Home - Syllabus - Seminar Section

U4735x Environmental Science for Decision Makers

Problem Set #2: Water Availability and Use by Country.

9/11/03, due 9/18/03 at class time.

The purpose of this exercise is to become familiar with some data on renewable water supplies and withdrawals at the country level and to become familiar with some data resources in your text book. Another goal is to work with spread sheets as a way to organize and examine water information. All of the data you need to answer the questions should be in Tables 1 and 2 in the Gleick text book (2002-2003). You are encouraged to consult other sources as well, for comparison with these data. You may be able to download some useful information from web sites as well.

Please make an initial spread sheet, organized by region (Africa, North & Central America, South America, Asia, Europe, Oceania), with the following countries grouped and listed in alphabetical order in those regions:

• Congo (Democratic Republic), Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa
• Canada, Mexico, USA
• Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela
• Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan,Saudi Arabia
• France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea

Use a similar structure to the tables (1&2) in the text. Then in an adjacent column, list populations (2000) for those countries (see Table 2 or another source). Then enter data for: a column of Renewable fresh water resources (km³/yr) and a column of Freshwater withdrawals.

From the above data, calculate data for the percentage of renewable freshwater which is withdrawn for each of these countries. Calculate the per capita renewable freshwater for each of these countries. Calculate the "per capita freshwater withdrawals" and "% of freshwater withdrawals/renewable fresh water" for each of these countries. All of the above calculations should be done with spread sheet operations if at all possible.

Copy the above spread sheet and transfer to a second and a third spread sheet. Order by rank these countries (highest first) for EACH of the following: population (i.e. China should be first), total renewable freshwater, total freshwater withdrawals. On the third spread sheet, order by rank: per capita renewable freshwater, per capita total freshwater withdrawals. Use spreadsheet operations to facilitate these lists. You should have a pair of columns (country and water data) for EACH category (population, renewable FW, FW withdrawal, per cap renewable FW and per cap FW withdrawals).

From data in these three spread sheets, discuss briefly the following.

1. Which five of these countries have the highest total freshwater resources?
2. Which five of these countries have the least total freshwater resources?
3. Which five of these countries have the highest per capita freshwater resources?
4. Which five of these countries have the least per capita freshwater resources?
5. Discuss BRIEFLY any other observations you would like to offer about the impacts of water availability and withdrawals differences between countries.

Select three countries from the list and discuss how availability and/or withdrawal of freshwater resources affects important decisions about water allocation and economic opportunities in each of these countries.

Please submit paper copies of whatever spreadsheet you generate, as well as answers to the above questions. Do not submit materials by email.