**1. Introduction**

As a result of significant agricultural and industrial advancements in parallel with the peace and security afforded after the second world war, the global population has almost tripled from 2.7 billion to 7.5 billion in just seventy years [1]. This increase, accompanied by the changes in lifestyle (including eating habits) seen in many regions, is now placing significant stress on various natural resources (including but not limited to water) vital for human requirements. These requirements are categorized into basic, psychological, and self-fulfilment needs, based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs [2,3]. This research focuses on the water requirement, which might be considered the most important yet basic requirement for humans to survive. Nevertheless, the demand for this resource has never been greater than in the last few decades [4–6], especially in developing countries, where exceptional population growth, increased urbanization [7], and expansion in industrial and agricultural sectors have resulted in extreme water demand and water stress. The previous conditions could highly exacerbate the situation in some arid and semi-arid regions (ASAR) where limited natural water resources (WR) are available. Therefore, special attention and preparation should be given to this issue to ensure the longevity of these crucial resources, especially in regions with difficult climatic and weather-related issues, such as ASAR.

**Citation:** Alsaeed, B.S.; Hunt, D.V.L.; Sharifi, S. Sustainable Water Resources Management Assessment Frameworks (SWRM-AF) for Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: A Systematic Review. *Sustainability* **2022**, *14*, 15293. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su142215293

Academic Editors: Luis Garrote, Alban Kuriqi and Hossein Bonakdari

Received: 29 June 2022 Accepted: 11 November 2022 Published: 17 November 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

The term arid is typically used to describe the climate of regions that suffer from very high temperature and receive less than 100 mm of rainfall per year [8]. In contrast, the term semi-arid describes regions where the annual rainfall is between 250 and 500 mm/year [9]. Both types of regions feature evapotranspiration rates that are higher than the precipitation rate, with the potential for frequent severe droughts and infrequent but considerable floods [10]. Moreover, these regions are globally characterized as the most water-stressed areas, where the groundwater (GW), stored in aquifers, is the primary water source [11]. However, since some ASAR are characterized by low rainfall rates, and rain is essential to the speed and recharge time of aquifers, the use of GW is not very sustainable [12,13]. Furthermore, high dependence on GW with intensive pumping makes it prone to pollution, such as salinity intrusion [14,15]. Conversely, in coastal regions, water supply from desalination plants with many of the current technologies is unsustainable, given the high energy, environmental impact, and economic cost [16–18]. Therefore, water resources management (WRM) in such regions requires careful planning and assessment of sustainability, and thus requires appropriate tools.

Furthermore, global warming phenomena and the impacts of climate change are further pressurizing WR over the globe [5,19–22], not least in ASAR, requiring new solutions and approaches on both the demand and supply sides. Thus, the scientific community has conducted several meetings and studies during the last decades to address the consequences of such a trend [23–27]. One of the early attempts to deal with this issue was in 1992 during the International Conference on Water and the Environment [28], which ended with the declaration of the four Dublin principles, the third one stating clearly that any "development and management" in regard to water "should be based on a participatory approach ... at all levels". Hence, this principle informed one of the main strategies to enhance WRM and ensure the continuity of WR.

Assessing and managing WR in ASAR in a way that usefully informs decision-making is fraught with difficulty, especially with what appears to be a lack of region-specific frameworks, a lack of data collection and in the context of the natural and socio-economic (i.e., Sustainability) settings in which this needs to happen. A research gap exists in terms of identifying what general sustainable water resources management (SWRM) assessment frameworks exist, and whether they are applicable to ASAR. This is a key underlying philosophy behind this paper, the findings of which will be used to identify whether (a) existing frameworks are fit-for-purpose in ASAR; or (b) a bespoke framework should be derived. Moreover, if the latter outcome is found to be true, and in order to avoid reinventing the wheel, the systematic review and analysis of existing frameworks can be used to inform its derivation.

#### *1.1. Sustainability and Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWRM)*

The water cycle and its impact on related ecosystems represent a great example of a sustainable process that has existed for millions of years. However, current water demands and global climatic changes are impacting its ability to remain so [29,30].

The use of the terms "sustainability" and "sustainable development" has become ever more popular since Bruntland's [31] definition: "*to ensure that the current development meets the needs of current generation's without negatively impacting the capability of future generations to meet their needs*". This has never been more important than for SWRM in ASAR, where GW is becoming depleted, negatively impacting the ability of future generations to draw down water and meet their needs—which due to growing populations, will be greater than today.

Another definition or principle for sustainability was introduced by Elkington [32] as: "*sustainability aims to ensure that the range of economic*, *social*, *and environmental options would stay open and not limited for the future generations because they were not hindered by the current human actions.*" This has paved the way for the introduction of 17 sustainable development goals (SDG), the sixth of which is to "*ensure availability and sustainable management of water*

*and sanitation for all*" [33]. This study is significant and motivated by such a global goal, and has never been more relevant in ASAR.

Sustainability itself has been widely recognized to stand on three common pillars or dimensions: the environment, the economy, and the society [34–38]. In other words, to obtain a sustainable system, its environment should be protected, the economy should be viable, and social equity and acceptance should be considered as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the importance of achieving a balance (rather than a trade-off) between these dimensions of sustainability has been a catalyst for much discussion [39–42]. For example, selling water in plastic bottles is both profitable for companies (economic) and satisfies the needs of many people (Social). However, the impact of this business on the environment is harmful if the bottles are not recycled. Therefore, to enhance the sustainability of any system, all three pillars need to be in balance. Moreover, for ASAR, the points at which the pillars interact for SWRM need to be considered ever more readily.
