Abstract
Abstract. This paper provides an introduction to the concepts of water security including not only the risks to human wellbeing posed by floods and droughts, but also the threats of inadequate supply of water in both quantity and quality for food production, human health, energy and industrial production, and for the natural ecosystems on which life depends. The overall setting is one of constant change in all aspects of Earth systems. Hydrological systems (processes and regimes) are changing, resulting from varying and changing precipitation and energy inputs, changes in surface covers, mining of groundwater resources, and storage and diversions by dams and infrastructures. Changes in social, political and economic conditions include population and demographic shifts, political realignments, changes in financial systems and in trade patterns. There is an urgent need to address hydrological and social changes simultaneously and in combination rather than as separate entities, and thus the need to develop the approach of ‘socio-hydrology’. All aspects of water security, including the responses of both UNESCO and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) to the concepts of socio-hydrology, are examined in detailed papers within the volume titled Hydrological Sciences and Water Security: Past, Present and Future.
Highlights
Freshwater is a key resource for human health, prosperity and security
Water resources are under increasingly severe pressure from climate change and other global drivers
Global water issues are being recognized at very high level as of critical importance to human wellbeing and safety, to economic and social development and to the maintenance of natural ecosystems so vital to life on Earth
Summary
Freshwater is a key resource for human health, prosperity and security. It is essential for poverty eradication, gender equality, food security, and the preservation of ecosystems. Water resources are under increasingly severe pressure from climate change and other global drivers. Unprecedented population growth, a changing climate, rapid urbanization, expansion of infrastructure, migration, changes in diet, land conversion and pollution translate into changes in fluxes, pathways and stores of water, and will create further pressures on water resources that will have a tremendous impact on the natural environment. Global water issues are being recognized at very high level as of critical importance to human wellbeing and safety, to economic and social development and to the maintenance of natural ecosystems so vital to life on Earth. Some are predictable and others unexpected and take us by surprise
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