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The Impact of Flow Control

Many Asian regions experience relatively large volumes of annual precipitation. However, due to typhoons and monsoons, these large volumes are often concentrated in a particular season, causing periods of extremely low precipitation and dry conditions. To ensure that water supply meets demand during dry seasons and even dry years, hydraulic infrastructure, such as dams and canals, is operated to control river flows. To effectively consider the dependency and pressure on water resources, companies and other sectors need to conduct risk assessments at time scales that portray the natural variation of water availability, specifically by employing (at least) monthly accumulations of water volumes instead of annual ones. Moreover, it has become essential to include the variations in water availability caused by the operation of hydraulic infrastructure to evaluate water scarcity in more realistic conditions.

The information on water-related risks that is provided in Water Security Compass beta is derived from the outputs of H08 Global Hydrological Model. This model has the capability to simulate the water cycle and its natural temporal variability at a daily time scale and with a spatial resolution of about 9 km. What sets the H08 model apart from other hydrological models is its ability to include the operation of dams and water supply canals, allowing for adjustments to the simulated water volumes.

Assessing the Gap between Supply and Demand Considering Seasonal and Interannual Variations

Operational risks for businesses are higher during drought years, which is when water availability is severely reduced. Water Security Compass beta provides indicators that assess the gap between supply and demand by considering seasonal and interannual variations in water resources and water demand (such as Cumulative Deficit to Demand and Deficit to Demand). Taking into account both the frequency and scale of droughts, these indicators can be used to assess the impact of droughts on business activities. Water Security Compass beta also provides existing indicators that assess the long-term average balance between water availability and water demand (such as Baseline Water Stress and SDGs indicator 6.4.2).

Quantyfying Watershed Pressure with AWARE

AWARE is an indicator of water resource consumption and availability that was developed by an international team of experts in life cycle assessment.

The consumption or use of freshwater by industries and other businesses represents a major pressure on watersheds. Naturally, for the same volume of water consumption, the level of pressure will be more critical in watersheds with lower rates of freshwater replenishment or drier precipitation regimes. To help quantify the impact a company has on local water resources, for Water Security Compass beta, we calculated and created maps of Available WAter Remaining (AWARE). This indicator ranges from zero (minor water shortages) to one hundred (critical water shortages) and provides an objective and quantitative measure of how much available water resources are being consumed and how much remains to meet environmental requirements.

The product of AWARE and the water consumption volume of a facility indicates the amount of pressure a company is placing on the watershed. Thus, for the same consumption volume, the impact on the watershed is more critical when AWARE is higher.