Chapter 5. Water Scarcity and Depletion: Are We Reaching the Limits of Our Supply?

This chapter focused on understanding water scarcity: what is it, where is it a problem, and how does it affect rivers, lakes, and groundwater? This sets us up for talking about solutions to scarcity later in the book. We address questions such as these:

  • Are we using too much water? 
  • Which parts of the world are reaching the limits of their water supply?
  • How is human water use affecting the amount of water in rivers, lakes, and aquifers?
  • What are river “flow regimes,” and how have people changed them
  • What are the impacts of using groundwater more rapidly than it is replenished?

To the right you can download resources from the book and access new resources relevant to this chapter.

Satellite image of the Aral Sea on August 19, 2014, from NASA.

Satellite image of the Aral Sea on August 19, 2014, from NASA. Shown are the Small Aral, the Large Aral, the Syr Darya flowing into the Small Aral, and the Kok-Aral Dam, which controls flow out of the Small Aral. Outlined is the approximate location of the Aral shoreline in 1960. Most of the former lake is now considered the Aralkum Desert, although small parts occasionally re-fill with water during wet years.

Chapter 5 Resources

Table of Contents

Highlights

Table 1: Water scarcity indicators

Table 2: Global groundwater depletion

Table 3: Hard and soft path approaches to scarcity

Figure 1: Map of the WTA indicator

Figure 2: Hydrologic alteration in the Colorado River

Figure 3: Effects of groundwater pumping

Figure 4: Pre- and post-development water budgets for California’s Central Valley

Figure B1: Water use and supply in the Colorado River Basin

Supplemental Resources

content to come

Chapters in Part 1