2017/03/22 by Junguo Liu, Hong Yang, Simon N. Gosling +9 · 3 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Water resources management and optimization #Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies #Water Resources and Sustainability
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/2016ef000518
openalex publication_date 2017/03/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Water scarcity has become a major constraint to socio-economic development and a threat to livelihood in increasing parts of the world. Since the late 1980s, water scarcity research has attracted much political and public attention. We here review a variety of indicators that have been developed to capture different characteristics of water scarcity. Population, water availability and water use are the key elements of these indicators. Most of the progress made in the last few decades has been on the quantification of water availability and use by applying spatially explicit models. However, challenges remain on appropriate incorporation of green water (soil moisture), water quality, environmental flow requirements, globalization and virtual water trade in water scarcity assessment. Meanwhile, inter- and intra- annual variability of water availability and use also calls for assessing the temporal dimension of water scarcity. It requires concerted efforts of hydrologists, economists, social scientists, and environmental scientists to develop integrated approaches to capture the multi-faceted nature of water scarcity.