Assessing drinking water consumption by inhabitants and tourists in the Alps using a WebGIS for information distribution

Abstract

In the Alps, regional water balances are stressed by an imbalance between the distribution of naturally available water and the anthropogenic water demand. Due to the growing request for freshwater, water resources will have a tendency to decline in future which may cause impacts on water-related ecosystem services for the society. We use European-level statistics to model the alpine drinking water consumption rates of local residents and tourists using the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics from Eurostat at two levels (NUTS 2 and NUTS 3). Using the spatial distribution of local residents and tourists as well as the compiled daily water consumption rates, we modelled the amount of water consumed between 1990 and 2008. In the Greater Alpine Region (GAR) water consumption rates from the population on NUTS 3 level increased from 8.3 million m3 per day during the 1990s to 11.2 million m3 per day in 2008. The water consumption rates of both residents and tourists show an increase in central southern areas of the GAR from 1990 to 2000. This trend continues to the south-western part of the GAR between 2000 and 2008. Thus, the drinking water consumption of inhabitants and tourists is highest in places where hydro-climate changes indicate trends of declining naturally available water resources.