Water in Europe —
The challenge of the 21st century
Water, Engagement for our Future
14th AER Summer School
8th AER Youth Summer School
24-29 August 2009, Valencia -Spain
Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
What is the challenge?
•To recognize the ecological, economic and social
services of water in their interdependencies –
•To valuate them as ecosystem services in the right
balance to ensure human well being
•To develop a innovative array of measures –
together with all relevant actors; integrated over all
sectors
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
human and ecological economy
Nature
Supplying:
•Water
•Food
•Purification
•In-stream
benefits
•….
Human
Modified after S. Postel / Natural Resources Forum 27 (2003); 89-98
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
human and ecological economy
Nature
Transport
Agriculture
Public
Indussupply
tries
Energy
Leisure
Ecological limit
of sustainability
Modified after S. Postel / Natural Resources Forum 27 (2003); 89-98
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Why a challenge? What to face?
•Climate change will increase stress on aquatic
systems with more frequent floods and droughts
•Energy crisis; chance for and pressure from
renewable energies
•Economic crisis chances for innovation – risk for
less focus on environment
•Global markets increase complexity; impacts
happen outside your watershed  water footprint
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Climate Change impacts and vulnerability
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Sea level rise and coastal erosion
Needs long term protection, incl. consideration
of sediment flows
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
River and Urban Flood risk
needs infrastructure
adaptation, protection
and emergency plans
and room for the river
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Annual Thames Barrier Closures
20
18
16
Number of closures
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Year
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Climate Change will exacerbate the
availability problem
•Drier summers across most of Europe
•Increase in the frequency and severity of drought
Maximum No. of consecutive dry days; Sillmann and Roeckner, 2008
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water Scarcity and Droughts
•Depletion of water resources
–leads to decline in groundwater,
lake and reservoir levels
–reduced river flows
–drying out of soil and wetlands
•Over pumping coastal aquifers
leads to saline intrusion
•reduced electricity and
agricultural production
•Drought has cost Europe EUR
100 billion over the last 30
years
•Cost of sourcing new supplies
including emergency measures
e.g. Cyprus 2008 - 30 tankers
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water Exploitation Index
WEI
180
160
WEI
140
Severe Stress
120
Stress
100
80
60
40
20
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
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European Environment Agency
Demand management first!
- Supply to go sustainable
• Reservoirs, inter-basin transfers,
desalination etc. so far provided no
incentive to limit abstraction
•  Address the demand for water
rather than providing an ever
expanding supply :
• Better water efficiency and saving across all water users
• Water re-use and recycling ; on-site treatment in industries,
treated wastewater for irrigation, grey-, rainwater harvesting
• Water pricing can be a key driver for savings and innovation
• ‘Green Deal’ stimulation packages can drive new technologies
and measures
• Where supply has to be increased it has to be sustainable (e.g
solar driven desalination)
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Agricultural Irrigation –
up to 80% of total water abstraction
Source;
JRC 2008
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water challenges for agriculture
• Increasing Global Food Demand
• Future demand for ‘thirsty’ bio-crops
• Climate Change affecting high production areas
Water footprint
‘Volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and
services we consume’
• Raises consumer awareness of water use in agricultural,
industrial products and water traded across
countries/continents
• However: next to production processes the supply chain of
the products from agriculture is key to induce changes
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Resource footprints of biofuels production
Water footprint (Liters/1 liters of ethanol)…
Sugar beet (EU) = 1.400
Sugarcane (Brazil) = 2.400
Maize (USA) = 2.600
Land footprint (Hectares/1000 liters of ethanol)…
Sugarcane (Brazil) = 0,11
Sugar beet (EU) = 0,125
Maize (USA) = 0,65
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water resource footprint of biofuels use
Water footprint to travel 100 Km (Litres)…
(Liters)…
Ethanol car in USA = 15.000
Ethanol car in Brazil = 300
Plug-in hybrid car = 56
Gasoline car = 24
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
Informal Meeting of Environmental
Ministers, Åre, Sweden, 24-25 July 2009
European Environment Agency
Energy and water relationships
WATER FOR ENERGY
Extraction & Refining
Fuel Production
(Ethanol,
hydrogen)
Hydropower
Thermo electric
Cooling
Waste Water
Treatment
Extraction and
Transmission
Energy Associated
with Uses of Water
Drinking Water
Treatment
ENERGY FOR WATER
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
(Source: Reiter, 2008)
(Reiter, IWA WWC 2008)
European Environment Agency
Water Energy nexus - conflicts and
synergies
Potential conflicts
•Environmental impacts from water related energy production
– thermal and toxic (inhibitors) pollution from cooling water; low flows limiting
production capacity
•Environmental impacts from hydropower
–Dams are physical barriers; Eutrophication and sedimentation in reservoirs
•Water quality requires more advanced water and wastewater treatment
using more energy and higher GHG emissions
•Energy use in desalination plants makes this a critical supply side measure in
the WS&D problem
Potential synergies
•Saving water saves energy and vice versa
•Heat recovery from ground- and wastewaters by heat pumps
•Biogas from wastewater for power or fuel
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water efficiency in energy Production —
Energy efficiency in the water sector
•Implement known technology for increasing energy efficiency in water utility
operation
•Implement known technology for decreasing GHG emissions from power
production
•Infrastructure investments to save water and energy :
–Reduce leakages
–District heating / cooling
–Energy recovery and sustainable energy production
•Get the pricing right
–Use fiscal instruments to coincide optima for eco-foot printing and business economy
•Monitor by statistics
–Include water and energy efficiency indicators
•Innovate in several dimensions
–Technical-scientific
–Management and planning
–Policy making and public awareness
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Sustainable demand-led approach is
required to managing Europe’s water
resources
Focus on conserving water and using it more
efficiently
Account for the need for healthy freshwater
ecosystems
Less water use also means lower energy
consumption
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Water Pricing reduces water use
Multi-sectoral, volume based, supported by metering
Denmark
Estonia
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Improving Efficiency – Public Water Supply
•Significant
leakage in public
water networks
•Water efficient
appliances
Estimated % leakage in
public water supply
(EEA 2003)
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Cross sectoral integration is key
•Need for a demand side approach; water savings
throughout all sectors
•Agriculture and industries need to engage into
footprint approaches to optimise their water use on side
and in remote catchments, connected to by trade and
markets
•Public water supply and sewer systems need to adapt
to climate and demographic changes – invest in new
infrastructure
•Water and energy efficiency need to be developed
hand in hand.
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
The challenges are clear
—
The solutions lay with the actors
in Member States and Regions
—
Manage River Basins sustainably
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency
Further reading - eea.europa.eu
Impacts of Europe's changing
climate – indicator-based
assessment (4/2008)
Water resources across
Europe — confronting
water scarcity and
drought (3/2009)
AER summer school 2009; Ronan Uhel
European Environment Agency