Reconstruction of global gridded monthly sectoral water withdrawals for 1971–2010 and analysis of their spatiotemporal patterns

Abstract. Human water withdrawal has increasingly altered the global water cycle in past decades, yet our understanding of its driving forces and patterns is limited. Reported historical estimates of sectoral water withdrawals are often sparse and incomplete, mainly restricted to water withdrawal estimates available at annual and country scale, due to a lack of observations at local and seasonal time scales. In this study, through collecting and consolidating various sources of reported data and developing spatial and temporal statistical downscaling algorithms, we reconstruct a global monthly gridded (0.5 degree) sectoral water withdrawal dataset for the period 1971–2010, which distinguishes six water use sectors, i.e. irrigation, domestic, electricity generation (cooling of thermal power plants), livestock, mining, and manufacturing. Based on the reconstructed dataset, the spatial and temporal patterns of historical water withdrawal are analyzed. Results show that global total water withdrawal has increased significantly during 1971–2010, mainly driven by the increase of irrigation water withdrawal. Regions with high water withdrawal are those densely populated or with large irrigated cropland production, e.g., the United States (US), eastern China, India, and Europe. Seasonally, irrigation water withdrawal in summer for the major crops contributes a large percentage of annual total irrigation water withdrawal in mid and high-latitude regions, and the dominant season of irrigation water withdrawal is also different across regions. Domestic water withdrawal is mostly characterized by a summer peak, while water withdrawal for electricity generation has a winter peak in high-latitude regions and a summer peak in low-latitude regions. Despite the overall increasing trend, irrigation in the western US and domestic water withdrawal in western Europe exhibit a decreasing trend. Our results highlight the distinct spatial pattern of human water use by sectors at the seasonal and annual scales. The reconstructed gridded water withdrawal dataset is open-access, and can be used for examining issues related to water withdrawals at fine spatial, temporal and sectoral scales.

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Reconstruction of global gridded monthly sectoral water withdrawals for 1971–2010 and analysis of their spatiotemporal patterns

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-22-2117-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 2117-2133 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Zhongwei Huang ◽

Mohamad Hejazi ◽

Xinya Li ◽

Qiuhong Tang ◽

Chris Vernon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

High Latitude ◽

Irrigation Water ◽

Electricity Generation ◽

The United States ◽

Water Withdrawal ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Summer Peak ◽

Water Withdrawals ◽

Global Water

Abstract. Human water withdrawal has increasingly altered the global water cycle in past decades, yet our understanding of its driving forces and patterns is limited. Reported historical estimates of sectoral water withdrawals are often sparse and incomplete, mainly restricted to water withdrawal estimates available at annual and country scales, due to a lack of observations at seasonal and local scales. In this study, through collecting and consolidating various sources of reported data and developing spatial and temporal statistical downscaling algorithms, we reconstruct a global monthly gridded (0.5∘) sectoral water withdrawal dataset for the period 1971–2010, which distinguishes six water use sectors, i.e., irrigation, domestic, electricity generation (cooling of thermal power plants), livestock, mining, and manufacturing. Based on the reconstructed dataset, the spatial and temporal patterns of historical water withdrawal are analyzed. Results show that total global water withdrawal has increased significantly during 1971–2010, mainly driven by the increase in irrigation water withdrawal. Regions with high water withdrawal are those densely populated or with large irrigated cropland production, e.g., the United States (US), eastern China, India, and Europe. Seasonally, irrigation water withdrawal in summer for the major crops contributes a large percentage of total annual irrigation water withdrawal in mid- and high-latitude regions, and the dominant season of irrigation water withdrawal is also different across regions. Domestic water withdrawal is mostly characterized by a summer peak, while water withdrawal for electricity generation has a winter peak in high-latitude regions and a summer peak in low-latitude regions. Despite the overall increasing trend, irrigation in the western US and domestic water withdrawal in western Europe exhibit a decreasing trend. Our results highlight the distinct spatial pattern of human water use by sectors at the seasonal and annual timescales. The reconstructed gridded water withdrawal dataset is open access, and can be used for examining issues related to water withdrawals at fine spatial, temporal, and sectoral scales.

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Global scenarios of irrigation water abstractions for bioenergy production: a systematic review

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ◽

10.5194/hess-25-1711-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 1711-1726

Author(s):

Fabian Stenzel ◽

Dieter Gerten ◽

Naota Hanasaki

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

Irrigation Water ◽

High Water ◽

Green Water ◽

Total Biomass ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Crop Species ◽

Biomass Harvest ◽

Bioenergy Production ◽

Water Withdrawals

Abstract. Many scenarios of future climate evolution and its anthropogenic drivers include considerable amounts of bioenergy as a fuel source, as a negative emission technology, and for providing electricity. The associated freshwater abstractions for irrigation of dedicated biomass plantations might be substantial and therefore potentially increase water limitation and stress in affected regions; however, assumptions and quantities of water use provided in the literature vary strongly. This paper reviews existing global assessments of freshwater abstractions for bioenergy production and puts these estimates into the context of scenarios of other water-use sectors. We scanned the available literature and (out of 430 initial hits) found 16 publications (some of which include several bioenergy-water-use scenarios) with reported values on global irrigation water abstractions for biomass plantations, suggesting water withdrawals in the range of 128.4 to 9000 km3 yr−1, which would come on top of (or compete with) agricultural, industrial, and domestic water withdrawals. To provide an understanding of the origins of this large range, we present the diverse underlying assumptions, discuss major study differences, and calculate an inverse water-use efficiency (iwue), which facilitates comparison of the required freshwater amounts per produced biomass harvest. We conclude that due to the potentially high water demands and the tradeoffs that might go along with them, bioenergy should be an integral part of global assessments of freshwater demand and use. For interpreting and comparing reported estimates of possible future bioenergy water abstractions, full disclosure of parameters and assumptions is crucial. A minimum set should include the complete water balances of bioenergy production systems (including partitioning of blue and green water), bioenergy crop species and associated water-use efficiencies, rainfed and irrigated bioenergy plantation locations (including total area and meteorological conditions), and total biomass harvest amounts. In the future, a model intercomparison project with standardized parameters and scenarios would be helpful.

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Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-7-3977-2010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 3977-4021 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

S. Siebert ◽

J. Burke ◽

J. M. Faures ◽

K. Frenken ◽

J. Hoogeveen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

Irrigation Water ◽

Water Cycle ◽

The United States ◽

Major Step ◽

Groundwater Use ◽

Irrigation Water Use ◽

Global Inventory ◽

Consumptive Water ◽

Water Uses

Abstract. Irrigation is the most important water use sector accounting for about 70% of the global freshwater withdrawals and 90% of consumptive water uses. While the extent of irrigation and related water uses are reported in statistical databases or estimated by model simulations, information on the source of irrigation water is scarce and very scattered. Here we present a new global inventory on the extent of areas irrigated with groundwater, surface water or non-conventional sources, and we determine the related consumptive water uses. The inventory provides data for 15 038 national and sub-national administrative units. Irrigated area was provided by census-based statistics from international and national organizations. A global model was then applied to simulate consumptive water uses for irrigation by water source. Globally, area equipped for irrigation is currently about 301 million ha of which 38% are equipped for irrigation with groundwater. Total consumptive groundwater use for irrigation is estimated as 545 km3 yr−1, or 43% of the total consumptive irrigation water use of 1 277 km3 yr−1. The countries with the largest extent of areas equipped for irrigation with groundwater, in absolute terms, are India (39 million ha), China (19 million ha) and the United States of America (17 million ha). Groundwater use in irrigation is increasing both in absolute terms and in percentage of total irrigation, leading in places to concentrations of users exploiting groundwater storage at rates above groundwater recharge. Despite the uncertainties associated with statistical data available to track patterns and growth of groundwater use for irrigation, the inventory presented here is a major step towards a more informed assessment of agricultural water use and its consequences for the global water cycle.

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Public supply and domestic water use in the United States, 2015

Open-File Report ◽

10.3133/ofr20171131 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Cheryl A. Dieter ◽

Molly A. Maupin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Use ◽

The United States ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Public Supply

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Regional Multivariate Indices of Water Use Potential for the Continental United States

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11082292 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 2292

Author(s):

White ◽

Mack ◽

Harlan ◽

Krayenhoff ◽

Georgescu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Use ◽

Human Life ◽

Regional Scale ◽

The United States ◽

Data Availability ◽

Water Withdrawal ◽

United States Geological Survey ◽

Scarce Water ◽

Small Set

The necessity of freshwater for sustaining human life has prompted the development of numerous estimation techniques and metrics for understanding where, when, and why water is used. While estimates are valuable, techniques for estimating water use vary, and may be difficult to replicate and/or unavailable on an annual basis or at the regional scale. To address these drawbacks, this paper proposes a series of regional indices for the continental United States that could serve as proxies for water use that are based on key variables associated with water use. Regional indices at the county level are computed, compared against each other, and compared to water withdrawal estimates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). These comparisons highlight differences amongst the derived indices and the water withdrawal estimates. They also demonstrate promise for future development and implementation of related indices, given their similarities with water withdrawal estimates. Using only a small set of variables, these indices achieve some degree of similarity (~20%) to estimates of water withdrawals. The comparative data availability and ease of estimating these indices, as well as the ability to decompose the additive indices into their constituent use categories and constituent variables, renders them practically useful to water managers and other decision makers for identification of locally specific drivers of water use and implementation of more geographically-appropriate policies to manage scarce water resources.

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A global water scarcity assessment under shared socio-economic pathways – Part 1: Water use

Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions ◽

10.5194/hessd-9-13879-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 13879-13932 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

N. Hanasaki ◽

S. Fujimori ◽

T. Yamamoto ◽

S. Yoshikawa ◽

Y. Masaki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Use ◽

21St Century ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Climate Modeling ◽

Water Withdrawal ◽

Industrial Water ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Irrigation Area ◽

Five Factors ◽

Global Water

Abstract. A novel global water scarcity assessment for the 21st century is presented in a two-part paper. In this first paper, water use scenarios are presented for the latest global hydrological models. The scenarios are compatible with the socio-economic scenarios of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs), which are a part of the latest set of scenarios on global change developed by the integrated assessment, IAV (climate change impact, adaptation, and vulnerability assessment), and climate modeling community. The SSPs depict five global situations based on substantially different socio-economic conditions during the 21st century. Water use scenarios were developed to reflect the key concepts underpinning each situation. Each scenario consists of five factors: irrigation area, crop intensity, irrigation efficiency, industrial water withdrawal, and municipal water withdrawal. The first three factors are used to estimate agricultural water withdrawal. All factors were developed using simple models based on a literature review and analysis of historical records. The factors are grid-based at a spatial resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° and cover the whole 21st century at 5-yr intervals. Each factor displays a wide variation among the different global situations depicted: the irrigation area in 2085 varies between 270 and 450 km2, industrial water between 246 and 1714 km3 yr−1, and domestic water withdrawal between 573 and 1280 km3 yr−1. The water use scenarios can be used for global water scarcity assessments by identifying the regions vulnerable to water scarcity and analyzing the timing and magnitude of scarcity conditions.

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Sensitivities of Recent Electricity Generation Water Use Findings to Data Updates and Variability

Volume 2: Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM); Plant Systems, Structures, Components and Materials Issues; Simple and Combined Cycles; Advanced Energy Systems and Renewables (Wind, Solar and Geothermal); Energy Water Nexus; Thermal Hydraulics and CFD; Nuclear Plant Design, Licensing and Construction; Performance Testing and Performance Test Codes ◽

10.1115/power2013-98227 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

James R. Meldrum ◽

Kristen B. Averyt ◽

Jordan E. Macknick ◽

Robin L. Newmark ◽

John Rogers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Water Use ◽

Electricity Generation ◽

Power Plants ◽

The United States ◽

Energy Information Administration ◽

Primary Literature ◽

Thermoelectric Power Plants ◽

Operational Processes ◽

Energy Information

Electricity generating technologies require substantial amounts of water for cooling in steam cycle processes and for other operational processes [1,2]. This study expands on recent research [3,4] that uses estimates of operational water consumption and withdrawal factors for electricity generating technologies, collected from published primary literature [1,5], and power plant statistics provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), to calculate and understand the water use by thermoelectric power plants in the United States.

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