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| Titel |
Global hydrobelts and hydroregions: improved reporting scale for water-related issues? |
| VerfasserIn |
M. Meybeck, M. Kummu, H. H. Dürr |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 17, no. 3 ; Nr. 17, no. 3 (2013-03-13), S.1093-1111 |
| Datensatznummer |
250018826
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-17-1093-2013.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
Global-scale water issues such as its availability, water needs or stress, or
management, are mapped at various resolutions and reported at many scales,
mostly along political or continental boundaries. As such, they ignore the
fundamental heterogeneity of hydroclimates and natural boundaries of
river basins. Here we describe the continental landmasses at two levels:
eight hydrobelts strictly limited by river basins, defined at a 30'
(0.5°) resolution, which are decomposed on continents as 26
hydroregions. The belts were defined and delineated, based primarily on the
annual average temperature (T) and run-off (q), to maximise inter-belt
differences and minimise intra-belt variability.
This new global puzzle defines homogeneous and near-contiguous entities with
similar hydrological and thermal regimes, glacial and postglacial basin
histories, endorheism distribution and sensitivity to climate variations.
The mid-latitude, dry and subtropical belts have northern and southern
analogues and a general symmetry can be observed for T and q between them.
The boreal and equatorial belts are unique. Population density between belts
and between the continents varies greatly, resulting in pronounced
differences between the belts with analogues in both hemispheres.
Hydroregions (median size 4.7 M km2) are highly contrasted, with the
average q ranging between 6 and 1393 mm yr−1 and the average T
between −9.7 and +26.3 °C, and a population density ranging from
0.7 to 0.8 p km−2 for the North American boreal region and some
Australian hydroregions to 280 p km−2 for some Asian hydroregions. The
population/run-off ratio, normalised to a reference pristine region, is used
to map and quantify the global population at risk of severe water quality
degradation. Our initial tests suggest that hydrobelt and hydroregion
divisions are often more appropriate than conventional continental or
political divisions for the global analysis of river basins within the Earth
system and of water resources.
The GIS files of the hydrobelts and hydroregions are available at the
supplement of this article and at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.806957 as well as geotypes.net. |
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