Water scarcity

About: Water scarcity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11579 publications have been published within this topic receiving 228756 citations. The topic is also known as: water shortage.

Review on water leakage control in distribution networks and the associated environmental benefits.

Abstract: Water supply is the primary element of an urban system. Due to rapid urbanization and water scarcity, maintaining a stable and safe water supply has become a challenge to many cities, whereas a large amount of water is lost from the pipes of distribution systems. Water leakage is not only a waste of water resources, but also incurs great socio-economic costs. This article presents a comprehensive review on the potential water leakage control approaches and specifically discusses the benefits of each to environmental conservation. It is concluded that water leakage could be further reduced by improving leakage detection capability through a combination of predictive modeling and monitoring instruments, optimizing pipe maintenance strategy, and developing an instant pressure regulation system. The environment could benefit from these actions because of water savings and the reduction of energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

The widespread and unjust drinking water and clean water crisis in the United States.

Abstract: Many households in the United States face issues of incomplete plumbing and poor water quality. Prior scholarship on this issue has focused on one dimension of water hardship at a time, leaving the full picture incomplete. Here we complete this picture by documenting the full scope of water hardship in the United States and find evidence of a regionally-clustered, socially unequal nationwide household water crisis. Using data from the American Community Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency, we show there are 489,836 households lacking complete plumbing, 1,165 community water systems in Safe Drinking Water Act Serious Violation, and 21,035 Clean Water Act permittees in Significant Noncompliance. Further, we demonstrate this crisis is regionally clustered, with the specific spatial pattern varying by the specific form of water hardship. Elevated levels of water hardship are associated with the social dimensions of rurality, poverty, indigeneity, education, and age—representing a nationwide environmental injustice. Proper water and sanitation access remains an issue for many in the United States. Here the authors estimate and map the full scope of water hardship, including both incomplete plumbing and water quality across the country.

Application of the Improved City Blueprint Framework in 45 Municipalities and Regions

Abstract: Rapid urbanization, water pollution, climate change and inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures in cities may lead to flooding, water scarcity, adverse health effects, and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. Furthermore, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is hindered by water governance gaps. We have analyzed IWRM in 45 municipalities and regions divided over 27 countries using the improved City Blueprint® Framework (CBF). The CBF incorporates solely performance-oriented indicators that more accurately measure the city’s own efforts and performances to improve its IWRM. We have also analyzed the trends and pressures (on which the city’s IWRM has a negligible influence). The Trends and Pressure Framework (TPF) creates awareness of the most stressing topics that either hamper or, on the contrary, pose opportunity windows for IWRM. The improved Blue City Index (BCI*) and the Trends and Pressures Index (TPI; the arithmetic mean of all TPF indicators) have been compared with other city descriptors. The BCI* and TPI showed a significant and negative Pearson correlation (r = −0.83). This implies that cities with pressing needs to improve their IWRM also face the highest environmental, financial and/or social limitations. The BCI* and TPI correlate significantly with the ND-GAIN climate readiness index (r = 0.86; r = −0.94), the environmental awareness index (r = 0.85; r = −0.85), the European green city index (r = 0.86; r = −0.85) and various World Bank governance indicators. Based on a hierarchical clustering of the 45 municipalities and regions, 5 different levels of sustainability of urban IWRM could be distinguished, i.e., (1) cities lacking basic water services, (2) wasteful cities, (3) water efficient cities, (4) resource efficient and adaptive cities, and (5) water wise cities. This categorization, as well as the CBF and TPF are heuristic approaches to speed up the transition towards water wise cities.

Water: the invisible problem. Access to fresh water is considered to be a universal and free human right, but dwindling resources and a burgeoning population are increasing its economic value.

Abstract: Water is an integral part of our daily lives and not just for drinking: when we wake up, we might take a shower, or sip coffee or tea; during the day we quench our thirst with all types of beverages; some of us water our gardens; we wash the laundry and the dishes; and by the end of the day, the average person in a Western society has consumed some 150–200 litres of freshwater (European Environmental Agency, 2001). Yet, household water consumption is a mere teaspoonful in a bathtub when compared with the amount of water used by agriculture and industry. The USA alone uses more than 500 billion litres of freshwater every day to cool electric power plants, and roughly the same amount is needed to irrigate crop fields (Hightower & Pierce, 2008). > …household water consumption is a mere teaspoonful in a bathtub when compared with the amount of water used by agriculture and industry In striking contrast, more than one billion people in developing nations do not have access to safe drinking water and two billion do not have adequate sanitation (World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund, 2005). These figures are expected to increase in the near future. Climate change, demographic expansion in developing countries and the economic development of densely inhabited areas—notably in China and India—are anticipated to cause water shortages not only for health and sanitation, but also increasingly for agriculture and industrial activities. By 2050, the demand for water for food production is predicted to double in order to cope with the needs of the growing human population (Rockstrom et al , 2005). The global need for energy production—and therefore water—is also projected to rise by 57% by the year 2030 (Hightower & Pierce, 2008). Clearly the time …