MAPS: Agua en peligro, Nature

Portada de Nature

The security of water supply for humans and the biodiversity of rivers are often seen as competing goals, but need that be the case? A new global-scale analysis of freshwater resources advances the field by considering threats to both river biodiversity (on the left on the cover) and to human water security, after accounting for investments in infrastructure and water services (right). The maps reveal that the world’s rivers are in a state of crisis. Achieving a sustainable solution to these problems, the authors say, will require strategies that jointly address water security for humans and biodiversity. COVER CREDIT: Stanley Glidden





Amenazas a la biodiversidad.
El 80% de la población de la Tierra está expuesta al impacto de la falta de seguridad sobre el agua.

The maps demonstrate pandemic impacts on both human water security and biodiversity and are highly coherent, although not identical (biodiversity threat = 0.964 × human water security threat + 0.018; r = 0.97, P < 0.001). Spatial correlations among input drivers (stressors) varied, but were generally moderate (mean |r| = 0.34; n = 253 comparisons). Regional maps exemplify main classes of human water security threat (see main text and Supplementary Fig. 4). Spatial patterns proved robust in a variety of sensitivity tests (Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Discussion). Threat indices are relative and normalized over discharging landmass