A water cycle for the Anthropocene

• Published in: Hydrological Processes
• Main Authors: Abbott, Benjamin, Bishop, Kevin, Zarnetske, Jay P., Hannah, David, Frei, Rebecca, Minaudo, Camille, Chapin, F.S., Krause, Stefan, Conner, Lafe, Ellison, David, Godsey, Sarah, Plont, Stephen, Marçais, Jean, Kolbe, Tamara, Huebner, Amanda, Hampton, Tyler, Gu, Sen, Buhman, Madeline, Sayedi, Sayedeh Sara, Ursache, Ovidiu, Chapin, Melissa, Henderson, Kathryn, Pinay, Gilles
• Other Authors: Brigham Young University (BYU), Institutionen för Vatten Och Miljö, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Birmingham, University of Birmingham Birmingham, GéoHydrosystèmes COntinentaux (GéHCO EA6293), Université de Tours, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), American Preparatory Academy Salem Campus, Idaho State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan State University System, Géosciences Rennes (GR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-IPG PARIS-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS), Technishe Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (TU Bergakademie Freiberg), Sol Agro et hydrosystème Spatialisation (SAS), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-AGROCAMPUS OUEST, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro), Water Research Foundation, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences and College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University, 607150 (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-INTERFACES), European Union's Seventh Framework Program
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: drought; Water Resources; [SDU.STU.HY]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Hydrology; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Abbott; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02170548; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02170548/document; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02170548/file/Abbott_et_al-2019-Hydrological_Processes.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13544

International audience Humor us for a minute and do an online image search of the water cycle. How many diagrams do you have to scroll through before seeing any sign of humans? What about water pollution or climate change—two of the main drivers of the global water crisis? In a recent analysis of more than 450 water cycle diagrams, we found that 85% showed no human interaction with the water cycle and 98% omitted any sign of climate change or waterpollution (Abbott et al., 2019). Additionally, 92% of diagrams depicted verdant, temperate ecosystems with abundant freshwater and 95% showed only a single river basin. It did not matter if the diagrams came from textbooks, scientific articles, or the internet, nor if they were old or new; most showed an undisturbed water cycle, free from human interference. These depictions contrast starkly with the state of the water cycle in the Anthropocene, when land conversion, human water use, and climate change affect nearly every water pool and flux (Wurtsbaugh et al., 2017; Falkenmark et al., 2019; Wine and Davison, 2019). The dimensions and scale of human interference with water are manifest in failing fossil aquifersin the world’s great agricultural regions (Famiglietti, 2014), accelerating ice discharge from the Arctic (Box et al., 2018), and instability in atmospheric rivers that support continental rainfall (Paul et al., 2016).We believe that incorrect water cycle diagrams are a symptom of a much deeper and widespread problem about how humanity relates to water on Earth. Society does not understand how the water cycle works nor how humans fit into it (Attari, 2014; Linton, 2014; Abbott et al., 2019). In response to this crisis of understanding, we call on researchers, educators, journalists, lawyers, and policy makers to change how we conceptualize and present the global water cycle. Specifically, we must teach where water comes from, what determines its availability, and how many individuals and ecosystems are in crisis because of water mismanagement, climate change, ...