Regional variations in freshwater overconsumption
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 - 11:41
in Earth & Climate
Freshwater—which falls to the earth as precipitation or exists beneath the surface as groundwater—is desperately needed to sustain people, plants and animals. With an ever-increasing human population, water shortages are already occurring in many areas are only expected to get worse. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have estimated the freshwater supply and demand of about 11,000 water basins across the globe, determining that one-fourth of freshwater consumption exceeds regional capacities.