Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems pathways towards reducing water scarcity in Europe

Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems pathways towards reducing water scarcity in Europe: published by JRC. In this study, five policy relevant water saving measures are considered, i.e., improvement of efficiency scenarios for irrigation, reduction of leakage in the urban water supply, re-using treated wastewater, reducing energy water withdrawals and desalination. The largest challenge in comparing the what-if and reference scenario is the choice of a single, fit-for-purpose indicator that can give a qualitative indication on the performance of the scenario, and still capture the complexity of the issue. In this work, the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+) indicator is used to estimate the impact of water saving measures on water scarcity in current climate.