Combating Water Stress and Scarcity: Augmented Sources and Improved Storage

Abstract

The effects of climate instability on water resources for irrigation and drinking are less apparently dramatic than sea-level rise and storm surges, but just as sinister. According to experts, there are already a billion individuals dependent upon groundwater sources that are “simply not there as renewable-water supplies.”¹ Now planetary warming, in part caused by anthropogenic increases in CO₂, is altering precipitation patterns; increasing surface water temperatures, pollution, and atmospheric water-vapor content; and reducing ice- and snowpack, groundwater-recharge rates, and soil moisture. Rising sea levels may also cause saltwater intrusion into coastal groundwater aquifers. At the watershed scale, terrestrial and aquatic agro-ecosystems throughout the world will be increasingly vulnerable to alterations in the precipitation and storage cycles.² These changes, which are projected to continue, are already straining water resources and increasing irrigation demand.³