Title: The%20role%20of%20technology%20in%20global%20water%20problems:%20The%20proposed%20Water%20Elevation%20Recovery%20mission
1The role of technology in global water problems
The proposed Water Elevation Recovery mission
- Dennis P. Lettenmaier
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- University of Washington
- presented at
- Water as a Source of Conflict and Cooperation
- Exploring the Potential
- February 26-27, 2005
- Tufts University
- Medford, Massachusetts
2Outline
- Basic facts on global water usage
- Reservoir Impoundments
- TransBoundary Issues
- How a surface water mission would help
3A thumbnail sketch of global water issues
- Approximately 25,000 people die each year due to
floods - Drought losses globally have exceeded 300B over
the last decade - More than 1.2 billion have inadequate drinking
water (poor quality, insufficient quantity) - Twice that many (2.5 billion) lack adequate
sanitation facilities. - Approximately 10 of the annual discharge of the
worlds rivers is used consumptively, and several
major continental rivers (e.g., Colorado, Nile,
Yellow) are dry for at least part of the year - The quality of many of the worlds rivers has
been seriously degraded by a combination of
pollution, land cover change, dams, and other
factors - Many, if not most, of these problems are not
amenable to technological solutions but some
are - One such example is the acquisition of data about
river discharge, and the storage of water in
reservoirs, lakes, and wetlands
4Why do we care about streamflow?
- Rivers are the earths arteries
- Rivers are a primary source of water for human
consumption, food production, transportation, and
many other uses - Riparian corridors (including wetlands) are
extraordinarily productive and diverse
biologically - Much of the worlds population lives in flood
plains - Rivers also pose major hazards to human life and
well being (due to both floods and droughts)
5- Domestic consumptive use (U.S.) is 200-250
liters/day - Compare with drinking water requirement (about 5
l/day). U.S. domestic consumption has declined
slightly over the last two decades. Much of
difference between potable water requirement and
use is sanitation, laundry, etc. - Industrial requirement in developed world is of
same order as domestic - Total water withdrawals are about 6000 km3/yr
- Compare with global (land) precip 150,000 km3/yr
(or global runoff 0.4 x runoff)
6The Global Picture
- ? Water resource issues will have large effects
on many of the worlds major decisions in the
next 50 years. - ? 1 billion people live on less than 1/day.
- ? More than 1.2 billion have inadequate drinking
water (poor quality, insufficient quantity, but
still priced beyond the means of the poorest),
and twice that many (2.5 billion) lack sanitation
facilities.
? Poorly handled could result in wars and will
result in premature deaths, poor quality of
life for many, and widespread degradation of
aquatic ecosystems. ? Well handled
opportunities for scientific and political
creativity, international collaboration,
promoting cooperation rather than discord.
7Widespread efficiency improvements are possible,
in all sectors
- 1930s 200 tons of water per ton of steel
- 1980s 20-30 tons of water per ton of steel
- 2002 2-3 tons of water per ton of steel
- Agricultural water use can drop and yields can
increase with better irrigation technology. - Essentially, industrialized nations have improved
their water usage, but what about developing
nations? - And population growth is a water management
problem next 3 slides
8Unmet Basic Human Needs for Water
- 1.1 billion people lack access to adequate
drinking water (mostly in Africa and Asia). - 2.4 billion people lack access to adequate
sanitation services. - 2.2 to 5 million die annually from preventable
water-related diseases.
9(No Transcript)
10- What are the implications for global water
management and assessment? - Ability to globally forecast freshwater
availability is critical for population
sustainability. - Water use changes due to population are more
significant than climate change impacts. - Predictions also demonstrate the complications to
simple runoff predictions that ignore human water
usage (e.g., irrigation).
For 2025, Relative to 1985
Vörösmarty, C.J., P. Green, J. Salisbury, and
R.B. Lammers, Global water resources
Vulnerability from climate change and population
growth, Science, 289, 284-288, 2000.
11Global Reservoir Database
Location (lat./lon.), Storage capacity, Area of
water surface, Purpose of dam, Year of
construction,
13,382dams,
12Global Water System Project IGBP IHDP WCRP -
Diversitas
13Global Water System Project IGBP IHDP WCRP -
Diversitas
Human modification of hydrological systems
14Reservoir construction has slowed.
All reservoirs larger than 0.1 km3
15Case study Ganges Brahmaputra River flood
forecasting
Source Jorgensen and Host-Madsen, 1997
16Brahmaputra River 25-day lead forecasts using
experimental ECMWF long-lead precipitation
forecasts
Visual courtesy Tony Hollingsworth, ECMWF
17- Question why not just use discharge at upstream
gauges in India? - Answer Because India wont release the data (at
least in anything close to real-time)
18Flooding Issues
- Flooding imposes clear dangers, but the lack of
water heights and inundation mapping during the
passage of the flood wave limit important
hydraulic modeling that would otherwise predict
the zones of impact. - Essentially, can we predict flooding hazards
which could be used to understand the
consequences of land use, land cover, and
climatic changes for a number of
globally-significant, inhabited floodplains?
Prague
Estimated Costs 1.9 Billion Over 100 dead in
Europe, alone
Black Sea
Kentucky
China
India
These are the floods from 2002, alone!
19From the standpoint of global water issues, what
would be the impact of the proposed WatER mission?
- Freely available data on water storage for water
bodies larger than 1 km - Capability to produce river discharge estimates
for many rivers with width gt 50-100 m - Major implications for the ability to predict
floods and droughts globally - Elimination of competive advantage of upstream
countries in trans-boundary rivers - Implications for global markets (especially food)
20Possible role and implications of a global
surface water mission
- Free and open exchange of global hydrologic data
(which presently does not exist) - Understanding how reservoirs are operated
(presently there is no coherent data base for
reservoir storage) - Water and human health (2 billion incidences of
waterborne diseases per year globally!)