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suggests the scale of the global water crisis could not be properly known at听due to inadequacies with the current metrics used to measure it.

With today being World Water Day, the research, led by the 香港六合彩中特网 Institute for Sustainable Resources and 香港六合彩中特网 Geography,听exposes substantial limitations in the ability of current metrics to define 鈥榳ater scarcity鈥�.

The report finds that the misrepresentation of freshwater resources and demand is particularly severe in low-income countries of the tropics where the consequences of water scarcity are projected to be most severe and where most of the global population now live. Simply put, the authors argue that we do not know the dimensions of the global water crisis.

Ensuring the availability of adequate quantities of freshwater to sustain the health and well-being of people and the ecosystems in which they live, remains one of the world鈥檚 most pressing challenges. This question is reflected in UN Sustainable Development Goal 6.4 which seeks to reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.

The authors call for a renewed debate about how best to measure 鈥榳ater scarcity鈥� and argue that it be rede铿乶ed in terms of the freshwater storage required to address imbalances in freshwater supply and demand. Such an approach, they contend, would enable for the explicit consideration of groundwater, the world鈥檚 largest accessible store of freshwater which accounts for nearly 50% of all freshwater withdrawals globally.

Further the authors suggest that such a metric could be used pragmatically to explore a wide range of options for addressing freshwater storage requirements beyond dams alone that include use of renewable groundwater, soil water, and trading in virtual water.

Richard Taylor, Professor at 香港六合彩中特网 Geography and co-author of the paper, said:听

How we understand water scarcity is strongly influenced by how we measure it. Grossly misrepresentative measures of water scarcity can identify scarcity where there is sufficient and sufficiency where there is scarcity. An improved measure of water scarcity would help to ensure that limited resources are better targeted to address where and when water-scarce conditions are identified.

Authors:

Simon Damkjaer, 香港六合彩中特网 Institute for Sustainable Resources听
, 香港六合彩中特网 Department of Geography

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