SWWW 2018 Outcomes// Pollution-driven Water Scarcity for Ecosystems and Human Uses Worldwide
To meet the SDGs, we need to understand regional hotspots of water scarcity, both in terms of water quantity and quality. This session focused on the modelling of causes, impacts and solutions to reduce the gap between the supply and demand of clean water to ecosystem functioning and societal needs.
SWWW 2018 Session // Pollution-Driven Water Scarcity for Ecosystems and Human Uses Worldwide
To meet the SDGs, we need to understand regional hotspots of water scarcity, both in terms of water quantity and quality. This session focuses on the modelling of causes,…
The SWWW 2018 Outcomes series provides access to key resources and highlights the main takeaways from panel sessions at Stockholm Water Week 2018 related to the water-energy-food Nexus.
The presentations and discussions of this panel will focus on the identification of water quality hotspots posing risks to human uses and ecosystems with results from models which are policy-relevant. In addition, it discusses model assessments of solutions options to improve water quality and focus on trade-offs and synergies between various SDGs in terms of water quality issues.
Speakers
- Dr. Michelle van Vliet, Wageningen University
- Dr. Maryna Strokal, Wageningen University
- Dr. Martina Flörke, Center for Environmental Systems Research, University of Kassel
- Prof. Dr. Charles Vörösmarty, City University of New York
- Dr. Simon Langan, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
- Dr. Yoshihide Wada, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Conclusion
An introduction was given on the concept of pollution-driven water scarcity by Dr. Michelle van Vliet (Wageningen University) showing the need to include water quality requirements for sector water uses and ecosystems in water scarcity assessments. Dr. Maryna Strokal (Wageningen University) presented sources of river pollution in the 21st century and concluded that increased sewage connection will increase river pollution if the waste is not treated. Dr. Martina Flörke (CESR, University of Kassel) showed the usefulness of global water quality modelling assessments to improve understanding of the impacts and linkages between water quality/pollution issues in relation SDG 6 and other SDGs (e.g. SDG 2,7,12,15). The final speaker Prof. Dr. Charles Vörösmarty (City University of New York) discussed two pathways to reduce global water quality treats: gray vs. green solutions. While the traditional approaches have been grey, there is a lot of potential for using green and blending it with gray engineering to help achieving water security.
The discussion was facilitated by Dr. Simon Langan (IIASA). From the presentations, discussion and panel feedback there were a number of areas of consensus. These ranged from growing issues developing in the future due to climate change and increased urbanisation, the need to consider multiple pollutants and multiple policies and management interventions to bring around sustainable solutions. There was also consensus on the utility of considering mixing gray and green infrastructures and investments within given water systems. Furthermore there was a widespread agreement on the need to further develop and enhance the methods, tools and scaling of existing modelling approaches. Particular reference was made to evaluating the costs and benefits of gray-green infrastructure and its management set within the context of sustainability.
Recommendations
- Develop and test methods for hydro-economic analysis of pollution-driven water scarcity and solution options
- Develop and enhance models to work at multiple nested scales (global to transboundary) for multi-pollutants with a particular focus on future outlook.
- Initiatives:
- Establishment of community of practice for global and regional water quality modelling assessment (e.g. Wageningen global water quality modelling workshop)
- Development of concept and framework of pollution-driven water scarcity, using multi-pollutant models
Resources
- Dr. Michelle van Vliet; Dr. Simon Langan and Dr. Yoshihide Wada: Introduction: Pollution-driven water scarcity for ecosystems and human uses worldwide
- Maryna Strokal: Urbanization: an increasing source of river pollution in the 21st century?
- Martina Flörke: Global Water Quality Modelling Assessments and the SDGs
- Prof. Dr. Charles Vörösmarty et al: Global Water Quality Challenges and Grey-Green Solutions
- Dr. Michelle van Vliet: Rethinking water scarcity to include water quality
- Michelle T.H. van Vliet; Martina Flörke; Yoshihide Wada: Quality matters for water scarcity