The Effects of Rising Global Temperatures on Water Availability and Adaptive Strategies for Water Resource Management

Abstract

This literature review aims to explore three major effects of climate change on water availability and investigate possible solutions to mitigate these impacts. Global warming, a byproduct of climate change, is characterized by higher global temperatures and is a phenomenon primarily driven by air pollution, which originates from the burning of fossil fuels. Rising temperatures cause damaging environmental events that both degrade and diminish global water availability, leading to widespread concern for water reserves. Furthermore, concerns regarding water scarcity are justified by the key role that water plays for the environment and for humans. Specifically, humans rely on water for both survival and community development. However, with global warming intensifying drought severity, accelerating glacial melt, and inducing harmful cyanobacterial blooms, water access is threatened across the world. Droughts drastically reduce the amount of water available for use and consumption by depleting groundwater and drying out water sources. Simultaneously, glacial melt decreases water availability by eliminating seasonal water storage historically harvested from glaciers. Alongside this, glacial melt also degrades water quality by contributing to rising sea levels, which can contaminate freshwater sources. Cyanobacterial blooms diminish water quality by releasing harmful toxins into freshwater sources, which have the potential to harm humans in sufficient quantities and must undergo extensive cleaning to be safe for consumption. To effectively purify and restore water sources, greywater recycling can filter contaminated water from households. Additionally, to address subtle water impurities, electrodes used in electrocoagulation can clump pollutants together for removal. Therefore, it is imperative that solutions based on water regeneration, such as greywater recycling and electrocoagulation, be used in tandem with enhanced global collaboration to increase the availability and access to water in both developed and developing countries, even amid regional climate variability and global resource inequity.