Human domination of the global water cycle absent from depictions and perceptions
Human domination of the global water cycle absent from depictions and perceptions
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/s41561-019-0374-y
复制
发表时间：
2019-07-01
影响因子：
18.3
通讯作者：
Pinay, Gilles
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Abbott, Benjamin W.;Bishop, Kevin;Pinay, Gilles
人类用水、气候变化和土地转换给全球数十亿人和许多生态系统造成了水危机。全球水储量和通量是通过经验和计算机模型估计的，但是这些信息是通过水循环图传达给决策者和研究人员的。在这里，我们编制了一个全球水循环的综合图，我们将其与来自世界各地的464个水循环图进行了比较。尽管人类对淡水的占用现在相当于全球河流流量的一半，但只有15%的水循环图描绘了人类与水的相互作用。只有2%的图表显示了气候变化或水污染——全球水危机的两个主要原因——这有效地传达了一种错误的水安全意识。95%的图表描绘了一个单一的集水区，这排除了遥相关的表示，如海洋-陆地相互作用和大陆水分循环。这些不准确与水管理不善的具体方面相对应，这表明水图中的缺陷反映并加强了决策者、研究人员和公众对全球水文学的误解。对水循环的正确描述并不能解决全球水危机，但重新认识这一符号是人类世迈向公平水治理、可持续发展和地球思维的重要一步。
Human water use, climate change and land conversion have created a water crisis for billions of individuals and many ecosystems worldwide. Global water stocks and fluxes are estimated empirically and with computer models, but this information is conveyed to policymakers and researchers through water cycle diagrams. Here we compiled a synthesis of the global water cycle, which we compared with 464 water cycle diagrams from around the world. Although human freshwater appropriation now equals half of global river discharge, only 15% of the water cycle diagrams depicted human interaction with water. Only 2% of the diagrams showed climate change or water pollution-two of the central causes of the global water crisis-which effectively conveys a false sense of water security. A single catchment was depicted in 95% of the diagrams, which precludes the representation of teleconnections such as ocean-land interactions and continental moisture recycling. These inaccuracies correspond with specific dimensions of water mismanagement, which suggest that flaws in water diagrams reflect and reinforce the misunderstanding of global hydrology by policymakers, researchers and the public. Correct depictions of the water cycle will not solve the global water crisis, but reconceiving this symbol is an important step towards equitable water governance, sustainable development and planetary thinking in the Anthropocene.