the loss of Arid and Semi-Srid Lands (ASALs) and attain higher and longer sustainability in food projects, thus, reducing the recurrence rate of food shortage, improve and hasten the implementation of irrigation projects, show the need to involve primary stakeholders in project monitoring and appraisal for sustainability, better and efficient decisions by policymakers to increase chances of project's success.

AbstractGeological characterization in the current phase of the IEA Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project is focused on adding new data to the already rich dataset from phase I, and also adding new geological data to refine the final model. Adding new data to existing datasets and bringing in multiple sources of other data has proven challenging from a data management point of view. During this phase a revised static geocelluar model will serve as the heart of the data storage component of the project. It can be used by researchers in many diverse fields including: Geomechanics, hydrogeology, wellbore integrity, geophysics, reservoir simulation, geochemical modelling, and risk assessment. This model utilizes geological information from over 900 wells, covers an area of 1865 km2 around the Weyburn field, and includes all the hydrogeological flow units from surface down to the Bakken Formation..The Weyburn reservoir is hosted within the Mississippian Midale Beds, one of many south-southwest-dipping strata that are progressively truncated to the northeast by the sub-Mesozoic unconformity. Well density has been increased from Phase I to better refine the zero edges of these subcropping Mississippian units. The model has been improved to integrate geological units not included in the Phase I model, including: 1) an “altered zone” of anhydrite and dolostone at the updip edge of the Weyburn-Midale reservoir. This forms the caprock to the reservoir subjacent to the regional seal formed by the Watrous Formation; 2) the Frobisher Evaporite, a variably thick anhydrite unit present at the base of the reservoir beneath the northern portion of the field; and 3) the Oungre Evaporite, an anhydrite/dolomite unit within the Ratcliffe beds present above the majority of the reservoir. The altered zone, Frobisher Evaporite, and Oungre Evaporite have been added to the model to improve characterization of long-term fluid behaviour in the Mississippian aquifers. Adding these units into the model, with their irregular termination edges, has been a challenge. Stacking structure maps of the Mississippian beds and then truncating them with the sub-Mesozoic unconformity created residual artifacts. These artifacts could not be correctly resolved in the resulting 3D grid. It was necessary to closely delineate the zero edges them using false wells with zero isopach values, then stack these isopach thicknesses to proportionately fill the 3D grid while maintaining their complex morphology. The result has been a more acceptable representation of the architecture of the Weyburn reservoir and hydrogeological flow units above and below the Midale aquifer. Porosity and permeability derived from core analyses have been added to the model for the Midale and Frobisher aquifer units only. Very little core exists beyond these beds, therefore only the Midale and Frobisher were included.Modelling has been done primarily in Petrel, however it has become necessary to use multiple mapping tools and data conversion utilities to best handle the vast quantities of information present in the Weyburn project. Issues in the projection of data in latitude/longitude, North American Datum (NAD) 27 and NAD 83 were rectified by using a standardized well data source, and a consistent methodology for converting between these coordinate systems.This presentation will give an overview of the new geocellular model for Weyburn Phase II and the methodologies for representing the flow unit architecture while highlighting the key obstacles and challenges in compiling large quantities of different types of data from multiple sources.

Agriculture in the Upper Indus Basin largely depends on the cryosphere, and cultivation is possible only through irrigation. The agriculture system, however, faces challenges in terms of climate, extreme events, water scarcity, and other socioeconomic conditions. Hence, a scoping review was conducted to identify the irrigation systems and coping mechanism in the 4 valleys of the basin. Centuries-old irrigation canals, water distribution, management systems, and coping mechanisms are in place. Adaptation strategies are managed by communities, and some are established and supported by government and development organizations. Successes, in terms of increased income, crop yields, and cost, are widely reported; however, evidence of their efficiency and sustainability is scarce.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the hydro-mechanical properties of heavy metal (Cu, Zn) contaminated soil stabilized using cement treatment situated under different salinity. Conventional oedometers with cylindrical samples dimensioned ⌀61.8 × 20 mm were used to conduct the tests. Two cement contents (10%, 20% by mass of cement to the mass of dry soil) and three salinity levels (0.5M, 1M, 1.5M) were used as comparison variables. The compression results demonstrate that the coupled condition in terms of mechanical and chemical will have different behavior on the soil specimen, as Cc (compression index) changes with different metal fractions. The hydraulic conductivity (k) results show that a higher metal fraction will compromise the k. The possible development of water and metal ions is proposed that when a different type and fraction of metal ions are present, the hydration reaction can be suppressed depending on whether the metal ion prioritizes the reaction with either cement or saline solution. It was found that Cu ions prioritize their reaction to a saline solution while Zn ions target the Ca(OH)2 that is available from cement. However, more studies should be carried out to confirm this point.

Background and Objective: In recent years, management and disposal of municipal solid waste has become a global problem and the most important environmental concern. Anaerobic digestion is a cost-effective solution for treatment of both solid waste and wastewater. The aim of this study was to investigate the positive or negative effects of calcium chloride content in anaerobic digestion process of municipal solid waste and leachate on biogas production. Materials and Methods: Experiments with 8 levels of calcium chloride on co-digestion of municipal solid waste and leachate were investigated in 500 ml digesters under mesophilic conditions in a completely randomized design with three replications. Reactors with a ratio of substrate to inoculum of 2 (on VS basis) were operated and the volume of the biogas was measured daily. Volatile and total solids, carbon/nitrogen of waste, COD, BOD and heavy metals were measured by following APHA. Results: The results of the experiment showed that the pH was decreased with increasing calcium chloride concentration. The highest amount of cumulative biogas production was obtained in CaCl2 of 2 g/L with the highest VS and TS reduction. Higher concentrations of CaCl2 (≥3 g/L) caused a reduction in the degradability of volatile and total solids and, as a result, a decreased performance of the digester. Conclusion: The results clearly confirmed that the addition of calcium chloride was an effective solution to improve biodegradability in co-digestion of the MSW and leachate and consequently to reduce the total and volatile solids and to increase the amount of‌ biogas.