TY - JOUR
T1 - Water depletion
T2 - An improved metric for incorporating seasonal and dry-year water scarcity into water risk assessmentsWater depletion: Improved metric for seasonal and dry-year water scarcity
AU - Brauman, Kate A.
AU - Richter, Brian D.
AU - Postel, Sandra
AU - Malsy, Marcus
AU - Flörke, Martina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Brauman et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - We present an improved water-scarcity metric we call water depletion, calculated as the fraction of renewable water consumptively used for human activities. We employ new data from the WaterGAP3 integrated global water resources model to illustrate water depletion for 15,091 watersheds worldwide, constituting 90% of total land area. Our analysis illustrates that moderate water depletion at an annual time scale is better characterized as high depletion at a monthly time scale and we are thus able to integrate seasonal and dry-year depletion into the water depletion metric, providing a more accurate depiction of water shortage that could affect irrigated agriculture, urban water supply, and freshwater ecosystems. Applying the metric, we find that the 2% of watersheds that are more than 75% depleted on an average annual basis are home to 15% of global irrigated area and 4% of large cities. An additional 30% of watersheds are depleted by more than 75% seasonally or in dry years. In total, 71% of world irrigated area and 47% of large cities are characterized as experiencing at least periodic water shortage.
AB - We present an improved water-scarcity metric we call water depletion, calculated as the fraction of renewable water consumptively used for human activities. We employ new data from the WaterGAP3 integrated global water resources model to illustrate water depletion for 15,091 watersheds worldwide, constituting 90% of total land area. Our analysis illustrates that moderate water depletion at an annual time scale is better characterized as high depletion at a monthly time scale and we are thus able to integrate seasonal and dry-year depletion into the water depletion metric, providing a more accurate depiction of water shortage that could affect irrigated agriculture, urban water supply, and freshwater ecosystems. Applying the metric, we find that the 2% of watersheds that are more than 75% depleted on an average annual basis are home to 15% of global irrigated area and 4% of large cities. An additional 30% of watersheds are depleted by more than 75% seasonally or in dry years. In total, 71% of world irrigated area and 47% of large cities are characterized as experiencing at least periodic water shortage.
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U2 - 10.12952/journal.elementa.000083
DO - 10.12952/journal.elementa.000083
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84985898433
SN - 2325-1026
VL - 2016
JO - Elementa
JF - Elementa
M1 - 000083
ER -