Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road
Background Climate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Methods In this paper, we assessed water supply,...
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PeerJ Inc.
2021-10-01
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/12201.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797422080331874304 |
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| author | Panpan Du Ming Xu Renqiang Li |
| author_facet | Panpan Du Ming Xu Renqiang Li |
| author_sort | Panpan Du |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background Climate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Methods In this paper, we assessed water supply, demand, and stress under three climate change scenarios in the major countries along the Belt and Road. We ensembled ten Global Climate Model (GCM) runoff data and downscaled it to a finer resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° by the random forest model. Results Our results showed that the GCM runoff was highly correlated with the FAO renewable water resources and thus could be used to estimate water supply. Climate change would increase water supply by 4.85%, 5.18%, 8.16% and water demand by 1.45%, 1.68%, 2.36% under RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios by 2050s, respectively. As a result, climate change will, in general, have little impact on water stress in the B&R countries as a whole. However, climate change will make future water resources more unevenly distributed among the B&R countries and regions, exacerbating water stress in some countries, especially in Central Asia and West Asia. Our results are informative for water resource managers and policymakers in the B&R countries to make sustainable water management strategies under future climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:26:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-31fa137ec0ed4a75861ca8ddfd39c846 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:26:58Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
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| spelling | doaj.art-31fa137ec0ed4a75861ca8ddfd39c8462023-12-03T06:52:27ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592021-10-019e1220110.7717/peerj.12201Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and RoadPanpan Du0Ming Xu1Renqiang Li2Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaKey Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaKey Laboratory of Ecosystem Network Observation and Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, ChinaBackground Climate change has altered global hydrological cycles mainly due to changes in temperature and precipitation, which may exacerbate the global and regional water shortage issues, especially in the countries along the Belt and Road (B&R). Methods In this paper, we assessed water supply, demand, and stress under three climate change scenarios in the major countries along the Belt and Road. We ensembled ten Global Climate Model (GCM) runoff data and downscaled it to a finer resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° by the random forest model. Results Our results showed that the GCM runoff was highly correlated with the FAO renewable water resources and thus could be used to estimate water supply. Climate change would increase water supply by 4.85%, 5.18%, 8.16% and water demand by 1.45%, 1.68%, 2.36% under RCP 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5 scenarios by 2050s, respectively. As a result, climate change will, in general, have little impact on water stress in the B&R countries as a whole. However, climate change will make future water resources more unevenly distributed among the B&R countries and regions, exacerbating water stress in some countries, especially in Central Asia and West Asia. Our results are informative for water resource managers and policymakers in the B&R countries to make sustainable water management strategies under future climate change.https://peerj.com/articles/12201.pdfClimate changeWater shortageGlobal Climate Model (GCM)RunoffDownscaling |
| spellingShingle | Panpan Du Ming Xu Renqiang Li Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road PeerJ Climate change Water shortage Global Climate Model (GCM) Runoff Downscaling |
| title | Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road |
| title_full | Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road |
| title_fullStr | Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road |
| title_short | Impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the Belt and Road |
| title_sort | impacts of climate change on water resources in the major countries along the belt and road |
| topic | Climate change Water shortage Global Climate Model (GCM) Runoff Downscaling |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/12201.pdf |
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