Global Assessment of Current Water Resources using Total Runoff Integrating Pathways and Global GIS

Anticipated water scarcity in the first half of this century is one of the most concerned international issues. However, even though the issue has an international impact and world wide monitoring is critical, there are limited number of global estimates at present. In this study, annual water availability was derived from annual runoff estimated by land surface models using Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP) with 0.5 degree by 0.5 degree longitude/latitude resolution globally. Global distribution of water withdrawal for each sector in the same horizontal spatial resolution was estimated based on country-base statistics of municipal water use, industrial water use, and agricultural intake, using global geographical information system with global distributions of population and irrigated crop land area. The total population under water stress estimated for 1995 corresponded very well with former estimates, however, the number is highly depend on how to assume the ratio how much water from outside of the region can be used for water resources within the region. It suggests the importance of regional studies evaluating the possibility of water intake as well as the validity of the investment for water resources withdrawal facilities.