Invisible water security: Moisture recycling and water resilience

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Hydrology
• Climate Change Research

Background:

• Water security is fundamental for planetary resilience and human flourishing amidst global change.
• Atmospheric moisture recycling, the land-atmosphere-land water cycle, is a critical but often overlooked factor in ecosystem and societal resilience.
• Human land-use changes, particularly agricultural expansion, are significantly altering global moisture recycling and precipitation patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of how alterations in atmospheric moisture recycling threaten various ecosystems and human water supplies.
• To review emerging literature on managing and governing atmospheric moisture recycling.
• To introduce the concept of the 'precipitationshed' for understanding and managing precipitation sources.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and synthesis of current research on atmospheric moisture recycling and land-use change impacts.
• Analysis of the consequences of altered moisture recycling on tropical forests, drylands, agriculture, river flows, and urban water supplies.
• Exploration of novel governance concepts like the precipitationshed.

Main Results:

• Destabilization of moisture recycling by land-use change poses risks to tropical forests, drylands, agriculture, river flows, and megacity water supplies.
• The concept of the precipitationshed offers a new framework for understanding and managing precipitation source regions.
• Existing water resource management tools and sustainability frameworks can incorporate precipitationshed dynamics.

Conclusions:

• Achieving water security and resilience necessitates understanding human impacts on atmospheric moisture recycling.
• New research is developing strategies to manage and mitigate the adverse effects of land-use and water system changes.
• Conscious management and governance of moisture recycling are vital for future water security and planetary resilience.