Geography of Future Water Challenges

With a central role for water, the study explores pathways to reduce water and climate risks in four types of 'hotspot landscapes': river basins, deltas and coasts, drylands, and cities. Despite a growing world population, a growing economy and further climate change, the study shows that much can be accomplished with respect to reducing water use by households, industries and agriculture, the risk of flooding by rivers and the sea, and water pollution and ecological deterioration. In addition, land subsidence in delta areas can be countered, food production in dryland areas can be doubled with half the water use, and the risk of local and cross-border conflict can be greatly reduced. A wicked sustainability problem is the construction of new dams; while contributing to the production of renewable energy, dams also have a negative impact on the hydrodynamics and sediment flows in rivers as well as on ecological quality.

Contribution to sustainable development

Water is linked to all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing water- and climate-related challenges from a ‘water’ perspective is projected to contribute in many ways to the SDGs and thus to sustainable development, as this study shows.

Required changes in policy development — nine crucial steps

The study concludes by formulating nine critical and conditional steps to break away from business-as-usual approaches and really bend the trend, from a local to a global level.