EVALUATION OF WATER STRESS IN CITIES OF THE WORLD BY USING RIVER BASIN URBAN POPULATION DENSITY—CASE STUDY IN ISRAEL—

Abstract

Water is essential for human lives and social activities. By the increase of urban population, the amount of water particularly used in the urban cities will also increase accordingly. In this prediction, it is fared that water stress will also be higher. In previous study, they showed the water stress map based on the county size or river basin size. However, no studies focus on the water stress based on city level. This study proposes a new parameter “river basin urban population density” that can consider the river basin area where a city included in as a hinterland. By using this parameter, water stress in cities is evaluated in Israel. The results show that the water stress in the cities increases about 1.4-5.6 times compared with the water stress in Israel.