Category Archives: Chloe Soltis

Using Storm Water Harvesting as a Water Management Tool in Saudi Arabia

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by Chloe Soltis

The natural landscape of Saudi Arabia is quite dry and has few natural freshwater resources. Currently, the main freshwater source is desalinated seawater, a product that is expensive because it uses electricity generated from fossil fuels. In addition, a large portion of Saudi Arabia’s population has moved from rural to urban areas, which has changed the landscape’s inherent hydrology, causing large urban floods to plague the city once a year. Guizani (2016) believed that rain water harvesting could be a green solution to both of these issues. Continue reading →

Using Scenario Planning as a Wildlife and Water Management Resource in the Florida Everglades

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by Chloe Soltis

Water is one of the most important environmental resources in the Florida Everglades since the area’s landscape primarily consists of freshwater wetlands. In recent years, economic and agricultural development have reshaped and redirected headwaters to flow into the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico instead of the Everglades. This lack of water has left the area at risk of salt water intrusion and drought in addition to threatening its native wildlife populations. Catano et al. (2015) decided to create a model that predicts how climate change will affect the area’s different hydrologic factors and impact wildlife populations. Continue reading →

Using a Freshwater Provisioning Index as a Water Management Tool

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by Chloe Soltis

The majority of the world uses upstream water as its main resource for freshwater. Yet, pollution issues that result primarily from economic development continuously threaten these freshwater sources. Industrialized countries have the financial capital to engineer and build infrastructure such as dams and water treatment facilities to alleviate these issues. Developing countries do not have the means to build the same traditional infrastructure and therefore can struggle with proper water management. Green et al. (2015) realized the need for an integrated water management approach that accounted for different levels of social and economic development and decided to develop the freshwater provisioning index (FPIh). This index measures the amount of upstream freshwater resources available to the human populations living downstream while also taking into account global water source threats. Continue reading →

Creating Risk Indexes to Evaluate Major Water Pollution Sources

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by Chloe Soltis

Water pollution is an issue that affects nearly every country with industrial development. This hazard is not only toxic to the environment but also dangerous to citizens’ health. Yet realistically, no society has unlimited resources or funds to address this concern. Therefore, the creation of a risk indexes (RI) that can systemically identify major sources of water pollution allows countries to more effectively prevent further damage and focus their cleanup efforts at the most hazardous sites. Yao et al. (2015) use a combination of two mathematical models and an expert consultation method to produce integrated risk indexes (RI) that categorizes the risk of different water pollution sources in the Taihu Basin of China. Their study area encompasses Shanghai and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The basin struggles specifically with surface water pollution since none of its water samples have met national standards. Continue reading →