Résumé :
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"World water resources at the beginning of the 21st century" provides a modern assessment of the state of the world's water resources. This volume collects in one place a huge amount of data on global resources. Specific feautures of runoff formation and its use, available information data and assessments are presented for each continent. A uniform methodological approach has led to a space-time distribution of these characteristics for river basins, regions and countries.The dynamics of water availability is estimated taking account of population growth and increase in water consumption. Building from the continent-by-continent analysis, the dynamics of water resources, water use and water availability for the Earth as a whole is presented, and for all natural-economic regions and selected countries, as well as river water inflow to the World Ocean. A dependence of water resources and water use upon climate factors and socio-economic conditions is demonstrated. Load on water resources has been estimated for each natural-economic region, regions of water stress and deficit are highlighted, and a great increase of such regions in the future is forecast if present trends in water use remain. The problem of the effect of anthropogenic climate change on water resources and water needs is also considered. This volume will prove to be an invaluable resource for all researchers and policymakers involved in water resources issues.
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