Environmental Systems and Societies · Topic 4: Water

ES4.2 — Water access, use and security

Environmental Systems and Societies · SL / HL · syllabus-mapped notes

1. Water security, access and rising demand

   Defining water security, the social/cultural/economic/political factors shaping access, and why growth and development raise demand.

2. Scarcity, stress and their causes

   Physical vs economic scarcity, water stress and the 1,700 m3/yr/capita threshold, socio-economic causes and transboundary disputes.

3. Increasing supply and its impacts

   Methods of boosting supply and industrial strategies to address stress, weighed against environmental impacts that can be reduced but not eliminated.

4. Conservation and mitigation

   Domestic conservation techniques, industrial and food-production strategies, and a named country's mitigation of water scarcity.

5. Equity and citizen science

   How inequitable access to water and sanitation harms health and development, and the role of citizen science in monitoring water.

6. Planetary boundary, governance and footprints

   Freshwater use as a planetary boundary, the governance needed for sustainable use, and water footprints as a measure.