Anthropogenic Water Use
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Data on water extractions by sector and available renewable freshwater provide key information on the availability of freshwater and the amount of water stress in a country. Climate Change is projected to reduce renewable surface-water and groundwater resources significantly in most dry subtropical regions. In contrast, water resources are projected to increase at high latitudes. Climate change is also projected to reduce raw water quality, posing risks to drinking water quality, even with conventional treatment. The availability of freshwater plays a crucial role in food production and food security. |
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| Domain: | Terrestrial | |
| Subdomain: | Human Use of Natural Resources | |
| Scientific Area: | Hydrosphere | |
| ECV Steward: | ||
| Products: | Anthropogenic Water Use | |
Global Water Use
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Figure: Estimated and projected trends of total global blue water withdrawal (right y-coordinate), sectoral blue water consumption (households, industry, livestock and irrigation) and total groundwater abstraction (left y-coordinate) over the period 1960–2099 (km3 yr−1). (Wada and Bierkens, 2014)
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ECV Products and Requirements
These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).
The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Anthropogenic Water Use.
| Products | Anthropogenic Water Use | ||
| (*) | Unit | Values | |
| Horizontal Resolution | G | ||
| B | |||
| T | |||
| Vertical Resolution | G | - | |
| B | - | ||
| T | - | ||
| Temporal Resolution | G | month | 1 |
| B | |||
| T | 12 | ||
| Timeliness | G | ||
| B | |||
| T | |||
| Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) | G | % | 10 |
| B | |||
| T | 20 | ||
| Stability | G | ||
| B | |||
| T | |||
(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful.
Data Sources
This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.
- Global data source: Aquastat of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
- Multiple national data sources, e.g. for Australia; Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
