Drivers of Future Physical Water Scarcity and Its Economic Impacts in Latin America and the Caribbean

Journal Article · 17 August 2022 · Earth's Future

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022ef002764 · OSTI ID:1889471

Birnbaum, Abigail  ^[1]; Lamontagne, Jonathan  ^[1]; Wild, Thomas B.  ^[2]; Dolan, Flannery  ^[1]; Yarlagadda, Brinda N.  ^[2]

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1. Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States)
2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Future water scarcity is a global concern with significant impacts on the energy, water, and land (EWL) sectors. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are significant producers of agricultural goods consumed around the world, so disruptions resulting from land and water scarcity in LAC are a source of global supply chain risk. Understanding where water scarcity in LAC could occur and what could drive that scarcity to emerge is critical for strategic resource management and planning, both regionally and globally. Assessing future water scarcity impacts in LAC is challenging given the multisector dynamic interactions among the EWL sectors and the multiple uncertainties acting across different spatial scales. We use scenario discovery to explore the drivers of future water scarcity, considering assumptions related to climate, socioeconomics, and the EWL sectors. Understanding what factors drive uncertainty across outcomes can help stakeholders in targeting long-term solutions and future data collection efforts. To illuminate these dynamics, we use a database consisting of a large ensemble of scenarios representing diverse worlds simulated using the Global Change Analysis Model. We quantify future water scarcity and its economic impacts across the scenarios using three metrics: (1) physical water scarcity, (2) water price, and (3) crop profit. We find that physical water scarcity and water price are driven primarily by reservoir storage capacity assumptions, highlighting the importance of strategic water infrastructure development in maintaining future water availability and accessibility. Crop profit is driven by a combination of water supply and demand assumptions, which emphasizes the complex nature of EWL multisector dynamics. While most of LAC is poised to have abundant land and water resources available for development, water basins in Mexico and along the Pacific coast of South America experience high levels of severity and uncertainty across the future scenarios for at least one of the metrics. We find that the drivers of extreme scarcity vary spatially and across the metrics, further highlighting the heterogeneity of the region and the importance of considering multiple metrics to assess water scarcity vulnerability.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1889471
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-170875
• Journal Information: Earth's Future, Journal Name: Earth's Future Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 10; ISSN 2328-4277
• Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English