Human pressure on rivers is increasing worldwide and threatens water security

摘要

Water security problems are becoming more and more challenging worldwide for several reasons, including population growth, urbanization, land-use change, unsustainable water use and climate change. All the above factors imply an increase in the human exploitation of water resources and an increasing anthropogenic impact on rivers, flood plains, and fresh groundwater. In fact, a striking problem in many countries is the result of destructive changes to the physical structure of the riverine environment. Most important rivers all over the world have been regulated, dammed and diverted. Moreover, the intensive urbanization of flood plains implies the need to protect human settlements against floods, which is often achieved through river training. All these anthropogenic effects are referred to as "human pressure on rivers", which has a deleterious effect on water security. In fact, human-induced alterations to rivers can have serious consequences for freshwater quality and quantity by altering the river flow regime and riverine ecosystem. Therefore, the assessment of the human pressure on rivers is extremely important to locate areas where water resources are threatened and subjected to rapidly increasing anthropogenic effects. However, studies are typically carried out at local or regional scales which makes it difficult to consistently identify worldwide patterns.