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A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity

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  • Simon Gosling
  • Nigel Arnell

Abstract

This paper presents a global scale assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity. Patterns of climate change from 21 Global Climate Models (GCMs) under four SRES scenarios are applied to a global hydrological model to estimate water resources across 1339 watersheds. The Water Crowding Index (WCI) and the Water Stress Index (WSI) are used to calculate exposure to increases and decreases in global water scarcity due to climate change. 1.6 (WCI) and 2.4 (WSI) billion people are estimated to be currently living within watersheds exposed to water scarcity. Using the WCI, by 2050 under the A1B scenario, 0.5 to 3.1 billion people are exposed to an increase in water scarcity due to climate change (range across 21 GCMs). This represents a higher upper-estimate than previous assessments because scenarios are constructed from a wider range of GCMs. A substantial proportion of the uncertainty in the global-scale effect of climate change on water scarcity is due to uncertainty in the estimates for South Asia and East Asia. Sensitivity to the WCI and WSI thresholds that define water scarcity can be comparable to the sensitivity to climate change pattern. More of the world will see an increase in exposure to water scarcity than a decrease due to climate change but this is not consistent across all climate change patterns. Additionally, investigation of the effects of a set of prescribed global mean temperature change scenarios show rapid increases in water scarcity due to climate change across many regions of the globe, up to 2 °C, followed by stabilisation to 4 °C. Copyright The Author(s) 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Gosling & Nigel Arnell, 2016. "A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 371-385, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:134:y:2016:i:3:p:371-385
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-013-0853-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. N. W. Arnell & J. A. Lowe & S. Brown & S. N. Gosling & P. Gottschalk & J. Hinkel & B. Lloyd-Hughes & R. J. Nicholls & T. J. Osborn & T. M. Osborne & G. A. Rose & P. Smith & R. F. Warren, 2013. "A global assessment of the effects of climate policy on the impacts of climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(5), pages 512-519, May.
    2. P. C. D. Milly & K. A. Dunne & A. V. Vecchia, 2005. "Global pattern of trends in streamflow and water availability in a changing climate," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7066), pages 347-350, November.
    3. Simon Gosling & Glenn McGregor & Jason Lowe, 2012. "The benefits of quantifying climate model uncertainty in climate change impacts assessment: an example with heat-related mortality change estimates," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 217-231, May.
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