ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three percent of global water resources--fresh water. This three percent amounts to about 30 million cubic kilometers, but a vast portion of that volume is locked up in the ice caps or in deep ground water reservoirs. The chapter discusses issues emerging in the coming decades: the role of water in sustainable development, the impact of global climate change on water resources, and conflict over shared water resources. Limits on renewable resources may become a seriously disconcerting problem as the quest for sustainable development is undertaken. Global climate change will not affect the generally renewable nature of water, but it will dramatically alter water availability, timing, and perhaps most importantly, its predictability. Global climate change will add a great degree of uncertainty to issues of water availability and water resources planning. Many fresh water resources are shared by two or more countries, though Americans are largely unaware of this fact.
