Mapping Current and Future European Public Water Withdrawals and Consumption

In Europe, public water withdrawals make up on average 30%, and in some cases up to 60% of total water withdrawals. These withdrawals are becoming increasingly important with growing population density, hence there is a need to understand the spatial and temporal trends involved. Pan-European public withdrawals and consumption is mapped for 2006 and forecasted for 2030. Both population and tourism density are assumed to be driving factors for withdrawals. Detailed population density maps and monthly regional tourism data are used in combination with high resolution (100 m) land use maps to disaggregate available public withdrawal statistics. Withdrawals are assigned to the appropriate urban land use classes, such that withdrawals can be forecasted based on projected land use, population and tourism trends. Our results show that although there are large variations from region to region, in general public water withdrawals will increase significantly over the period 2006 to 2030. The European average increase is 16%, with a maximal increase of 53% in Ireland. The model was validated using actual regional withdrawal statistics from France for 2006. The model gave a Total Absolute Error (TAE) of 13.3%. The error was proven to be lower by taking tourism density into account in addition to the population density when calculating withdrawals.

VANDECASTEELE Ine;  BIANCHI Alessandra;  BATISTA E SILVA Filipe;  LAVALLE Carlo;  BATELAAN Okke; 

2015-02-04

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH

JRC80271

1027-5606,   

www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/18/407/2014/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC80271,   

10.5194/hess-18-407-2014,