English
 
Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT
Add to Basket
  Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released
Journal Article

Understanding the transgression of global and regional freshwater planetary boundaries

Authors

Pastor,  A.V.
External Organizations;

Biemans,  H.
External Organizations;

Franssen,  W.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Dieter.Gerten

Gerten,  Dieter
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Hoff,  Holger
External Organizations;

Ludwig,  F.
External Organizations;

Kabat,  P.
External Organizations;

External Ressource
No external resources are shared
Fulltext (public)

27395oa.pdf
(Publisher version), 4MB

Supplementary Material (public)
There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Pastor, A., Biemans, H., Franssen, W., Gerten, D., Hoff, H., Ludwig, F., Kabat, P. (2022): Understanding the transgression of global and regional freshwater planetary boundaries. - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 380, 2238, 20210294.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0294


Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_27395
Abstract
Freshwater ecosystems have been degraded due to intensive freshwater abstraction. Therefore, environmental flow requirements (EFRs) methods have been proposed to maintain healthy rivers and/or restore river flows. In this study, we used the Variable Monthly Flow (VMF) method to calculate the transgression of freshwater planetary boundaries: (1) natural deficits in which flow does not meet EFRs due to climate variability, and (2) anthropogenic deficits caused by water abstractions. The novelty is that we calculated spatially and cumulative monthly water deficits by river types including the frequency, magnitude and causes of environmental flow (EF) deficits (climatic and/or anthropogenic). Water deficit was found to be a regional rather than a global concern (<5% of total discharge). The results show, that, from 1960 to 2000, perennial rivers with low flow alteration, such as the Amazon, had a EF deficit of 2-12% of the total discharge, and that the natural deficit was responsible for up to 75% of the total deficit. In rivers with high seasonality and high water abstractions such as the Indus, the total deficit represents up to 130% of its total discharge, 85% of which is due to withdrawals. We highlight the need to allocate water to humans and ecosystems sustainably.