Water Resources and Management: Changing Supply and Demand

Key vocabulary terms and core concepts covering global water supply, demand, and factors influencing freshwater resource management.

Water supply

How much water can be provided

Water demand

How much water is needed by consumers, agriculture, industry, and energy sectors.

Over-abstraction

When water is abstracted (taken) in an unsustainable way, such as faster than it can naturally be replenished or to the detriment of the surrounding environment.

Reservoir

A large natural or artificial lake used as a store and source of water supply.

Water security

The capacity of a population to maintain sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water.

Water footprint

The amount of water an individual uses daily; it includes direct consumption (e.g., from a tap) as well as the virtual water needed to produce food, manufactured goods, and energy.

Disposable income

The money an individual or household has left over to spend after all basic necessities, such as bills, have been paid.

Fast fashion

A retail model focused on rapidly designing, manufacturing, and marketing high volumes of low-cost clothing to meet fast-changing trends, which increases water consumption and impacts water security.

Irrigation

The artificial application of water to land or soil to assist in growing crops.

Convectional rainfall

Precipitation generated when the sun heats the ground, causing air to climb, cool, condense, form clouds, and precipitate heavily; common near the Equator.

Evapotranspiration

The process by which water is transferred from land surfaces and plant transpiration into the atmosphere, rapidly removing water before it can enter surface stores in hot regions.

Reasons for increasing demand in water over time?:

1. Population Increase

2. Economic Growth/ Consumerism

3. Changing Diets

4. Climate Change and Irrigation

Water Supply Varying over space (2 Factors)

1. Convectional Rainfall

2. Evapotranspiration rates

Name 4 main factors that affect global water supply.

• Political,

• Economic,

• Demographic,

• Physical/environmental.

How do political factors affect water supply?

Major rivers flow through several countries, so governments must agree on how to share the water.

How do economic factors affect water supply?

Water use depends on how easy it is to get, so supply is lower in places that cannot afford to extract it.

How do demographic factors affect water supply?

• The world's population is unevenly spread out, creating much higher water demand in crowded areas.

How do physical/environmental factors affect water supply?

• Global rainfall (precipitation) is uneven, so some areas simply do not get enough rain for an adequate supply.