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1. Produced water, money water, living water: Anthropological perspectives on water and fracking

   https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1272  

   de_Rijke, Kim (March 2018, WIREs Water)

   Advances in hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) technologies and horizontal drilling have enabled the extraction of previously unviable unconventional oil and gas resources. However, as global environmental concerns have become more prominent and unconventional oil and gas developments have moved ever closer to residential centers, public scrutiny of the industry and its methods and impacts of extraction have increased. Water impacts feature prominently among the contemporary societal concerns about fracking. These concerns include the large water requirements of the process itself, as well as concerns about the potential pollution of groundwater and the (underground) environment more broadly. Anthropologists have undertaken qualitative field research on unconventional gas developments in a variety of settings, largely among local communities in regions of extraction. The perspectives employed by anthropologists are commonly drawn from the broader social science literature, including the anthropology of water and natural resources, science and technology studies, studies of social movements, and studies which examine the energy‐society nexus. Based on the shortcomings of the published anthropological accounts, interdisciplinary research collaboration with hydrologists, engineers and economists, as well as a more fulsome engagement with the variety of hopes, fears and dreams of fracking and unconventional gas, is recommended.WIREs Water2018, 5:e1272. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1272 This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterScience of Water > Water QualityHuman Water > Methods 

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2. Amazonian terrestrial water balance inferred from satellite-observed water vapor isotopes

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30317-4  

   Shi, Mingjie; Worden, John R.; Bailey, Adriana; Noone, David; Risi, Camille; Fu, Rong; Worden, Sarah; Herman, Robert; Payne, Vivienne; Pagano, Thomas; et al (December 2022, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Atmospheric humidity and soil moisture in the Amazon forest are tightly coupled to the region’s water balance, or the difference between two moisture fluxes, evapotranspiration minus precipitation (ET-P). However, large and poorly characterized uncertainties in both fluxes, and in their difference, make it challenging to evaluate spatiotemporal variations of water balance and its dependence on ET or P. Here, we show that satellite observations of the HDO/H 2 O ratio of water vapor are sensitive to spatiotemporal variations of ET-P over the Amazon. When calibrated by basin-scale and mass-balance estimates of ET-P derived from terrestrial water storage and river discharge measurements, the isotopic data demonstrate that rainfall controls wet Amazon water balance variability, but ET becomes important in regulating water balance and its variability in the dry Amazon. Changes in the drivers of ET, such as above ground biomass, could therefore have a larger impact on soil moisture and humidity in the dry (southern and eastern) Amazon relative to the wet Amazon. 

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3. Can household water sharing advance water security? An integrative review of water entitlements and entitlement failures

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad9851  

   Beresford, Melissa; Adams, Ellis; Budds, Jessica; Harris, Leila_M; Jepson, Wendy; Marley, Tennille; Nguyen, Chloe; Pearson, Amber; Roque, Anaís_Delilah; Rosinger, Asher_Y; et al (December 2024, Environmental Research Letters)

   Abstract An increasing number of studies find that water sharing—the non-market transfer of privately held water between households—is a ubiquitous informal practice around the world and a primary way that households respond to water insecurity. Yet, a key question about household water sharing remains: is water sharing a viable path that can help advance household water security? Or should water sharing be understood as a symptom of waterinsecurity in wait for more formalized solutions? Here, we address this question by applying Sen’s entitlement framework in an integrative review of empirical scholarship on household water sharing. Our review shows that when interhousehold water sharing is governed by established and well-functioning norms it can serve as a reliable transfer entitlement that bolsters household water security. However, when water sharing occurs outside of established norms (triggered by broader entitlement failures) it is often associated with significant emotional distress that may exacerbate conditions of waterinsecurity. These findings suggest that stable, norm-based water sharing arrangements may offer a viable, adaptive solution to households facing water insecurity. Nevertheless, more scholarship is needed to better understand when and how norm-based water transfer entitlements fail, the capacity of water sharing practices to evolve into lasting normative entitlements, and the impact of interhousehold water sharing on intrahousehold water security. 

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4. Extending traditional water supplies in inland communities with nontraditional solutions to water scarcity

   https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1543  

   Scruggs, Caroline E.; Heyne, Catherine M. (June 2021, WIREs Water)

   Abstract Urban communities around the world are grappling with the challenges associated with population increases, drought, and projected water shortages. With a substantial global shortfall between water supply and demand expected by 2030, water planning strategies must adapt to a new reality characterized by higher temperatures and less precipitation, requiring new ways of thinking about water management, use, and governance. Commonplace strategies such as water conservation and nonpotable water reuse might not be sufficient to adequately stretch water supplies in water‐scarce parts of the industrialized world. In the United States, planned potable water reuse (i.e., purification of domestic wastewater for reuse as drinking water) is emerging as a way forward to mitigate water shortages without significant changes to lifestyle, behavior, or infrastructure. But potable reuse is not the only solution: paradigm shifting and disruptive options that more holistically address water scarcity, such as composting toilets and market‐based approaches to water use, are also gaining traction, and they could be pursued alongside or instead of potable water reuse. However, these options would require more significant changes to lifestyles, behavior, infrastructure, and governance. While all of the options considered offer advantages, they each come with new concerns and challenges related to cost, public perception, social norms, and policy. The goal of this work is to consider a number of plausible solutions to water scarcity—partial and complete, traditional and disruptive—to stimulate forward‐looking thinking about the increasingly common global problem of water scarcity. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterEngineering Water > Planning Water 

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5. The role of water mobility on water-responsive actuation of silk

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52715-6  

   Podbevšek, Darjan; Jung, Yeojin; Khan, Maheen_K; Yu, Honghui; Tu, Raymond_S; Chen, Xi (September 2024, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Biological water-responsive materials that deform with changes in relative humidity have recently demonstrated record-high actuation energy densities, showing promise as high-performance actuators for various engineering applications. However, there is a lack of theories capable of explaining or predicting the stress generated during water-responsiveness. Here, we show that the nanoscale confinement of water dominates the macroscopic dehydration-induced stress of the regenerated silk fibroin. We modified silk fibroin’s secondary structure, which leads to various distributions of bulk-like mobile and tightly bound water populations. Interestingly, despite these structure variations, all silk samples start to exert force when the bound-to-mobile (B/M) ratio of confined water reaches the same level. This critical B/M water ratio suggests a common threshold above which the chemical potential of water instigates the actuation. Our findings serve as guidelines for predicting and engineering silk’s WR behavior and suggest the potential of describing the WR behavior of biopolymers through confined water. 

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