Water resources

Non-perennial rivers and streams are mapped globally, showing that more than half of rivers worldwide experience no flow for at least one day per year.

Validated barrier inventories and modelling indicate that Europe’s rivers are fragmented by more than one million barriers, such as dams, weirs and fords, causing major impacts on biodiversity.

Global food consumption drives irrigation for crops, which depletes aquifers in some regions; here we quantify the volumes of groundwater depletion associated with global food production and international trade.