| Description |
Access to freshwater is regarded as a basic human right; however, the world is freshwater stressed, with large populations suffering from poor water quality, insufficient water resources or both. Water shortage is the biggest global threat of the 21st century and providing clean water is one of the biggest challenges of this century. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to investigate and develop a better understanding of human-managed and human-natural coupled hydrological systems for sustainable water solutions. This dissertation focuses on application of water isotopes in these systems to identify characteristics that are critical for future sustainability. In Chapter 1, I discuss the motivation behind this work, introduce stable isotopes in water and outline the research questions addressed in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, I analyze stable isotopes in water of more than 800 urban tap water samples collected in a series of semiannual water surveys (spring and fall, 2013-2015) across the Salt Lake Valley (SLV) of northern Utah. I demonstrate the expression of active water management and effect of climatic variability on water resources in the spatiotemporal distribution of water isotope ratios across a single metropolitan area. In Chapter 3, I build upon the work discussed in Chapter 2 and analyze another set of isotope samples collected from the supply region of a specific water provider within SLV. I highlight the ability of water isotopes to provide robust estimates of source contribution at different locations in a service area and capture important supply-line related effects across a large metropolitan water supply system. The result highlights the potential of stable isotopes in water as an important and viable tool to study water management within complex urban distribution systems and quantify effect of climate variability on water resources. In Chapter 4, I analyze lotic-lentic relationship across a freshwater river plume in Lake Michigan. I use stable isotopes in water to delineate the extent of a freshwater river plume, determine the fate of nutrients and sediments within this plume and discuss its possible implications for nearshore biogeochemistry and ecology. Overall, this dissertation highlights the ability of water isotopes to provide characteristics of human-managed and human-natural coupled hydrological systems that are difficult to observe or characterize but are necessary for sustainable water management. |
