Four billion people facing severe water scarcity
TLDR
It is found that two-thirds of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year, and nearly half of those people live in India and China.Abstract:
Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk. Previous global water scarcity assessments, measuring water scarcity annually, have underestimated experienced water scarcity by failing to capture the seasonal fluctuations in water consumption and availability. We assess blue water scarcity globally at a high spatial resolution on a monthly basis. We find that two-thirds of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year. Nearly half of those people live in India and China. Half a billion people in the world face severe water scarcity all year round. Putting caps to water consumption by river basin, increasing water-use efficiencies, and better sharing of the limited freshwater resources will be key in reducing the threat posed by water scarcity on biodiversity and human welfare.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Asymmetric Membrane Capacitive Deionization Using Anion-Exchange Membranes Based on Quaternized Polymer Blends
TL;DR: The fabrication and characterization of quaternized anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) based on polymer blends of polyethylenimine and polybenzimidazole that provides an efficient membrane for MCDI are outlined.
Journal ArticleDOI
Loofah Sponge-Derived Hygroscopic Photothermal Absorber for All-Weather Atmospheric Water Harvesting
Jesús Bobo Ruiz,Tanya White +1 more
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors constructed a solar-energy-powered sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device using a loofah sponge, which is capable of absorbing 2.65 g g-1 at 90% relative humidity and 1.33 kg m-2 h-1 under 1.0 sun.
Journal ArticleDOI
Research priorities for global food security under extreme events
Zia Mehrabi,Ruth Delzeit,A. Ignaciuk,Christian Levers,Ginni Braich,Kushank Bajaj,Araba Amo-Aidoo,Weston Anderson,R. A. Balgah,Tim G. Benton,Martin Munashe Chari,Erle C. Ellis,Narcisse Zegbé Gahi,Franziska Gaupp,Lucas Alejandro Garibaldi,James S. Gerber,Cecile Godde,Ingo Graß,Tobias Heimann,Mark Hirons,Gerrit Hoogenboom,Meha Jain,Dana James,David Makowski,Blessing Masamha,Sisi Meng,Sathaporn Monprapussorn,Daniel Müller,Andrew C. R. E. Nelson,Nathaniel K. Newlands,Frederik Noack,MaryLucy Oronje,Colin Raymond,Markus Reichstein,Loren H. Rieseberg,Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Llanes,Todd S. Rosenstock,Pedram Rowhani,Ali Sarhadi,Ralf Seppelt,Balsher Singh Sidhu,Sieglinde S. Snapp,Tammara Soma,A. Sparkes,Louise S. L. Teh,Michelle Tigchelaar,Martha M. Vogel,Paul C. West,Hannah Wittman,L. Z. You +49 more
TL;DR: In this paper , a prioritization of threats to global food security from extreme events, as well as emerging research questions that highlight the conceptual and practical challenges that exist in designing, adopting, and governing resilient food systems is presented.
Journal ArticleDOI
Simulation‐Guided Design of Bamboo Leaf‐Derived Carbon‐Based High‐Efficiency Evaporator for Solar‐Driven Interface Water Evaporation
TL;DR: In this article , a bamboo-leaf-derived carbon-based evaporator is designed based on the light trace simulation, and then it is manufactured by vertical arrangement and carbonization of bamboo leaves and subsequent polyacrylamide (PAM) modification.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plasmonic metal nitrides for solar-driven water evaporation
Matthew J. Margeson,Mita Dasog +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a summary of the recent progress in solar-driven water evaporation using plasmonic metal nitrides (TiN, ZrN, HfN) and a brief outlook on the current challenges and future directions.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems
TL;DR: Human alteration of Earth is substantial and growing as discussed by the authors, between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by humanity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-quarter of the bird species on Earth have been driven to extinction.
Journal ArticleDOI
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Jonathan A. Foley,Navin Ramankutty,Kate A. Brauman,E. S. Cassidy,James S. Gerber,M. Johnston,Nathaniel D. Mueller,Christine S. O’Connell,Deepak K. Ray,Paul C. West,Christian Balzer,Elena M. Bennett,Stephen R. Carpenter,Jason Hill,Chad Monfreda,Stephen Polasky,Johan Rockström,John Sheehan,Stefan Siebert,David Tilman,David P. M. Zaks +20 more
TL;DR: It is shown that tremendous progress could be made by halting agricultural expansion, closing ‘yield gaps’ on underperforming lands, increasing cropping efficiency, shifting diets and reducing waste, which could double food production while greatly reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global Water Resources: Vulnerability from Climate Change and Population Growth
TL;DR: Numerical experiments combining climate model outputs, water budgets, and socioeconomic information along digitized river networks demonstrate that (i) a large proportion of the world's population is currently experiencing water stress and (ii) rising water demands greatly outweigh greenhouse warming in defining the state of global water systems to 2025.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the flow of water in natural and artificial reservoirs and reduce the vulnerability of people living under water stress to seasonal patterns and increasing probability of extreme events.
Global hydrological cycles and world water resources
TL;DR: Climate change is expected to accelerate water cycles and thereby increase the available RFWR, which would slow down the increase of people living under water stress; however, changes in seasonal patterns and increasing probability of extreme events may offset this effect.