World Water Resources. A new appraisal and assessment for the 21st century.

Abstract

In the framework of UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP), a monograph on world water resources has been prepared by Professor I. Shiklomanov and his team at the State Hydrological Institute, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. It is a result of a decade of international co-operative research and provides an updated assessment of the freshwater resources of the world at the beginning of the 21st Century and also addresses the problems of availability, protection and management of water resources. This brochure is a summarized version of the monograph and is designed to help decision-makers, administrators and the general public to fully understand the challenges in the domain of water which we are facing today and which need to be met tomorrow. It presents, in summarized form, the distribution of world water resources, their main basic components, their present water supply, agricultural and industrial use for a forecast for water use according to increasing demand, the impact of human activity on the availability of water together with recommendations for the future. The brochure also clearly shows that much is still to be achieved and that many aspects need to be improved, in particular, global hydrological networks and the collection and processing of data to ensure greater accuracy and reliability in water resources assessment. Worldwide efforts need to be made. There is a pressing need for even closer co-operation amongst scientists, international and non-governmental organizations dealing with hydrology and water resources so that water resources assessment capabilities can be improved from national through regional to global levels.