Combating Water Stress and Scarcity: Augmented Sources and Improved Storage
The effects of climate instability on water resources for irrigation and drinking are less apparently dramatic than sea level rise and storm surges, but just as sinister. According to experts, there are already a billion individuals dependent upon groundwater sources that are "simply not there as renewable water supplies."1 Now planetary warming, in part caused by anthropogenic increases in CO2, is altering precipitation patterns; increasing surface water temperatures, pollution, and atmospheric water vapor content; and reducing ice and snowpack, groundwater recharge rates, and soil moisture. Rising sea levels may also cause saltwater intrusion into coastal groundwater aquifers. At the watershed scale, terrestrial and aquatic agro ecosystems throughout the world will be increasingly vulnerable to alterations in the precipitation and storage cycles.2 These changes, which are projected to continue, are already straining water resources and increasing irrigation demand.3