Scale of water resources development and sustainability: Small is beautiful, large is great

D. Koutsoyiannis, Scale of water resources development and sustainability: Small is beautiful, large is great, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56 (4), 553–575, doi:10.1080/02626667.2011.579076, 2011.

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[English]

Several aspects of water resources and their links with food and energy supply, as well as with natural hazards, have been obscured due to political aims and ideological influences. At the same time, the involvement of politics and ideology testifies the high importance of water related issues internationally, and reflects the intensifying unresolved problems related to water, food and energy adequacy, and protection from floods and droughts. In an attempt to separate as much as possible the essence of problems from the political and ideological influences, several facts and fallacies about water and interrelated issues are discussed, based on data (numbers) rather than on dominant ideological views. The domain of the discussion is generally the entire globe, but, as a particular case, Greece, whose water resources are only partly developed, is discussed in more detail. From a pragmatic point of view, the water infrastructure in developed countries appears to be irreplaceable, although its management is adaptable toward more environmentally friendly operation. For developing countries, no alternative to large-scale water resources development by engineering means appears plausible. The recent pursuit of renewable energy makes imperative the utilization of the existing, and, where possible, the building of new, large hydropower plants, as only these can provide efficient energy storage, which is necessary for the renewable energy provided by nature in highly varying patterns.

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Two typing errors in reference to Fig. 12 have been noted and corrected in the file provided here. In addition to people acknowledged in the paper, thanks (and apology) are due to Aris Tegos has also provided useful comments.

Our works referenced by this work:

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Our works that reference this work:

1.	D. Koutsoyiannis, N. Mamassis, A. Efstratiadis, N. Zarkadoulas, and Y. Markonis, Floods in Greece, Changes of Flood Risk in Europe, edited by Z. W. Kundzewicz, Chapter 12, 238–256, IAHS Press, Wallingford – International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 2012.
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6.	H. Tyralis, A. Tegos, A. Delichatsiou, N. Mamassis, and D. Koutsoyiannis, A perpetually interrupted interbasin water transfer as a modern Greek drama: Assessing the Acheloos to Pinios interbasin water transfer in the context of integrated water resources management, Open Water Journal, 4 (1), 113–128, 12, 2017.
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8.	G.-F. Sargentis, R. Ioannidis, G. Karakatsanis, S. Sigourou, N. D. Lagaros, and D. Koutsoyiannis, The development of the Athens water supply system and inferences for optimizing the scale of water infrastructures, Sustainability, 11 (9), 2657, doi:10.3390/su11092657, 2019.
9.	A. Koskinas, and A. Tegos, StEMORS: A stochastic eco-hydrological model for optimal reservoir sizing, Open Water Journal, 6 (1), 1, 2020.
10.	G.-F. Sargentis, T. Iliopoulou, S. Sigourou, P. Dimitriadis, and D. Koutsoyiannis, Evolution of clustering quantified by a stochastic method — Case studies on natural and human social structures, Sustainability, 12 (19), 7972, doi:10.3390/su12197972, 2020.
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13.	G.-F. Sargentis, R. Ioannidis, I. Bairaktaris, E. Frangedaki, P. Dimitriadis, T. Iliopoulou, D. Koutsoyiannis, and N. D. Lagaros, Wildfires vs. sustainable forest partitioning, Conservation, 2 (1), 195–218, doi:10.3390/conservation2010013, 2022.
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Works that cite this document: View on Google Scholar or ResearchGate

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Tagged under: Course bibliography: Water Resources Management, Hydrosystems, Water and energy