Full Description

The Environment Agency's national water resources strategy, Water Resources for the Future (2001),provides a secure framework for the management of water that protects the long-term future of the waterenvironment while encouraging sustainable development. Underpinning the strategy are a suite of scenariobased forecasts developed to explore the impact of key drivers of demand within different sectors of water useacross England and Wales. This paper explains the approach used to produce these forecasts, summarizes howthe individual components of demand were considered, and highlights opportunities for future application anddevelopment of this approach. Using the premise that total water demand can mask conflicting trends betweensectors, it is essential to consider each sector and its micro-components independently to understand the specificdrivers of demand and consequently determine how these might best be managed. Four scenarios reflectingdifferent possible futures of socio-economic and governmental structure were created to test "how", "why" and"where" these water demands may change by 2025. Such an approach provides an opportunity to test theimplications of macro drivers of demand, such as, economic growth and regulatory reform, on the microcomponentsof water use, linking disparate sectors to a common set of assumptions about the future. Includes 11 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/11/2004 Number of Pages: 10File Size: 1 file , 330 KB