Abstract
BackgroundClimate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R).MethodsIn this paper, we assessed water supply, demand, and stress under three climate change scenarios in the major countries along the Belt and Road. We ensembled ten Global Climate Model (GCM) runoff data and downscaled it to a finer resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° by the random forest model.ResultsOur results showed that the GCM runoff was highly correlated with the FAO renewable water resources and thus could be used to estimate water supply. Climate change would increase water supply by 4.85%, 5.18%, 8.16% and water demand by 1.45%, 1.68%, 2.36% under RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios by 2050s, respectively. As a result, climate change will, in general, have little impact on water stress in the B&R countries as a whole. However, climate change will make future water resources more unevenly distributed among the B&R countries and regions, exacerbating water stress in some countries, especially in Central Asia and West Asia. Our results are informative for water resource managers and policymakers in the B&R countries to make sustainable water management strategies under future climate change.
Highlights
Water is one of the most vital natural resources for almost all societal and economic activities
We found that the random forest (RF) model was quite robust in downscaling the Global Climate Model (GCM) runoff data
We found that the modeled global runoff average between 1986 and 2005 was 35,692.05 km3·yr−1, which was 16.64% lower than the FAO global water resources of 42,820.22 km3·yr−1 for the same period (FAO, 2016) due to systematic bias in GCM data and uncertainties from the random forest model
Summary
Water is one of the most vital natural resources for almost all societal and economic activities. Global climate change may exacerbate water shortage due to the decrease in precipitation in many regions of the world (Hanasaki et al, 2013b; Cramer et al, 2014). Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road. Climate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Methods: In this paper, we assessed water supply, demand, and stress under three climate change scenarios in the major countries along the Belt and Road. Climate change will make future water resources more unevenly distributed among the B&R countries and regions, exacerbating water stress in some countries, especially in Central Asia and West Asia. Our results are informative for water resource managers and policymakers in the B&R countries to make sustainable water management strategies under future climate change
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