16
2 Terminology
However, this does not exclude the complexities associated with having accessible
water. As mentioned here, the first step is a robust and transparent methodology to
distribute water equitably among various members. For example, UN (UN-Water
2019) states that water must be accessible within 1000 m and 30 min. Consequently,
if the water management of a region adopts these thresholds, but does not implement
them, then water allocation, availability, access and use are zero for that particular
WUS or a member within it.
Reused water is the amount of Outflow of a WUS that becomes part of its Inflow
during its time interval. The amount of Outflow that is reusable is also called nonconsumptive water, which consists of all the return flow (R = V2+RP). The actual
amount of water reused varies from place to place and depends on economy, technology, culture, water resources, etc. If there is reuse, it shows up as an OS with
its own beneficial and quality weights. These have lower numerical values because
reusing water has costs, and are generally more polluted. What happens to the water
that is the difference between all the return flow (reusable) and reused water is of
no interest to the WUS unless it becomes one of its objectives. For example, sometimes this difference is beneficial due to legal limitations. A country (WUS) may be
obliged by treaties to deliver a minimum amount of water with a minimum quality
to a downstream country. These two minimums should affect the management and
design of the activities in the upstream country, which, of course, cannot reuse all its
return flows.
2.4 Binary Opposites in Water
A small list of opposite words most commonly seen in water literature is given in
Table 2.2 with some comments as related to WUSs in general.
A few notes regarding Table 2.3:
• Among many ways to understand beneficial flow is the document of the Bellagio
Principles that states “Valuing water means recognizing and considering all the
benefits provided by water that encompass economic, social and ecological dimensions” (UN-HLPW 2017). The important fact about this statement is that benefits
are not exclusively about economic calculations, but also about all sorts of values
received by using water.
• Beneficial, Quality and Useful flows correspond to beneficial weight, quality
weight and their combination usefulness criterion, respectively. In a compact form,
they are called the desirable flows with the index ‘d’, which includes beneficial
(b), quality (q) or useful (s).
• Water consumption has two parts: ET and what is called non-reusable outflows
(NR in Table 2.1). ET is separated from other non-reusable outflows because of
its special importance in agriculture, hydrology and ecosystems.
– Many times the word ‘consumption’ is utilized as water ‘use’, which confuses
the consumptive and non-consumptive nature of water. Water has two states in
2 Terminology
However, this does not exclude the complexities associated with having accessible
water. As mentioned here, the first step is a robust and transparent methodology to
distribute water equitably among various members. For example, UN (UN-Water
2019) states that water must be accessible within 1000 m and 30 min. Consequently,
if the water management of a region adopts these thresholds, but does not implement
them, then water allocation, availability, access and use are zero for that particular
WUS or a member within it.
Reused water is the amount of Outflow of a WUS that becomes part of its Inflow
during its time interval. The amount of Outflow that is reusable is also called nonconsumptive water, which consists of all the return flow (R = V2+RP). The actual
amount of water reused varies from place to place and depends on economy, technology, culture, water resources, etc. If there is reuse, it shows up as an OS with
its own beneficial and quality weights. These have lower numerical values because
reusing water has costs, and are generally more polluted. What happens to the water
that is the difference between all the return flow (reusable) and reused water is of
no interest to the WUS unless it becomes one of its objectives. For example, sometimes this difference is beneficial due to legal limitations. A country (WUS) may be
obliged by treaties to deliver a minimum amount of water with a minimum quality
to a downstream country. These two minimums should affect the management and
design of the activities in the upstream country, which, of course, cannot reuse all its
return flows.
2.4 Binary Opposites in Water
A small list of opposite words most commonly seen in water literature is given in
Table 2.2 with some comments as related to WUSs in general.
A few notes regarding Table 2.3:
• Among many ways to understand beneficial flow is the document of the Bellagio
Principles that states “Valuing water means recognizing and considering all the
benefits provided by water that encompass economic, social and ecological dimensions” (UN-HLPW 2017). The important fact about this statement is that benefits
are not exclusively about economic calculations, but also about all sorts of values
received by using water.
• Beneficial, Quality and Useful flows correspond to beneficial weight, quality
weight and their combination usefulness criterion, respectively. In a compact form,
they are called the desirable flows with the index ‘d’, which includes beneficial
(b), quality (q) or useful (s).
• Water consumption has two parts: ET and what is called non-reusable outflows
(NR in Table 2.1). ET is separated from other non-reusable outflows because of
its special importance in agriculture, hydrology and ecosystems.
– Many times the word ‘consumption’ is utilized as water ‘use’, which confuses
the consumptive and non-consumptive nature of water. Water has two states in