Table 1 Different water balance components used in this study.
From: National water shortage for low to high environmental flow protection
Component | Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|---|
renewable water availability without EF protection | WA_noEF | Natural or pristine water availability |
EF with low ecosystem protection | EFMIN | As measure representative for minimum flow recommendations, we use the monthly Q95, that is, the flow exceeded for 95 per cent of each month |
human renewable water availability with low EF protection | WA_EFMIN | WA_noEF − EFMIN |
EF with high ecosystem protection | EFPROT | Presumptive standard for EFs by Richter et al.11, which attributes 80% of natural monthly river flows as EF |
human renewable water availability with high EF protection | WA_EFPROT | WA_noEF − EFPROT |
Internal WA | Internally produced renewable water availability | |
Total WA | To compute annual national total renewable water availability, we add inflow to internal amounts |
