18 Oct Georesource Water – The Challenge of Global Change. Approaches and requirements for an integrated management of water resources in Germany
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in - Classification of publications - All, - Classification of themes - All, - Member Academies - All, Academy’s advice and position paper, Environment, National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)
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National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) 2012Freshwater (from now on simply referred to as “water”) is a precious good. It is one of the essential georesources. The most obvious uses of water properly occur in private households: we do the laundry and dishes; we cook, drink and water the plants. The largest share of water is, however, used by agriculture and industry. In particular, considerable amounts of water are used for power plant cooling in energy production. Groundwater accounts for about one third (30.1 percent) of global water resources, while only a small share is contained in lakes (0.26 percent), wetlands (0.03 percent) and rivers (0.006 percent). A much higher portion is trapped in ice and snow and is thus barely available for utilisation.