ABSTRACT
Water is vital to human health and well-being, and to the support of ecosystems, agricultural and industrial development, and the environment. It also has crucial cultural value and social signicance [2]. Because of climate change (e.g., ooding, prolonged drought, and severe cold), increasing population, rapid urbanization, and deteriorating water quality, water scarcity is considered one of the most important threats to society and a constraint for sustainable development. Within the next decades, due to continuous economic and population growth, water may become the most strategic resource in many areas of the world, especially the arid and semi-arid regions [28,60]. Based on the International Water Management Institute denition, a very signicant portion of the world is projected to suer from both physical (1000 m3 per person/annum renewable water supply) and economic water scarcity by 2025.
