Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
Most assessments of global water resources have focused on surface water, but unsustainable depletion of groundwater has recently been documented on both regionaland global scales. It remains unclear how the rate of global groundwater depletion compares to the rate of natural renewal and the supply needed to support ecosystems. Here we define the groundwater footprint (the area required to sustain groundwater use and groundwater-dependent ecosystem services) and show that humans are overexploiting groundwater in many large aquifers that are critical to agriculture, especially in Asia and North America. We estimate that the size of the global groundwater footprint is currently about 3.5 times the actual area of aquifers and that about 1.7 billion people live in areas where groundwater resources and/or groundwater-dependent ecosystems are under threat.
Read more:http://j.mp/Oud6xr
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- Environment