skip to main content
Language:
Search Limited to: Search Limited to: Resource type Show Results with: Show Results with: Search type Index

Human water consumption intensifies hydrological drought worldwide

Environmental research letters, 2013-09, Vol.8 (3), p.34036-14 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

2013 IOP Publishing Ltd ;2013. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. ;ISSN: 1748-9326 ;EISSN: 1748-9326 ;DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034036 ;CODEN: ERLNAL

Full text available

Citations Cited by
  • Title:
    Human water consumption intensifies hydrological drought worldwide
  • Author: Wada, Yoshihide ; van Beek, Ludovicus P H ; Wanders, Niko ; Bierkens, Marc F P
  • Subjects: Amplification ; Downstream effects ; Drought ; drought frequency ; drought intensity ; Households ; human water consumption ; hydrological drought ; Hydrology ; intensification ; Stream discharge ; Stream flow ; Water consumption ; Water runoff ; Water use
  • Is Part Of: Environmental research letters, 2013-09, Vol.8 (3), p.34036-14
  • Description: Over the past 50 years, human water use has more than doubled and affected streamflow over various regions of the world. However, it remains unclear to what degree human water consumption intensifies hydrological drought (the occurrence of anomalously low streamflow). Here, we quantify over the period 1960-2010 the impact of human water consumption on the intensity and frequency of hydrological drought worldwide. The results show that human water consumption substantially reduced local and downstream streamflow over Europe, North America and Asia, and subsequently intensified the magnitude of hydrological droughts by 10-500%, occurring during nation- and continent-wide drought events. Also, human water consumption alone increased global drought frequency by 27 (±6)%. The intensification of drought frequency is most severe over Asia (35 ± 7%), but also substantial over North America (25 ± 6%) and Europe (20 ± 5%). Importantly, the severe drought conditions are driven primarily by human water consumption over many parts of these regions. Irrigation is responsible for the intensification of hydrological droughts over the western and central US, southern Europe and Asia, whereas the impact of industrial and households' consumption on the intensification is considerably larger over the eastern US and western and central Europe. Our findings reveal that human water consumption is one of the more important mechanisms intensifying hydrological drought, and is likely to remain as a major factor affecting drought intensity and frequency in the coming decades.
  • Publisher: Bristol: IOP Publishing
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 1748-9326
    EISSN: 1748-9326
    DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034036
    CODEN: ERLNAL
  • Source: Open Access: IOP Publishing Free Content
    Geneva Foundation Free Medical Journals at publisher websites
    AUTh Library subscriptions: ProQuest Central
    IOPscience (Open Access)
    Directory of Open Access Journals
    ROAD: Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources
Back to results list
INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY (84-028) 37 755 057 Feedback
19 Nguyen Huu Tho St. Dist.7, HCM thuvien@tdtu.edu.vn

Copyright © 2017 INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

Searching Remote Databases, Please Wait