Problem Statement

The overall objective of this module is introduce concepts of water stress and how to quantify it according to water supply and demands at a watershed scale.

Module Overview

Water resource systems are faced with meeting the challenge of growing demands coupled with the potential for added stress from climate change in the coming decades. This module introduces students to the concept of water stress through set of data- and hypothesis-driven learning activities that assess water supply, demands and stresses over the entire domain of the Contiguous US. The analysis is conducted at the scale of eight-digit watershed hydrologic unit code (HUC8).

The learning activities guides students to examine water supply, both from surface and groundwater sources, and water use by different sectors (irrigation, municipal and industrial, and thermoelectric). Students calculate water stress indices at different U.S. basins and identify regions with water availability or shortages. Acknowledging the alarming rates of groundwater depletion in many US regions, students re-formulate the water stress indices focusing on groundwater, identify how much the thermoelectric sector is responsible for groundwater use, and explore opportunities for reducing groundwater use by tapping into non-traditional resources (e.g., treated domestic wastewater).