scholarly journals Simulating human impacts on global water resources using VIC-5

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram Droppers ◽  
Wietse H. P. Franssen ◽  
Michelle T. H. van Vliet ◽  
Bart Nijssen ◽  
Fulco Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
Water Withdrawals ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. Questions related to historical and future water resources and water scarcity have been addressed by several macro-scale hydrological models over the last few decades. However, further advancements are needed to improve the integration of anthropogenic impacts and environmental flow requirements into hydrological models. The newly developed VIC-WUR model aims to increase the applicability of the VIC-5 model for water resource assessments, specifically by including human impacts and environmental flow requirements. To this end, VIC-WUR extends VIC-5 with modules for irrigation, domestic, industrial, energy and livestock water-use, environmental flow requirements for surface and groundwater systems, and dam operation. Model inputs of sectoral water demand were estimated independently and correlated well to reported national water withdrawals. VIC-WUR results, based on the newly developed modules, corresponded with results from reported global water withdrawals and other hydrological models, although differences exist. The VICWUR irrigation withdrawals were high compared to the other models but closer to the reported values, decreasing the gap between simulated and reported withdrawals. Irrigation withdrawals were probably high due to the inclusion of groundwater withdrawals and paddy irrigation in the model. Domestic and industrial water withdrawals were slightly lower than the reported values. Domestic and industrial withdrawals were probably insufficient due to low water availability, as the potential water withdrawals are more in line with reported values. Livestock water withdrawals were within the range of reported values and other models. The model additions comprehensively incorporate anthropogenic and environmental water use, which provides new opportunities for global water resource assessments. A preliminary assessment of environmental flow requirements shows competition between water resources allocated for human consumption and the environment, from ground and surface water sources. The improvements made here are a first step towards integrated water-food-energy nexus modelling.

scholarly journals Simulating human impacts on global water resources using VIC-5

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5029-5052
Author(s):  
Bram Droppers ◽  
Wietse H. P. Franssen ◽  
Michelle T. H. van Vliet ◽  
Bart Nijssen ◽  
Fulco Ludwig
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Vic Model ◽  
Water Withdrawals ◽  
Surface And Groundwater ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. Questions related to historical and future water resources and scarcity have been addressed by several macroscale hydrological models. One of these models is the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. However, further model developments were needed to holistically assess anthropogenic impacts on global water resources using VIC. Our study developed VIC-WUR, which extends the VIC model using (1) integrated routing, (2) surface and groundwater use for various sectors (irrigation, domestic, industrial, energy, and livestock), (3) environmental flow requirements for both surface and groundwater systems, and (4) dam operation. Global gridded datasets on sectoral demands were developed separately and used as an input for the VIC-WUR model. Simulated national water withdrawals were in line with reported Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) national annual withdrawals (adjusted R2 > 0.8), both per sector and per source. However, trends in time for domestic and industrial water withdrawal were mixed compared with previous studies. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) monthly terrestrial water storage anomalies were well represented (global mean root-mean-squared error, RMSE, values of 1.9 and 3.5 mm for annual and interannual anomalies respectively), whereas groundwater depletion trends were overestimated. The implemented anthropogenic impact modules increased simulated streamflow performance for 370 of the 462 anthropogenically impacted Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) monitoring stations, mostly due to the effects of reservoir operation. An assessment of environmental flow requirements indicates that global water withdrawals have to be severely limited (by 39 %) to protect aquatic ecosystems, especially with respect to groundwater withdrawals. VIC-WUR has potential for studying the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic developments on current and future water resources and sector-specific water scarcity. The additions presented here make the VIC model more suited for fully integrated worldwide water resource assessments.

scholarly journals Hydrological impacts of global land cover change and human water use

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 5603-5626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce H. C. Bosmans ◽  
Ludovicus P. H. van Beek ◽  
Edwin H. Sutanudjaja ◽  
Marc F. P. Bierkens
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Climatic Zones ◽  
Water Abstraction ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Human impacts on global terrestrial hydrology have been accelerating during the 20th century. These human impacts include the effects of reservoir building and human water use, as well as land cover change. To date, many global studies have focussed on human water use, but only a few focus on or include the impact of land cover change. Here we use PCR-GLOBWB, a combined global hydrological and water resources model, to assess the impacts of land cover change as well as human water use globally in different climatic zones. Our results show that land cover change has a strong effect on the global hydrological cycle, on the same order of magnitude as the effect of human water use (applying irrigation, abstracting water, for industrial use for example, including reservoirs, etc.). When globally averaged, changing the land cover from that of 1850 to that of 2000 increases discharge through reduced evapotranspiration. The effect of land cover change shows large spatial variability in magnitude and sign of change depending on, for example, the specific land cover change and climate zone. Overall, land cover effects on evapotranspiration are largest for the transition of tall natural vegetation to crops in energy-limited equatorial and warm temperate regions. In contrast, the inclusion of irrigation, water abstraction and reservoirs reduces global discharge through enhanced evaporation over irrigated areas and reservoirs as well as through water consumption. Hence, in some areas land cover change and water distribution both reduce discharge, while in other areas the effects may partly cancel out. The relative importance of both types of impacts varies spatially across climatic zones. From this study we conclude that land cover change needs to be considered when studying anthropogenic impacts on water resources.

scholarly journals An integrated model for the assessment of global water resources – Part 2: Applications and assessments

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1027-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Hanasaki ◽  
S. Kanae ◽  
T. Oki ◽  
K. Masuda ◽  
K. Motoya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
Environmental Flow ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Monsoon Region ◽  
Asian Monsoon Region ◽  
Meteorological Forcing ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. To assess global water resources from the perspective of subannual variation in water availability and water use, an integrated water resources model was developed. In a companion report, we presented the global meteorological forcing input used to drive the model and six modules, namely, the land surface hydrology module, the river routing module, the crop growth module, the reservoir operation module, the environmental flow requirement module, and the anthropogenic withdrawal module. Here, we present the results of the model application and global water resources assessments. First, the timing and volume of simulated agriculture water use were examined because agricultural use composes approximately 85% of total consumptive water withdrawal in the world. The estimated crop calendar showed good agreement with earlier reports for wheat, maize, and rice in major countries of production. In major countries, the error in the planting date was ±1 mo, but there were some exceptional cases. The estimated irrigation water withdrawal also showed fair agreement with country statistics, but tended to be underestimated in countries in the Asian monsoon region. The results indicate the validity of the model and the input meteorological forcing because site-specific parameter tuning was not used in the series of simulations. Finally, global water resources were assessed on a subannual basis using a newly devised index. This index located water-stressed regions that were undetected in earlier studies. These regions, which are indicated by a gap in the subannual distribution of water availability and water use, include the Sahel, the Asian monsoon region, and southern Africa. The simulation results show that the reservoir operations of major reservoirs (>1 km3) and the allocation of environmental flow requirements can alter the population under high water stress by approximately −11% to +5% globally. The integrated model is applicable to assessments of various global environmental projections such as climate change.

scholarly journals Hydrological impacts of global land cover change and human water use

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce H. C. Bosmans ◽  
L. P. H. (Rens) van Beek ◽  
Edwin H. Sutanudjaja ◽  
Marc F. P. Bierkens
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Water Abstraction ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Human impacts on global terrestrial hydrology have been accelerating during the 20th century. These human impacts include the effects of reservoir building and human water use, as well as land cover change. To date, many global studies have focussed on human water use, but only a few focus on or include the impact of land cover change. Here we use the global hydrological and water resources model PCR-GLOBWB to assess the impacts of land cover change as well as human water use. Our results show that land cover change has a strong effect on the global hydrological cycle, at least as strong as the effect of human water use (applying irrigation, abstracting water for e.g. industrial use, including reservoirs etc). Globally averaged, changing the land cover from 1850 to that of 2000 increases discharge through reduced evapotranspiration, with large spatial variability in magnitude and sign of change depending on e.g. the specific land cover change and climate zone. In contrast, the inclusion of irrigation, water abstraction and reservoirs reduces global discharge through enhanced evaporation over irrigated areas and reservoirs as well as water consumption. Hence in some areas land cover change and water distribution both reduce discharge, while in other areas the effects may partly cancel out. The relative importance of both types of impacts varies spatially. From this study we conclude that land cover change needs to be considered when studying anthropogenic impacts on water resources.

scholarly journals Variations of global and continental water balance components as impacted by climate forcing uncertainty and human water use

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2877-2898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Müller Schmied ◽  
Linda Adam ◽  
Stephanie Eisner ◽  
Gabriel Fink ◽  
Martina Flörke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Water Balance Components ◽  
Climate Forcings ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. When assessing global water resources with hydrological models, it is essential to know about methodological uncertainties. The values of simulated water balance components may vary due to different spatial and temporal aggregations, reference periods, and applied climate forcings, as well as due to the consideration of human water use, or the lack thereof. We analyzed these variations over the period 1901–2010 by forcing the global hydrological model WaterGAP 2.2 (ISIMIP2a) with five state-of-the-art climate data sets, including a homogenized version of the concatenated WFD/WFDEI data set. Absolute values and temporal variations of global water balance components are strongly affected by the uncertainty in the climate forcing, and no temporal trends of the global water balance components are detected for the four homogeneous climate forcings considered (except for human water abstractions). The calibration of WaterGAP against observed long-term average river discharge Q significantly reduces the impact of climate forcing uncertainty on estimated Q and renewable water resources. For the homogeneous forcings, Q of the calibrated and non-calibrated regions of the globe varies by 1.6 and 18.5 %, respectively, for 1971–2000. On the continental scale, most differences for long-term average precipitation P and Q estimates occur in Africa and, due to snow undercatch of rain gauges, also in the data-rich continents Europe and North America. Variations of Q at the grid-cell scale are large, except in a few grid cells upstream and downstream of calibration stations, with an average variation of 37 and 74 % among the four homogeneous forcings in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. Considering only the forcings GSWP3 and WFDEI_hom, i.e., excluding the forcing without undercatch correction (PGFv2.1) and the one with a much lower shortwave downward radiation SWD than the others (WFD), Q variations are reduced to 16 and 31 % in calibrated and non-calibrated regions, respectively. These simulation results support the need for extended Q measurements and data sharing for better constraining global water balance assessments. Over the 20th century, the human footprint on natural water resources has become larger. For 11–18% of the global land area, the change of Q between 1941–1970 and 1971–2000 was driven more strongly by change of human water use including dam construction than by change in precipitation, while this was true for only 9–13 % of the land area from 1911–1940 to 1941–1970.

scholarly journals Water saving through international trade of agricultural products

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Chapagain ◽  
A. Y. Hoekstra ◽  
H. H. G. Savenije
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Saving ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Global Water ◽  
National Water

Abstract. Many nations save domestic water resources by importing water-intensive products and exporting commodities that are less water intensive. National water saving through the import of a product can imply saving water at a global level if the flow is from sites with high to sites with low water productivity. The paper analyses the consequences of international virtual water flows on the global and national water budgets. The assessment shows that the total amount of water that would have been required in the importing countries if all imported agricultural products would have been produced domestically is 1605 Gm3/yr. These products are however being produced with only 1253 Gm3/yr in the exporting countries, saving global water resources by 352 Gm3/yr. This saving is 28 per cent of the international virtual water flows related to the trade of agricultural products and 6 per cent of the global water use in agriculture. National policy makers are however not interested in global water savings but in the status of national water resources. Egypt imports wheat and in doing so saves 3.6 Gm3/yr of its national water resources. Water use for producing export commodities can be beneficial, as for instance in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Brazil, where the use of green water resources (mainly through rain-fed agriculture) for the production of stimulant crops for export has a positive economic impact on the national economy. However, export of 28 Gm3/yr of national water from Thailand related to rice export is at the cost of additional pressure on its blue water resources. Importing a product which has a relatively high ratio of green to blue virtual water content saves global blue water resources that generally have a higher opportunity cost than green water.

scholarly journals The technique of construct water-saving agriculture

2018 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 02016
Author(s):  
Ji Ren
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Saving ◽  
Canal Water ◽  
Irrigation Methods ◽  
Water Problem ◽  
Water Waste

A shortage of water resource in China, the water problem has become the bottleneck of China’s economic and social development. Agriculture consumes very large amounts of water resources and water waste is quite serious in our country, therefore, the construction of water-saving agriculture is urgent to solve the problem of water resource in our country. Implementation technology in the construction of water-saving agriculture was proposed in this paper, namely improve the canal water use coefficient, water saving irrigation methods and suitable irrigation mode.

scholarly journals A framework to regionalize conceptual model parameters for global hydrological modeling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenyan Qi ◽  
Jie Chen ◽  
Lu Li ◽  
Chong-yu Xu ◽  
Jingjing Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Hydrological Modeling ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Physical Similarity ◽  
Similarity Method ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. To provide an accurate estimate of global water resources and help to formulate water allocation policies, global hydrological models (GHMs) have been developed. However, it is difficult to obtain parameter values for GHMs, which results in large uncertainty in estimation of the global water balance components. In this study, a framework is developed for building GHMs based on parameter regionalization of catchment scale conceptual hydrological models. That is, using appropriate global scale regionalization scheme (GSRS) and conceptual hydrological models to simulate runoff at the grid scale globally and the Network Response Routing (NRF) method to converge the grid runoff to catchment streamflow. To achieve this, five regionalization methods (i.e. the global mean method, the spatial proximity method, the physical similarity method, the physical similarity method considering distance, and the regression method) are first tested for four conceptual hydrological models over thousands medium-sized catchments (2500–50000 km2) around the world to find the appropriate global scale regionalization scheme. The selected GSRS is then used to regionalize conceptual model parameters for global land grids with 0.5°×0.5° resolution on latitude and longitude. The results show that: (1) Spatial proximity method with the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method and the output average option (SPI-OUT) offers the best regionalization solution, and the greatest gains of the SPI-OUT method were achieved with mean distance between the donor catchments and the target catchment is no more than 1500 km. (2) It was found the Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE) value of 0.5 is a good threshold value to select donor catchments. And (3) Four different GHMs established based on framework were able to produce reliable streamflow simulations. Overall, the proposal framework can be used with any conceptual hydrological model for estimating global water resources, even though uncertainty exists in terms of using difference conceptual models.

scholarly journals Watershed science: Linking hydrological science with sustainable management of river basins

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 677-690
Author(s):  
Chansheng He ◽  
L. Allan James
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resources Management ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Water Crisis ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Watershed Science ◽  
Global Water

AbstractOver the past decades, a number of water sciences and management programs have been developed to better understand and manage the water cycles at multiple temporal and spatial scales for various purposes, such as ecohydrology, global hydrology, sociohydrology, supply management, demand management, and integrated water resources management (IWRM). At the same time, rapid advancements have also been taking place in tracing, mapping, remote sensing, machine learning, and modelling technologies in hydrological research. Despite those programs and advancements, a water crisis is intensifying globally. The missing link is effective interactions between the hydrological research and water resource management to support implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at multiple spatial scales. Since the watershed is the natural unit for water resources management, watershed science offers the potential to bridge this missing link. This study first reviews the advances in hydrological research and water resources management, and then discusses issues and challenges facing the global water community. Subsequently, it describes the core components of watershed science: (1) hydrological analysis; (2) water-operation policies; (3) governance; (4) management and feedback. The framework takes into account water availability, water uses, and water quality; explicitly focuses on the storage, fluxes, and quality of the hydrological cycle; defines appropriate local water resource thresholds through incorporating the planetary boundary framework; and identifies specific actionable measures for water resources management. It provides a complementary approach to the existing water management programs in addressing the current global water crisis and achieving the UN SDGs.

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