Quality requirements for water differ by intended use. Sustainable management of water resources for different uses will not only need to account for demand in water quantity, but also for water temperature and salinity, nutrient levels and other pollutants.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution
Nature Communications Open Access 06 February 2024
-
Water quality footprint of agricultural emissions of nitrogen, phosphorus and glyphosate associated with German bioeconomy
Communications Earth & Environment Open Access 02 November 2023
-
Human activities disrupt the temporal dynamics of salinity in Spanish rivers
Hydrobiologia Open Access 18 November 2022
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Gleick, P. H. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 28, 275–314 (2003).
Vörösmarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J. & Lammers, R. B. Science 289, 284–288 (2000).
Kundzewicz, Z. W. & Krysanova, V. Climatic Change 103, 353–362 (2010).
A Snapshot of the World's Water Quality: Towards a Global Assessment (United Nations Environment Programme, 2016).
Schewe, J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 3245–3250 (2013).
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A/RES/70/1 (United Nations, 2015).
Vörösmarty, C. J. et al. Nature 467, 555–561 (2010).
Liu, J. et al. Earth's Future 5, 545–559 (2017).
Zhao, X. et al. Wat. Resour. Res. 52, 6916–6927 (2016).
Hoekstra, A. Y. & Mekonnen, M. M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 3232–3237 (2012).
Wada, Y. et al. Wat. Resour. Res. 47, W07518 (2011).
Flörke, M. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 23, 144–156 (2013).
van Vliet, M. T. H. et al. Glob. Environ. Change 40, 156–170 (2016).
Alcamo, J. et al. Hydrol. Sci. J. 48, 339–348 (2003).
Kroeze, C. et al. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 23, 35–45 (2016).
Wada, Y., Gleeson, T. & Esnault, L. Nat. Geosci. 7, 615–617 (2014).
Hellegers, P., Immerzeel, W. & Droogers, P. J. Hydrol. 502, 62–67 (2013).
Acknowledgements
S. Eisner and R.v.Beek are kindly acknowledged for providing simulations of water availability and temperature, UN GEMS/Water for supplying observed water quality records, and C. Kroeze for helpful comments on this article. M.T.H.v.V was financially supported by a Veni-grant (project no. 863.14.008) of NWO Earth and Life Sciences (ALW).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary information
Supplementary Figures and sections (PDF 565 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van Vliet, M., Flörke, M. & Wada, Y. Quality matters for water scarcity. Nature Geosci 10, 800–802 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3047
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo3047
This article is cited by
-
A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution
Nature Communications (2024)
-
River water quality shaped by land–river connectivity in a changing climate
Nature Climate Change (2024)
-
Evaluation and Optimization of Synthesized Poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) for Tannery Wastewater Treatment via RSM
Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering (2024)
-
The anthropogenic salt cycle
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2023)
-
Water quality footprint of agricultural emissions of nitrogen, phosphorus and glyphosate associated with German bioeconomy
Communications Earth & Environment (2023)