High-resolution maps of the main types of anthropogenic surface water demand for 4 Andean countries (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile)
Abstract
The Andes are a hotspot for water scarcity, anthropogenic pressure, and environmental change. However, quantitative and distributed data on water use are generally scarce, dispersed, and highly heterogeneous. This is a major bottleneck to studying water resources issues and developing strategies to improve water resource management in the region. Here we present high resolution gridded maps (3 arcseconds) of anthropogenic surface water demand in the Andes, disaggregated in the major types of water use: domestic users, irrigated area and hydroelectricity. The dataset has been built by combining direct data from various national hydrological and meteorological institutions with a purpose-built algorithm that estimates the most likely position of abstraction points for regions that lack direct data using proxy datasets including the WorldPop population maps and the MapSPAM initiative for irrigated area. Moreover, we use data from the AQUASTAT water resources database of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) on water and sanitation to validate our findings.
The data can be used for research on the impacts of human pressure on water resources, potential impacts of environmental changes on human development, adaptation, or resilience, and to guide regional decision making on water resources in the Andes. In addition, we demonstrate how the applied algorithm can be used in other regions of the world where data is scarce and a first estimation of water demand is required.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H51S1573Z
- Keywords:
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- 1812 Drought;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1821 Floods;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1876 Water budgets;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1880 Water management;
- HYDROLOGY