Water depletion: An improved metric for incorporating seasonal and dry-year water scarcity into water risk assessments
Water depletion: An improved metric for incorporating seasonal and dry-year water scarcity into water risk assessments
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DOI：
10.12952/journal.elementa.000083
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发表时间：
2016-01-20
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Floerke, Martina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brauman, Kate A.;Richter, Brian D.;Floerke, Martina
我们提出了一种改进的水资源短缺指标，我们称之为水枯竭，计算为人类活动消耗的可再生水的比例。我们利用 WaterGAP3 综合全球水资源模型的新数据来说明全球 15,091 个流域（占陆地总面积的 90%）的水资源枯竭情况。我们的分析表明，年度时间尺度上的中度水资源消耗可以更好地表征为月度时间尺度上的高消耗，因此我们能够将季节性和干旱年的消耗纳入水消耗指标中，从而更准确地描述可能影响灌溉农业、城市供水和淡水生态系统的水资源短缺。应用这一指标，我们发现年均水资源枯竭超过 75% 的 2% 流域是全球 15% 灌溉面积和 4% 大城市的所在地。另外 30% 的流域因季节性或干旱年份的水量减少了 75% 以上。总体而言，世界灌溉面积的 71% 和大城市的 47% 至少经历过周期性缺水。
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.