Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale
Balancing human communities’ and ecosystems’ need for freshwater is one of the major challenges of the 21 st century as population growth and improved living conditions put increasing pressure on freshwater resources. While frameworks to assess the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption hav...
Published in: | Environmental Science & Technology |
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2023
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Online Access: | https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/318548480/Postprint_ESnT_Pierrat_et_al_2023_multicompartment_depletion_factors.pdf |
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ftdtupubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 2024-06-23T07:47:09+00:00 Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale Pierrat, Eleonore Dorber, Martin de Graaf, Inge Laurent, Alexis Hauschild, Michael Z. Rygaard, Martin Barbarossa, Valerio 2023 application/pdf https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/318548480/Postprint_ESnT_Pierrat_et_al_2023_multicompartment_depletion_factors.pdf eng eng https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Pierrat , E , Dorber , M , de Graaf , I , Laurent , A , Hauschild , M Z , Rygaard , M & Barbarossa , V 2023 , ' Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale ' , Environmental Science and Technology , vol. 57 , no. 10 , pp. 4318-4331 . https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 Ecosystem Freshwater availability Water management Impact assessment Sustainability /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/clean_water_and_sanitation name=SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_on_land name=SDG 15 - Life on Land article 2023 ftdtupubl https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 2024-06-11T15:16:31Z Balancing human communities’ and ecosystems’ need for freshwater is one of the major challenges of the 21 st century as population growth and improved living conditions put increasing pressure on freshwater resources. While frameworks to assess the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption have been proposed at the regional scale, an operational method to evaluate the consequences of consumption on different compartments of the water system and account for their interdependence is missing at the global scale. Here, we develop depletion factors that simultaneously quantify the effects of water consumption on streamflow, groundwater storage, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration globally. We estimate freshwater availability and water consumption using the output of a global-scale surface water-groundwater model for the period 1960-2000. The resulting depletion factors are provided for 8,664 river basins, representing 93% of the landmass with significant water consumption, i.e., excluding Greenland, Antarctica, deserts, and permanently frozen areas. Our findings show that water consumption leads to the largest water loss in rivers, followed by aquifers and soil, while simultaneously increasing evapotranspiration. Depletion factors vary regionally with ranges of up to four orders of magnitude depending on the annual consumption level, the type of water used, aridity, and water transfers between compartments. Our depletion factors provide valuable insights into the intertwined effects of surface and groundwater consumption on several hydrological variables over a specified period. The developed depletion factors can be integrated into sustainability assessment tools to quantify the ecological impacts of water consumption and help guide sustainable water management strategies, while accounting for the performance limitations of the underlying model. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Greenland Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit Greenland Environmental Science & Technology 57 10 4318 4331 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit |
op_collection_id |
ftdtupubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecosystem Freshwater availability Water management Impact assessment Sustainability /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/clean_water_and_sanitation name=SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_on_land name=SDG 15 - Life on Land |
spellingShingle |
Ecosystem Freshwater availability Water management Impact assessment Sustainability /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/clean_water_and_sanitation name=SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_on_land name=SDG 15 - Life on Land Pierrat, Eleonore Dorber, Martin de Graaf, Inge Laurent, Alexis Hauschild, Michael Z. Rygaard, Martin Barbarossa, Valerio Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
topic_facet |
Ecosystem Freshwater availability Water management Impact assessment Sustainability /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/clean_water_and_sanitation name=SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/life_on_land name=SDG 15 - Life on Land |
description |
Balancing human communities’ and ecosystems’ need for freshwater is one of the major challenges of the 21 st century as population growth and improved living conditions put increasing pressure on freshwater resources. While frameworks to assess the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption have been proposed at the regional scale, an operational method to evaluate the consequences of consumption on different compartments of the water system and account for their interdependence is missing at the global scale. Here, we develop depletion factors that simultaneously quantify the effects of water consumption on streamflow, groundwater storage, soil moisture, and evapotranspiration globally. We estimate freshwater availability and water consumption using the output of a global-scale surface water-groundwater model for the period 1960-2000. The resulting depletion factors are provided for 8,664 river basins, representing 93% of the landmass with significant water consumption, i.e., excluding Greenland, Antarctica, deserts, and permanently frozen areas. Our findings show that water consumption leads to the largest water loss in rivers, followed by aquifers and soil, while simultaneously increasing evapotranspiration. Depletion factors vary regionally with ranges of up to four orders of magnitude depending on the annual consumption level, the type of water used, aridity, and water transfers between compartments. Our depletion factors provide valuable insights into the intertwined effects of surface and groundwater consumption on several hydrological variables over a specified period. The developed depletion factors can be integrated into sustainability assessment tools to quantify the ecological impacts of water consumption and help guide sustainable water management strategies, while accounting for the performance limitations of the underlying model. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pierrat, Eleonore Dorber, Martin de Graaf, Inge Laurent, Alexis Hauschild, Michael Z. Rygaard, Martin Barbarossa, Valerio |
author_facet |
Pierrat, Eleonore Dorber, Martin de Graaf, Inge Laurent, Alexis Hauschild, Michael Z. Rygaard, Martin Barbarossa, Valerio |
author_sort |
Pierrat, Eleonore |
title |
Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
title_short |
Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
title_full |
Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
title_fullStr |
Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
title_full_unstemmed |
Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale |
title_sort |
multicompartment depletion factors for water consumption on a global scale |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/318548480/Postprint_ESnT_Pierrat_et_al_2023_multicompartment_depletion_factors.pdf |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Greenland |
op_source |
Pierrat , E , Dorber , M , de Graaf , I , Laurent , A , Hauschild , M Z , Rygaard , M & Barbarossa , V 2023 , ' Multicompartment Depletion Factors for Water Consumption on a Global Scale ' , Environmental Science and Technology , vol. 57 , no. 10 , pp. 4318-4331 . https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 |
op_relation |
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/1d6a9b5c-d59d-43c3-bf51-0843b09367b7 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04803 |
container_title |
Environmental Science & Technology |
container_volume |
57 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
4318 |
op_container_end_page |
4331 |
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1802651244696698880 |