1. Water resources in a changing world
Jeremy Bird
International Water Management
Institute
24 March 2015
Photo: John Hamish Appleby/IWMI
2. 5
Remote sensing
and spatial
analysts
22
Economists and
agricultural
economists
5
Ecologists/
Wetland
specialists
8
Soil scientists
23
Social
scientists
14
Irrigation and
agricultural
engineers
30
Specialists in
ground/surface
water
5
Water quality
and health
specialists
Inter-disciplinary
approach
IWMI – Research for Development
operating across Asia and Africa
Photo: IWMI
3. Fresh water
a finite resource
All the Earth’s water as a single
bubble, to scale. Freshwater is the
smaller bubble. Water in lakes
and rivers is the tiny bubble.
Source: USGS
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html
6. 0
20
40
60
80
100
120
10 100 1000 10000 100000
GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)
meatconsumption
(kg/cap/yr)
Meat
China
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
10 100 1000 10000 100000
GDP per capita (2000 constant dollars per year)
milkconsumption
(kg/cap/yr)
Milk
China
India USA
USA
As economies grow, diets change,
…more meat >>> more water
Source: IWMI
7. Agriculture’s challenge…..
To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we need to
produce 50-70% more food…
…and reverse environmental degradation
…and reduce vulnerability to climate shocks
8. …and a reduction in species
Living Planet Index. 2005.
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/360/1454/289.short
Population index = 100 in 1970
11. Solar power will reduce emissions from groundwater
pumps – need to combine with efficient irrigation
systems Courtesy Jain Irrigation
Photos: Hamish John Appleby/IWMI
12. Industry can also be more efficient in reducing
water use – e.g. Coca Cola
• Reduced water use ratio. Since 2001
cut water use by more than a fifth.
• Recycling water used in
manufacturing processes and
returning it to the environment
• Replenishing water in communities
and nature through the support of
healthy watersheds
14. www.iwmi.org
Water for a food-secure world
Waste management in cities in developing
countries cannot keep pace with urbanization
Photo: Neil Palmer/IWMI
18. River flows are naturally highly variable –
climate change makes it more extreme and uncertain
Source: Mekong
River Commission
Mekong River Flow regime at Chiang Saen, 1993-2010
23. Using geo-spatial data to improve our response to
floods
• Improve planning capacity
• Target flood management measures
• Provide basis for crop flood insurance
• Improve flood relief efforts
24. Identifying climate change Vulnerability Hotspots –
to design locally relevant adaptation measures
Climate Change
Vulnerability Index
Anuradhapura
Nuwara-Eliya
RatnapuraSensitivity
Index
Exposure Index
Adaptive
Capacity Index
Source: IWMI
25. Using Mobile Apps to provide flood and
drought information
Photo: IWMI
26. Breeding flood and drought tolerant crop varieties
Swarna-Sub1
17 day submergence
Photo: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
27. It’s a big challenge, but there are solutions…
More efficient water use
Sustainable management of surface and
groundwater
Increasing resilience to climate shocks
Recycling waste and recovering nutrients
Reversing land and soil degradation
Balancing the built and natural environment
28. www.iwmi.org
Water for a food-secure world
Visit: www.iwmi.org
www.wle@cigar.org
Photo: Neil Palmer/IWMI
Notes de l'éditeur
The volume of the largest sphere, representing all water on, in, and above the Earth, would be about 332,500,000 cubic miles (mi3) (1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers (km3)), and be about 860 miles (about 1,385 kilometers) in diameter. USGS
Copy right: Text, graphics and other material contained on this Web site is intended solely for scholarly use by the academic and scientific community.
Copyright issues – no, Creative Commons
Source: IWMI
Greatest decline in freshwater species
fauna and flora.
Important to get the subsidy framework right that encourage and integrated water-energy approach to solar pump development. (ongoing research by Tushaar Shah)
Source: IWMI
Source: IWMI
2 million tons of waste into rivers, lakes and wetlands daily
128 million septic tanks and latrines in India contribute to 80% of the pollution of its surface waters
12 000 km3 of polluted water on the planet - more than the contents of the world’s 10 biggest river basins (FAO 2011)
Source: UN Water
Copyright – OK to use
Next an example looking at flood management. Here we consider not floods in isolation but at the patterns of floods and droughts and how excess floodwater through aquifer recharge upstream can be used for irrigation in the dry period. The key message is not to look at one problem in isolation but consider integrated solutions. And again taking a basin scale approach, here looking at the urban as well as rural areas.