18
2 Terminology
sustainability. This means that one of the initial major policy decisions for a
WUS is to define its quantity and quality thresholds involving all the stakeholders
in a learning mode as we repeat throughout this book. This is significant, particularly under water scarcity, because delimits the types of benefits (activities and
investments) that are needed or possible.
2.5 Water Loss of Flows and Systems
In literature, Water Loss (WL) is a non-beneficial quantity that may not be reused
toward the objectives of the WUS during a time interval. Hence, it is of great interest
to reduce them as much as possible. According to this definition, WL is a water
quantity along the beneficial Pillar and consists of two components: non-beneficial
consumption and non-beneficial return, which add up to non-beneficial Outflow (C nb
+ R nb = O nb ).
However, many words and phrases in this book are getting a wider and deeper
meaning, and WL is not exempt. For example, consider the following two ways
that have influence over our WL developments. First, we integrate the three Pillars
of water management in order to come up with a comprehensive analysis, which is
systemic (WUS) with fixed WPTs, hence giving WL other dimensions such as pollution that may be important to some sectors of water use. Second, at the system level,
the improvements consider the differentials along the three Pillars, which further
advances the reality of water use. For example, water balance (Eq. 2.2) represents a
zero differential along the quantity Pillar.
In order to progress toward a wider meaning of WL for each flow, we should
remember that weights along the two Pillars, namely, water benefit and water quality,
divide each WPI into two parts, viz.: desirable and undesirable depending on the
objectives of a WUS. This means that for the same flow desirable weight + undesirable weight = 1. Weights give the fraction of the flow that is desirable relative to
a specific Pillar and are called beneficial flow, quality flow and consequently useful
flow (Table 2.3) in accordance with the objectives of a WUS. The remaining fraction
of a flow is undesirable and called non-beneficial flow, non-quality (polluted) flow
and non-useful flow. In other words, the two attributes of every WPI are divided
into beneficial/non-beneficial (X b /X nb ), and quality water/polluted water (X q /X nq ).
Utilizing these partitions, Usefulness Criterion (weight) produces useful/non-useful
flows (X s /X ns ). As such, WL of a flow along a Pillar is its undesirable, e.g., the
non-beneficial applied water (VA nb ), ET nb or the pollution level of the return flow
(R nq ).
However, knowing the WL of each flow (WPI) raises the question of how to
calculate the WL of a WUS, i.e., the integrated inflows and outflows altogether.
For a system (WUS) the desirable and undesirable must be defined in terms of the
differentials between inflow and outflow, because the undesirables of the outflows
depend on the degrees of the desirables of the inflows. Hence, the WL of a WUS
must consider all of its flows using water balance:
2 Terminology
sustainability. This means that one of the initial major policy decisions for a
WUS is to define its quantity and quality thresholds involving all the stakeholders
in a learning mode as we repeat throughout this book. This is significant, particularly under water scarcity, because delimits the types of benefits (activities and
investments) that are needed or possible.
2.5 Water Loss of Flows and Systems
In literature, Water Loss (WL) is a non-beneficial quantity that may not be reused
toward the objectives of the WUS during a time interval. Hence, it is of great interest
to reduce them as much as possible. According to this definition, WL is a water
quantity along the beneficial Pillar and consists of two components: non-beneficial
consumption and non-beneficial return, which add up to non-beneficial Outflow (C nb
+ R nb = O nb ).
However, many words and phrases in this book are getting a wider and deeper
meaning, and WL is not exempt. For example, consider the following two ways
that have influence over our WL developments. First, we integrate the three Pillars
of water management in order to come up with a comprehensive analysis, which is
systemic (WUS) with fixed WPTs, hence giving WL other dimensions such as pollution that may be important to some sectors of water use. Second, at the system level,
the improvements consider the differentials along the three Pillars, which further
advances the reality of water use. For example, water balance (Eq. 2.2) represents a
zero differential along the quantity Pillar.
In order to progress toward a wider meaning of WL for each flow, we should
remember that weights along the two Pillars, namely, water benefit and water quality,
divide each WPI into two parts, viz.: desirable and undesirable depending on the
objectives of a WUS. This means that for the same flow desirable weight + undesirable weight = 1. Weights give the fraction of the flow that is desirable relative to
a specific Pillar and are called beneficial flow, quality flow and consequently useful
flow (Table 2.3) in accordance with the objectives of a WUS. The remaining fraction
of a flow is undesirable and called non-beneficial flow, non-quality (polluted) flow
and non-useful flow. In other words, the two attributes of every WPI are divided
into beneficial/non-beneficial (X b /X nb ), and quality water/polluted water (X q /X nq ).
Utilizing these partitions, Usefulness Criterion (weight) produces useful/non-useful
flows (X s /X ns ). As such, WL of a flow along a Pillar is its undesirable, e.g., the
non-beneficial applied water (VA nb ), ET nb or the pollution level of the return flow
(R nq ).
However, knowing the WL of each flow (WPI) raises the question of how to
calculate the WL of a WUS, i.e., the integrated inflows and outflows altogether.
For a system (WUS) the desirable and undesirable must be defined in terms of the
differentials between inflow and outflow, because the undesirables of the outflows
depend on the degrees of the desirables of the inflows. Hence, the WL of a WUS
must consider all of its flows using water balance: