The suitability of water scarcity indicators to the Indian context

Abstract

Quantifying the spatiotemporal variation of water scarcity is critical for identifying strategies to support sustainable management of water resources and associated food-energy systems. To this end, several assessments have attempted to provide a global mapping of water scarcity with a number of underlying methodological choices. Scarcity metrics vary in their definitions and thresholds for scarce conditions to prevail. We review these methodologies in the context of the biophysical and socio-economic setting of India. We suggest four avenues for improving metric assessments to increase policy relevance: incorporation of surface water- groundwater interactions along with non-renewable groundwater resources, accounting for minimum environmental flows, consideration of deep uncertainties, and addressing underlying socio-economic disparities in metric assessment.