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Water resources across Europe — confronting water stress: an updated assessment

Publication Created 14 Oct 2021 Published 27 Oct 2021
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This report aims to update our knowledge of water stress (a general term that includes drought and water scarcity) in Europe to inform policymakers and interested stakeholders about the current state of play.
Downloading: PDF document icon TH-AL-21-011-EN-N Water resources across Europe FINAL 270122.pdf — PDF document, 34.92 MB (36618584 bytes)
Publication Created 14 Oct 2021 Published 27 Oct 2021
EEA Report No 12/2021
This report aims to update our knowledge of water stress (a general term that includes drought and water scarcity) in Europe to inform policymakers and interested stakeholders about the current state of play.

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Simulated depletion of groundwater (in mm per year) between 1990-2018 Colours assigned to different level of groundwater depletion
Projected change in meteorological drought frequency between the periods 1981-2010 and 2041-2070 under two climate change scenarios Left map: Scenario RCP4.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway). Right map: Scenario RCP8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway).The line pattern represents the areas in which at least two-third of the simulations used agree on the sign of the change.
Observed annual mean temperature change from 1960 to 2019 (left panel) and projected change under different emissions scenarios (right panels) in Europe Left panel: boxes outlined in black indicate areas with at least three stations, so are more likely to be representative; areas with significant long-term trends are indicated by black dots. Right panel: projected changes in near-surface air temperature by the period 2071-2100, compared with 1971-2000 for RCP4.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway) and 8.5 emissions scenarios; simulations are based on the multi-model ensemble average of simulations of the EURO-CORDEX initiative.
Trends in annual (left) and summer (right) precipitation across Europe between 1960 and 2015 Grid boxes outlined in solid black contain at least three stations and so are likely to be more representative of the grid box. Significant (at the 5 % level) long-term trend is shown by a black dot (In the map above, this is the case for all grid boxes). The map below shows average annual air temperatures over Iberian Peninsula and Scandinavia, respectively.
Projected change in annual (left) and summer (right) precipitation, 2071-2100 Projected changes in annual (left) and summer (right) precipitation (%) in the period 2071-2100 compared to the baseline period 1971-2000 for the forcing scenario RCP 8.5. Model simulations are based on the multi-model ensemble average of RCM simulations from the EURO-CORDEX initiative.
Areas in Europe with additional water stress in the future under a temperature increase of 3 °C. Percentage of water use against water availability under the temperature scenario of 3 degree increase
Archived
Seasonal water scarcity conditions across Europe, measured using the water exploitation index plus (WEI+) for river basin districts, 2015 This map illustrates water stress conditions across Europe, where water use is displayed as a percentage of total water available.
Draft
Trends in the frequency of meteorological droughts in Europe for the period 1950-2015 Hatching indicates the areas in which the trends are statistically significant at 95 % level.
Draft
Trends in run-off during the driest month of the year in Europe for the period 1951-2015 Trends in monthly runoff of driest month. Computation of trends follows the methodology described in Gudmundsson et al. (2019, doi:10.1029/2018gl079725). Analysis is based on the E-RUN data set (Gudmundsson & Seneviratne, 2016, doi:10.5194/essd-​8-279-2016)
Draft
Projected population change between 2010 and 2050 Projected absolute change in population from 2010 to 2050
Draft
Density of impervious cover across Europe in 2015 (left) and average annual change in soil sealing between 2006-2015 (right) The map shows the density of soil sealing in 2012, based on a 10 km² reference grid. Green and light orange colors show areas with no or very limited sealing, while red and dark red colors show highly to fully sealed grid cells (mainly urban areas).
Draft
The Combined Drought Indicator (CDI) for the last 10-day period of July 2018 (left) and the second 10-day period of August 2018 (right) These maps shows the Combined Drought Indicator (CDI) for the last 10-day period of July 2018 (left) and the second 10-day period of August 2018 (right). Colours assigned to different level of impacts of rainfall deficit on vegetation growth.

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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/water-resources-across-europe-confronting or scan the QR code.

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