Anthropogenic Water Use

Sprinklers irrigate crops in a field with text: "Anthropogenic Water Use Essential Climate Variable (ECV) Factsheet" and logos for Global Climate Observing System and UN agencies.
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.

Global Water Use

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)

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
 (*)UnitValues
Horizontal ResolutionG  
B 
T 
Vertical ResolutionG -
B-
T-
Temporal ResolutionGmonth1
B 
T12
TimelinessG  
B 
T 
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma)G%10
B 
T20
StabilityG  
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 abombelliatwmo [dot] int (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)
Anthropogenic water use
Domain:
Land
Subdomain:
Human Use of Natural Resources
Scientific Area:
Hydrosphere
ECV Steward:
Products:
Anthropogenic Water Use