Water on an urban planet: Urbanization and the reach of urban water infrastructure
Open accessAbstract
Urban growth is increasing the demand for freshwater resources, yet surprisingly the water sources of the world's large cities have never been globally assessed, hampering efforts to assess the distribution and causes of urban water stress. We conducted the first global survey of the large cities’ water sources, and show that previous global hydrologic models that ignored urban water infrastructure significantly overestimated urban water stress. Large cities obtain 78 ± 3% of their water from surface sources, some of which are far away: cumulatively, large cities moved 504 billion liters a day (184 km3 yr−1) a distance of 27,000 ± 3800 km, and the upstream contributing area of urban water sources is 41% of the global land surface. Despite this infrastructure, one in four cities, containing $4.8 ± 0.7 trillion in economic activity, remain water stressed due to geographical and financial limitations. The strategic management of these cities’ water sources is therefore important for the future of the global economy.
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Many megacities struggle to meet growing water demand.
“and many megacities struggle to meet growing water demand (McDonald et al., 2014).”
From Scientists' warning on extreme wildfire risks to water supply (2021) · cites this paper as McDonald et al., 2014
78% of large cities on the planet are dependent on surface freshwater.
“as is the case with 78% of large cities on the planet [60].”
From A Global Index for Mapping the Exposure of Water Resources to Wildfire (2016) · cites this paper as [60]
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“Intensive human water use has concurrently increased the magnitude of droughts in water-scarce regions, such as California (AghaKouchak et al., 2015), and many megacities struggle to meet growing water demand (McDonald et al., 2014).”
BackgroundIntegrating the Water Planetary Boundary With Water Management From Local to Global Scales
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- Authors
- McDonald, R. I., Weber, K., Padowski, J., Flörke, M., Schneider, C., Green, P. A., Gleeson, T., Eckman, S., Lehner, B., Balk, D., Boucher, T., Grill, G., & Montgomery, M.
- Affiliations
- The Nature Conservancy (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- University of Kassel (DE)
- City University of New York (US)
- McGill University (CA)
- Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung (DE)
- Baruch College (US)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Corresponding author
- McDonald, Robert I.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Global Environmental Change
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-07
- Volume
- 27
- Pages
- 96-105
- ISSN
- 0959-3780 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2155304622
- Cited by
- 786
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 64 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 87 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 80 · 2019: 72 · 2018: 66 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 45.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Global Environmental Change (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Funders
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Water resources management and optimization
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water Resources and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
- Keywords
- urban water infrastructure, urban water sources, large cities, freshwater demand, surface water supply, water resources management, urbanization
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