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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.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a typical relationship between socio-economic development and water resources management strategy to attain sustainability in water management is developed in China, which shows that the demand-side water management strategies can be the best option to meet the challenges posed by increased severity of drought, population growth, economic development and possible climate change.
Abstract: Water Scarcity and drought are recurrent phenomena in China. In the context of environmental change, an increasing tendency in drought frequency and severity is observed in China in recent years. Therefore, it is imperative to take necessary initiatives to reduce the impacts of drought. In this paper, an attempt is made to identify the best water management strategies to cope with droughts. For this objective the records of historical droughts and their impacts in China over the period of 1950–2009 are analyzed. It is observed that the drought affected area has increased nearly by 12 folds and the drought damaged area has increased by about 22 times in China in last 60 years. Over 87,000 reservoirs were built with a total water storage capacity of about 7,064 billion m3 to cope with droughts. However, this structural supply-based management strategy was not enough to meet the increasing water demand caused by rapid economic development and population growth. A typical relationship between socio-economic development and water resources management strategy to attain sustainability in water management is developed in this study. The relationship shows that the demand-side water management strategies can be the best option to meet the challenges posed by increased severity of drought, population growth, economic development and possible climate change. The concept is later verified through the analysis of changing pattern of water consumptions by different sectors in last 60 years.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the use of media-reported events in the assessment of hydropolitical relations and investigate instances of conflict and cooperation over international water resources during the last 60 years.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented an analysis of human and climate impacts on global water resources at a 0.1° by 0.5° grid [∼10km by ∼10km at the equator] in order to depict more precisely regional variability in water availability and use.
Abstract: A number of global hydrological models [GHMs) have been developed in recent decades in order to understand the impacts of climate variability and human activities on water resources availability. The spatial resolution of GHMs is mostly constrained at a 0.5° by 0.5° grid [∼50km by ∼50km at the equator). However, for many of the water-related problems facing society, the current spatial scale of GHMs is insufficient to provide locally relevant information. Here using the PCR-GLOBWB model we present for the first time an analysis of human and climate impacts on global water resources at a 0.1° by 0.1° grid [∼10km by ∼10km at the equator) in order to depict more precisely regional variability in water availability and use. Most of the model input data (topography, vegetation, soil properties, routing, human water use) have been parameterized at a 0.1° global grid and feature a distinctively higher resolution. Distinct from many other GHMs, PCR-GLOBWB includes groundwater representation and simulates groundwater heads and lateral groundwater flows based on MODFLOW with existing geohydrological information. This study shows that global hydrological simulations at higher spatial resolutions are feasible for multi-decadal to century periods.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors quantify the water scarcity in the central and northern regions of Chile by calculating a water scarcity index, which measures the ratio of annual water demand to availability.
Abstract: Chile contains some of the driest areas in the world, yet human activities in these areas require large volumes of water, the result is regions experiencing high water scarcity leading to environmental degradation, conflicts and reduced industrial productivity. The aim of this paper was to quantify the water scarcity in the central and northern regions by calculating the water scarcity index—the ratio of annual water demand to availability. A focus of the paper was to determine the impact of the main industries in each region and investigate the benefit of implementing water reduction strategies within these industries. The water resources of each investigated region were found to be greatly overexploited and particularly so in the region of Antofagasta. The mining industry was found to be the greatest water consuming sector in this region and further analysis demonstrated that the degree of water scarcity could be greatly reduced by the implementation of water reduction strategies. The agricultural sector dominated water demand in all other regions and it was found that upgrading irrigation efficiency alongside reducing consumption in mining improved the situation in all regions. Nevertheless, given the scale of water scarcity, further investigation is necessary to obtain more recent and accurate data and analyze alternative strategies.

108 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023562
20221,098
2021951
2020879
2019814
2018735