This article presents a new way to estimate seasonal water stress, supporting more informed water management. A new plugin for the WEAP tool was also developed alongside this research.
Water stress is one of the indicators of reducing water scarcity as outlined in the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Specifically, it addresses Target 6.4, which aims to reduce water scarcity by increasing water use efficiency. While there appears to be little water stress on a global level, data on the regional level show significant disparities that are masked by national averages, especially for larger countries.
This article presents an updated computational method to spatially separate regions. This would avoid double-counting fresh water resources, improving consistency between water estimates at different geographic levels.
While water managers can use this method to better analyse water supply based on sub-basin and season, better aligning their projects with sustainability goals, a corresponding tool on the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP), the Water Stress Plugin, was developed alongside this research. This plug-in is integrated with the WEAP tool, and can be used to apply the methodology for multiple climate and management scenarios.
Tool / The Water Evaluation and Adaptation Planning tool (WEAP) provides a comprehensive and user-friendly framework for policy analysis in water resources planning.
Feature / A new feature of SEI’s WEAP tool allows users to gain insight on water stress at the local scale, enabling accurate SDG reporting and regional water planning.
SEI brief / This brief presents a new plug-in for the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software to calculate water stress by catchment area.
Project / SEI is helping FAO meet sustainable development goals by training technicians to assess water stress at the sub-basin level in Algeria and Tunisia.
