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1 June 2011 Global Urban Growth and the Geography of Water Availability, Quality, and Delivery
Robert I. McDonald, Ian Douglas, Carmen Revenga, Rebecca Hale, Nancy Grimm, Jenny Grönwall, Balazs Fekete
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Abstract

Globally, urban growth will add 1.5 billion people to cities by 2030, making the difficult task of urban water provisions even more challenging. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework of urban water provision as composed of three axes: water availability, water quality, and water delivery. For each axis, we calculate quantitative proxy measures for all cities with more than 50,000 residents, and then briefly discuss the strategies cities are using in response if they are deficient on one of the axes. We show that 523 million people are in cities where water availability may be an issue, 890 million people are in cities where water quality may be an issue, and 1.3 billion people are in cities where water delivery may be an issue. Tapping into groundwater is a widespread response, regardless of the management challenge, with many cities unsustainably using this resource. The strategies used by cities deficient on the water delivery axis are different than for cities deficient on the water quantity or water quality axis, as lack of financial resources pushes cities toward a different and potentially less effective set of strategies.

© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011
Robert I. McDonald, Ian Douglas, Carmen Revenga, Rebecca Hale, Nancy Grimm, Jenny Grönwall, and Balazs Fekete "Global Urban Growth and the Geography of Water Availability, Quality, and Delivery," AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 40(5), 437-446, (1 June 2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0152-6
Received: 21 September 2010; Accepted: 5 April 2011; Published: 1 June 2011
JOURNAL ARTICLE
10 PAGES

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KEYWORDS
aridity index
Global Rural/Urban Mapping Project
Gross-domestic product
Hydrosheds
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