A Model of Indicators and GIS Maps for the Assessment of Water Resources

Abstract

The main intention of the study is to identify appropriate indicator to create a model that represents water resource status for a specific system boundary. The report will assess the different scientific approaches associated with water resource engineering, and compare these approaches with respect to human value. The report will focus on the relationship between ecosystem structure and socio technical structure. Ecosystem deals with plants and living things in specific area and the interaction between them, socio technical system deals with the aspects of people, and society as well as technical aspects of organizational structure with respect to the effect on the environment. Ecosystem directly or indirectly affects the society. At the same time, the socio technical system has an impact on ecosystem services in the perspective of consumption and exploitation of recourses. Finally the two systems are dependent on each other. By the application of scientific tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA), Performance Indicator (PI), Drivers Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR), Mellenium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), etc., some appropriate indicators can be identified corresponding to each approach. LCA focuses on socio-technical aspects whereas DPSIR is environmentally biased. Environmental impact assessment covers both aspects of the system. A matrix combines these methods with the corresponding keywords, and supports in generating a new general model by considering the most weighted indicators. Since each scientific model focuses on some specific aspects, the newly proposed model will give a general view of water environment status. A final comparison is made to recognize relative bias of the newly proposed model with respect to DPSIR model to assess water environment status of the concerning region.