A Systematic Review of Water Vulnerability Assessment Tools

Water Resources Management

Volumn 26, Issue 15, 2012, Pages 4327-4346

  Plummer, Ryan ^a,b   de Loë, Rob ^c   Armitage, Derek ^c  

^a BROCK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

^c UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO   (Canada)

Author keywords

Assessment tools; Integrated Water Resource Management; Integration; Systematic review; Water vulnerability

Indexed keywords

ASSESSMENT TOOL; HOLISTIC APPROACH; INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT; INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT; MULTIPLE SCALE; SYSTEMATIC REVIEW; VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT TOOL; WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT;

INTEGRATION; WATER MANAGEMENT;

SOCIAL ASPECTS;

ASSESSMENT METHOD; BIOPHYSICS; INTEGRATED APPROACH; VULNERABILITY; WATER MANAGEMENT;

EID: 84868214515     PISSN: 09204741     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s11269-012-0147-5     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. Adger WN (2006) Vulnerability. Global Environ Chang 16: 268-281. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2006. 02. 006.
2. Adger WN, Brooks N, Bentham G, Agnew M, Eriksen S (2004) New indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Norwich.
3. Alessa L, Kliskey A, Lammers R, Arp C, White D, Hinzman L, Busey R (2008) The Arctic water resource vulnerability index: an integrated assessment tool for community resilience and vulnerability with respect to freshwater. Environ Manag 42(3): 523-541. doi: 10. 1007/s00267-008-9152-0.
4. Armitage D, Plummer R (eds) (2010) Adaptive capacity and environmental governance. Springer, Berlin.
5. Babel MS, Wahid SM (2009) Freshwater under threat. Southeast Asia. http://indiaenvironmentportal. org. in/files/SEA_Water_report. pdf. Accessed 18 April 2010.
6. Barcellos C, Coutinho Barbosa K, de Fátima Pina M, Magalhães M, Paola J (1998) Health risk analysis of the Rio de Janeiro water supply using geographical information systems. In: Williams RC et al. (eds) Geographic information systems in public health: Proceedings from the third national conference. U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, San Diego, CA, pp 9-14.
7. Beekman HE, Saayman I, Hughes S (2003) Vulnerability of water resources to environmental change in Southern Africa. Report for the pan African START secretariat and UNEP. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
8. Bellamy JA, Johnson AKL (2000) Integrated resource management: moving from rhetoric to practice in Australian agriculture. Environ Manage 25(3): 265-280. doi: 10. 1007/s002679910021.
9. Biswas AK (2004) Integrated water resources management: a reassessment. A water forum contribution. Water Int 29(2): 248-256. doi: 10. 1080/02508060408691775.
10. Bordalo AA, Nilsumranchit W, Chalermwa K (2001) Water quality and use of the Bangpakong River (Eastern Thailand). Water Res 35(15): 3635-3642.
11. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (2001) Canadian environmental quality guidelines. Publication No. 1299. Environment Canada, Hull, Quebec, Canada.
12. Carpenter SR, Brock WA (2008) Adaptive capacity and traps. Ecol Soc 13(2): 40. http://www. ecologyandsociety. org/vol13/iss2/art40/. Accessed 25 May 2011.
13. Chapin FS III, Kofinas GP, Folke C (eds) (2010) Principles of ecosystem stewardship: resilience-based natural resource management in a changing world. Springer Verlag, New York.
14. Chaves HML, Alipaz S (2007) An integrated indicator based on basin hydrology, environment, life and policy: the watershed sustainability index. Water Res Manag 21(5): 883-895.
15. Chenoweth JL, Malano HM, Bird JF (2001) Integrated river basin management in the multi-jurisdictional river basins: the case of the Mekong River Basin. Int J Water Resour Dev 17(3): 365-377. doi: 10. 1080/07900620120065147.
16. Chu TH, Guttman H, Droogers P, Aerts J (2003) Water, climate, food, and environment in the Mekong Basin in South East Asia - final report. Contribution to ADAPT project, International Water Management Institute, Mekong River Commission Secretariat, Institute of Environmental Studies. http://www. geo. vu. nl/~ivmadapt/downloads/Mekong_FinalReport. pdf. Accessed 13 May 2010.
17. Centre for Evidence-Based Conservation (CEE) (2010) Guidelines for systematic review in environmental management, Version 4. 0. Bangor University, Bangor, Wales.
18. Cohen A, Sullivan CA (2010) Water and poverty in rural China: developing an instrument to assess the multiple dimensions of water and poverty. Ecol Econ 69(5): 999-1009.
19. Collins TW, Bolin B (2007) Characterizing vulnerability to water scarcity: the case of a groundwater-dependent, rapidly urbanizing region. Environ Hazards 7(4): 399-418.
20. Colwell RR, Wilcox B (2010) Water, ecology, and health. Ecohealth 7: 151-152. doi: 10. 1007s/1039-010-0339-5.
21. Cortner H, Moote M (1994) Trends and issues in land and water resources: setting the agenda for change. Environ Manage 18: 167-173.
22. Cude CG (2001) Oregon water quality index: a tool for evaluating water quality management effectiveness. J Am Water Resour Assoc 37(1): 125-137.
23. Dale VH, Beyeler SC (2001) Challenges in the development and use of ecological indicators. Ecol Indicat 1: 3-10. doi: 10. 1016/S1470-160X(01)00003-6.
24. Dixon-Woods S, Bonas S, Booth A, Jones DR, Miller T, Sutton AJ, Shaw RL, Smith JA, Young B (2006) How can systematic reviews incorporate qualitative research? A critical perspective. Qual Res 6(1): 27-44. doi: 10. 1177/1468794106058867.
25. Doll P (2009) Vulnerability to the impact of climate change on renewable groundwater resources: a global-scale assessment. Environ Res Lett 4(3): 1-12.
26. dos Santos SF, Moreira AB, Bisinoti MC, Nobre Gimenez SM, Santos Yabe MJ (2008) Water quality index as a simple indicator of aquaculture effects on aquatic bodies. Ecol Indicat 8: 476-484.
27. Dunn G (2009) Canadian approaches to assessing water quality: an inventory of indicators. Policy Report. http://www. watergovernance. ca/PDF/IndicatorsReportFINAL2009. pdf. Accessed 10 June 2010.
28. Eberts SM, Erwin ML, Hamilton PA (2005) Assessing the vulnerability of public-supply wells to contamination from urban, agricultural, and natural sources. http://pubs. usgs. gov/fs/2005/3022/pdf/fs2005-3022. pdf. Accessed 25 April 2010.
29. Eriksen SH, Kelly PM (2007) Developing credible vulnerability indicators for climate adaptation policy assessment. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Chang 12: 495-524.
30. Ezzati M, Utzinger J, Cairncross S, Cohen AJ, Singer BH (2005) Environmental risks in the developing world: exposure indicators for evaluating interventions, programmes, and policies. J Epidemiol Commun 59(1): 15-22.
31. Falkenmark M (1989) The massive water scarcity now threatening Africa: why isn't it being addressed? Ambio 18(2): 112-118.
32. Feitelson E, Chenoweth J (2002) Water poverty: towards a meaningful indicator. Water Pol 4: 263-281.
33. Folke C (2006) Resilience: the emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environ Chang 16: 253-267. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2006. 04. 002.
34. Ford JD, Pearce T (2010) What we know, do not know, and need to know about climate change vulnerability in the western Canadian Arctic: a systematic literature review. Environ Res Lett 5: 1-9. doi: 10. 1088/1748-9326/5/1/014008.
35. Frei A, Armstrong RL, Clark MP, Serreze MC (2002) Catskill Mountain water resources: vulnerability, hydroclimatology, and climate-change sensitivity. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 92(2): 203-224.
36. Füssel H-M (2007) Vulnerability: a generally applicable conceptual framework for climate change research. Global Environ Chang 17: 155-167. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2006. 05. 002.
37. Galaz V (2007) Water governance, resilience and global environmental change-a reassessment of integrated water resources management. Water Sci Technol 56(4): 1-9.
38. Gallopin GC (2006) Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity. Global Environ Chang 16: 293-303. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2006. 02. 004.
39. Global Water Partnership (2003) Effective water governance: learning from the dialogues. UNDP, Stockholm.
40. Government of Alberta (2009) Alberta river water quality index. Alberta Environment, Edmonton, AB. http://environment. alberta. ca/1777. html. Accessed 27 November 2009.
41. Government of Canada (2007) Canadian water sustainability index (CWSI). Project report. Policy Research Initiative (PRI) project: Sustainable development. Government of Canada, Ottawa.
42. Gumbo B, van der Zaag P (2001) Principles of integrated water resources management (IWRM). Global water partnership, Southern Africa youth forum, 24-25 September, Harare, Zimbabwe.
43. Hahn MB, Riederer AM, Foster SO (2009) The livelihood vulnerability index: a pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change-A case study in Mozambique. Global Environ Chang 19: 74-88. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2008. 11. 002.
44. Hambright KD, Parparov A, Berman T (2000) Indices of water quality for sustainable management and conservation of an arid region lake, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. Aquat Conservat Mar Freshwat Ecosyst 10: 393-406.
45. Hamouda MA, Nour El-Din MM, Moursy FI (2009) Vulnerability assessment of water resources systems in the eastern Nile basin. Water Resour Manag 23(13): 2697-2725. doi: 10. 1007/s11269-009-9404-7.
46. House MA (1989) A water quality index for river management. Water Environ J 3(4): 336-344.
47. Howard G, Bartram J (2005) Effective water supply surveillance in urban areas of developing countries. J Water Health 3(1): 31-43.
48. Hurd B, Leary N, Jones R, Smith J (1999) Relative regional vulnerability of water resources to climate change. J Am Water Resour Assoc 35(6): 1399-1409.
49. Ingram H (2008) Beyond universal remedies for good water governance: A political and contextual approach. Paper presented at the Rosenberg international forum on water policy, 24-27 June, Zaragoza, Spain.
50. Jeffrey P (2006) The human dimensions of IWRM: interfaces between knowledge and ambitions. In: Hlavinek P, Kukharchyk T, Marsalek J, Mahrikova I (eds) Integrated urban water resources management-NATO security through science series. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 11-18.
51. Jeffrey P, Gearey M (2006) Integrated water resources management: lost on the road from ambition to realization? Water Sci Technol 53(1): 1-8. doi: 10. 2166/wst. 2006. 001.
52. Jiménez-Cisneros B (1996) Water availability index based on quality and quantity: its application in Mexico. Water Sci Tech 34(12): 165-172. doi: 10. 1016/S0273-1223(96)00866-9.
53. Kelly PM, Adger WN (2000) Theory and practice in assessing vulnerability to climate change and facilitating adaptation. Clim Change 47: 325-352. doi: 10. 1023/A: 1005627828199.
54. Kulshreshtha SN (1998) A global outlook for water resources to the year 2025. Water Resourc Manag 12(3): 167-184.
55. Lane ME, Kirshen PH, Vogel RM (1999) Indicators of impacts of global climate change on U. S. water resources. J Water Resour Plann Manag 125(4): 194-204.
56. Lasage R, Aerts J, Mutiso GCM, de Vries A (2008) Potential for community based adaptation to droughts: sand dams in Kitui, Kenya. Phys Chem Earth 33(1-2): 67-73.
57. Lawrence P, Meigh J, Sullivan C (2002) The water poverty index: an international comparison. Keele Economics Research Papers. Keele University, Keele, UK.
58. Luers AL (2005) The surface of vulnerability: an analytical framework for examining environmental change. Global Environ Chang 15: 214-223. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2005. 04. 003.
59. Liggett JE, Talwar S (2009) Groundwater vulnerability assessments and integrated water resource management. Streamline 13(1): 18-29.
60. Lioubimtseva E, Henebry GM (2009) Climate and environmental change in arid Central Asia: impacts, vulnerability and adaptations. J Arid Environ 73(11): 963-977.
61. Lundin M, Molander S, Morrison G (1997) Indicators for the development of sustainable water and wastewater systems. Sustainable Development Research Conference, Manchester. http://www. esa. chalmers. se/Publications/PDF-files/Old_Pub_list/ML_1997paper. PDF. Accessed 12 May 2010.
62. Malone EL, La Rovere EL (2004) Assessing current and changing socio-economic conditions. Technical paper 6. In: Lim B, Spanger-Siegfried E (eds) Adaptation policy frameworks for climate change: developing strategies, polices and measures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 145-163.
63. McDonnell R (2008) Challenges for integrated water resources management: how do we provide the knowledge to support truly integrated thinking? Water Resourc Dev 24(1): 131-143. doi: 10. 1080/07900620701723240.
64. Mejia A (2010) Water scarcity in Latin America and the Caribbean myth and reality. Paper presented at the Rosenberg international forum on water policy, 14-17 November, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
65. Meinzen-Dick R (2007) Beyond panaceas in water institutions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104(39): 1500-1520. doi: 10. 1073/pnas. 0702296104.
66. Melloul AJ, Collin M (1998) A proposed index for aquifer water-quality assessment: the case of Israel's Sharon region. J Envion Manag 54(2): 131-142. doi: 10. 1006/jema. 1998. 0219.
67. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) Ecosystems and human well-being: synthesis. Island Press, Washington.
68. Milly PCD, Betancourt J, Falkenmark M, Hirsch RM, Kundzewicz ZW, Lettenmaier DP, Stouffer RJ (2008) Stationarity is dead: whither water management? Science 319: 573-574.
69. Mitchell B (2005) Integrated water resource management, institutional arrangements, and land-use planning. Environ Plann A 37: 1335-1352. doi: 10. 1068/a37224.
70. Mukheibir P, Sparks D (2003) Water resource management and climate change in South Africa: Visions, driving factors and sustainable development indicators. Report for Phase I of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change project. http://www. erc. uct. ac. za/Research/publications-pre2004/03Mukheibir-Sparks_Water_resource_management. pdf. Accessed 21 April 2010.
71. Nelson DR, Adger NW, Brown K (2007) Adaptation to environmental change: contributions of a resilience framework. Annu Rev Environ Resour 32: 395-419. doi: 10. 1146/annurev. energy. 32. 051807. 090348.
72. Nganga JK (2006) Climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation assessment in east Africa. UNFCCC African Regional Workshop on Adaptation, September 21-23. Accra, Ghana.
73. Parkes MW, Morrison KE, Bunch MJ, Venema HD (2008) Ecohealth and watersheds: Ecosystem approaches to re-integrate water resources management with health and well-being. Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health (Publication Series No. 2) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, MB.\
74. Perles Roselló MJ, Vías Martinez JM, Andreo Navarro B (2009) Vulnerability of human environment to risk: case of groundwater contamination risk. Environ Int 35(2): 325-335.
75. Petticrew M, Roberts H (2006) Systematic reviews in the social sciences: a practical guide. Blackwell Publishers, Malden.
76. Pullin AS, Knight TM (2009) Doing more good than harm-building an evidence-base for conservation and environmental management. Biol Conserv 142: 931-934. doi: 10. 1016/j. biocon. 2009. 01. 010.
77. Pullin AS, Stewart GB (2006) Guidelines for systematic review in conservation and environmental management. Biol Conserv 20(6): 1647-1656. doi: 10. 1111/j. 1523-1739. 2006. 00485. x.
78. Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson Å, Chapin, FS III, Lambin E, Lenton TM, Scheffer M, Folke C, Schellnhuber H, Nykvist B, De Wit CA, Hughes T, van der Leeuw S, Rodhe H, Sörlin S, Snyder PK, Costanza R, Svedin U, Falkenmark M, Karlberg L, Corell RW, Fabry VJ, Hansen J, Walker B, Liverman D, Richardson K, Crutzen P, Foley J (2009) Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecol Soc 14(2): 32. http://www. ecologyandsociety. org/vol14/iss2/art32/ Accessed 19 April 2011.
79. Said A, Stevens DK, Sehlke G (2004) An innovative index for evaluating water quality in streams. Environ Manag 34(3): 406-414.
80. Schuster-Wallace CJ, Grover VI, Adeel Z, Confalonieri U, Elliot S (2008) Safe water as the key to global health. United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), Hamilton, ON.
81. Segnestam L, Winograd M, Farrow (2000) Developing indicators: Lessons learned from Central America. http://webapp. ciat. cgiar. org/indicators/pdf/Developing_Complete. pdf. Accessed 18 April 2010.
82. Smit B, Wandel J (2006) Adaptation, adaptive capacity and vulnerability. Global Environ Chang 16: 282-292. doi: 10. 1016/j. gloenvcha. 2006. 03. 008.
83. Stambuk-Giljanovic N (1999) Water quality evaluation by index in Dalmatia. Water Res 33(16): 3423-3440.
84. Stewart GB, Pullin AS, Coles CF (2007) Poor evidence-base for assessment of windfarm impacts on birds. Environ Conserv 34(1): 1-11. doi: 10. 1017/S0376892907003554.
85. Strauss A, Corbin J (1990) Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage, Thousand Oaks.
86. Sullivan CA (2002) Calculating a water poverty index. World Dev 30(7): 1195-1210.
87. Sullivan CA (2011) Quantifying water vulnerability: a multi-dimensional approach. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 25(4): 627-640. doi: 10. 1007/s00477-010-0426-8.
88. Sullivan CA, Meigh J (2005) Targeting attention on local vulnerabilities using an integrated index approach: the example of the climate vulnerability index. Water Sci Technol 51(5): 69-78.
89. Sullivan CA, Meigh J (2007) Integration of the biophysical and social sciences using an indicator approach: addressing water problems at different scales. Water Resour Manage 21: 111-128. doi: 10. 1007/s11269-006-9044-0.
90. Sullivan CA, Meigh JR, Giacomello AM, Fediw T, Lawrence P, Samad M, Mlote S, Hutton C, Allan JA, Schulze RE, Dlamini DJM, Cosgrove W, Delli Priscoli J, Gleick P, Smout I, Cobbing J, Calow R, Hunt C, Hussain A, Acremen MC, King J, Malomo S, Tate EL, O'Regan TD, Milner S, Steyl I (2003) The water poverty index: development and application at the community scale. Nat Resour Forum 27: 189-199.
91. Sullivan CA, Vörösmarty CJ, Craswell E, Bunn S, Cline S, Heidecke C, Storygard A, Proussevitch A, Douglas E, Bossio D, Günther D, Giacomello AM, O'Regan DP, Meigh JR (2006) Mapping the links between water, poverty and food security. Report on the water indicators workshop held at the centre for ecology and hydrology, Wallingford, UK, 16-19 May. GWSP Issues in GWS Research, No. 1. GWSP IPO, Bonn, Germany. http://www. gwsp. org Accessed 10 June 2010.
92. Sullivan CA, Cohen A, Faurès JM, Santini G (2009). The rural water livelihoods index. Working paper. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Rome. http://www. fao. org/nr/water/docs/FAOW_RWLI_paper. pdf. Accessed 6 May 2010.
93. Sutton AJ, Donegan S, Takwoingi Y, Garner P, Gamble C, Donald A (2009) An encouraging assessment of methods to inform priorities for updating systematic reviews. J Clin Epidemiol 62: 241-251. doi: 10. 1016/j. jclinepi. 2008. 04. 005.
94. Svendsen M (2001) Integrated management of water in river basins. Brief 13. In: Meinzen-Dick RS, Rosegrant MW (eds) Overcoming scarcity and quality constraints 2020: Vision Paper, Focus 9. IFPRI, Washington, pp 26-27.
95. Timmerman JG, Pahl-Wostl C, Moltgen J (eds) (2008) The adaptiveness of IWRM. Analysing European IWRM research. IWA Publishing, London.
96. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (2002) Global environment outlook 3: Past, present and future perspectives. Earthscan Publications, London.
97. United Nations Water and World Water Assessment Program (UN-WWAP) (2006) Water a shared responsibility: The United Nations world water development. http://www. unesco. org/water/wwap/wwdr/wwdr2/index. shtml. Accessed 10 June 2010.
98. Vincent K (2004) Creating an index of social vulnerability to climate change for Africa. Working paper 56. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Norwich, UK.
99. Vörösmarty CJ, Green P, Salisbury J, Lammers RB (2000) Global water resources: vulnerability from climate change and population growth. Science 289: 284-288. doi: 10. 1126/science. 289. 5477. 284.
100. Wall E, Marzall K (2006) Adaptive capacity for climate change in Canadian rural communities. Local Environ 11: 373-397. doi: 10. 1080/13549830600785506.
101. Winograd M, Aguilar M, Farrow A, Segnestam L, Linddal M, Dixon J (2000) Conceptual framework to develop and use water indicators. In: Linddal M, Winograd M, Farrow A, Aguilar M (eds) Forest sector indicators: an approach for Central America. The World Bank, Washington, pp 31-36.
102. World Bank (WB) (1998) Standardised welfare indicators. World Bank, Washington.
103. World Bank (WB) (2009) IDA at work: sanitation and water supply, improving services for the poor. The World Bank, Washington.
104. World Health Organization (WHO) (1946) Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization. International Health Conference, 19-22 June. WHO, New York.
105. World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (2010) Progress on sanitation and drinking water (2010 update). WHO Press, Geneva.
106. Yohe G, Tol RSJ (2002) Indicators for social and economic coping capacity-moving toward a working definition of adaptive capacity. Global Environ Chang 12: 25-40. doi: 10. 1016/S095.