{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98437"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98437","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The analysis of water availability indicators and access to available water in the developing, semi-arid, rural setting","abstract":"In 2015, 663 million people did not have access to improved drinking water; the majority lived in the rural, water scarce regions of lesser developed nations. Global discussions of water scarcity had begun in the mid-1970’s, and over the following 30 years, several water availability indicators evolved to try to understand this water availability quandary. This thesis provides an integrative literature review to identify and describe the current water availability indicators that are most commonly used to assess regional potable water resources around the world. It then assesses the adequacy of those indicators for use in the developing, semi-arid, rural regions of the globe with a focus on measuring community access to available water. One key finding is that existing indicators metrics focus solely on the physical availability of the water, but do not include metrics for quantity or quality or readily available access to it. This thesis also finds that while the base data collected for the indicators are at the spatial scale of country or region; these data are often arbitrarily applied to the local scale. This scalar variation is then found to create erroneous availability statistics. The resulting conclusion is that there is a need for an indicator, which more accurately represents access to water at the local level. Also discussed are the socio-economic issues of access that are missing from current indicators. For water access indicators to work at the local level, they must use data beyond water quantity and quality measured at the national or regional scale. Water access indicators need to be: easy to calculate, cost effective to implement, scalable to the micro-level, based on existing data, developed using a transparent process and, not least, must be easy to understand by all the stakeholders. Ideal indicators will use data and new technologies that include scalable tools that allow selection and use of appropriate water purification tactics.","abstract_html":"In 2015, 663 million people did not have access to improved drinking water; the majority lived in the rural, water scarce regions of lesser developed nations. Global discussions of water scarcity had begun in the mid-1970’s, and over the following 30 years, several water availability indicators evolved to try to understand this water availability quandary. This thesis provides an integrative literature review to identify and describe the current water availability indicators that are most commonly used to assess regional potable water resources around the world. It then assesses the adequacy of those indicators for use in the developing, semi-arid, rural regions of the globe with a focus on measuring community access to available water. One key finding is that existing indicators metrics focus solely on the physical availability of the water, but do not include metrics for quantity or quality or readily available access to it. This thesis also finds that while the base data collected for the indicators are at the spatial scale of country or region; these data are often arbitrarily applied to the local scale. This scalar variation is then found to create erroneous availability statistics. The resulting conclusion is that there is a need for an indicator, which more accurately represents access to water at the local level. Also discussed are the socio-economic issues of access that are missing from current indicators. For water access indicators to work at the local level, they must use data beyond water quantity and quality measured at the national or regional scale. Water access indicators need to be: easy to calculate, cost effective to implement, scalable to the micro-level, based on existing data, developed using a transparent process and, not least, must be easy to understand by all the stakeholders. Ideal indicators will use data and new technologies that include scalable tools that allow selection and use of appropriate water purification tactics.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Richardson, Mary Jane"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Natural Res & Env Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Wander, Michelle M.","Birkenholtz, Trevor","Hodson, Piper"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-09-29T17:57:12Z","date_published":"2017-09-29T17:57:12Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:35Z","subjects":["Access","Water","Availability","Indicator","Developing","Semi-arid","Rural"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2017 Mary Richardson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98437","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Wander, Michelle M.","Birkenholtz, Trevor","Hodson, Piper"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Richardson, Mary Jane"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017-09-29T17:57:12Z","2017-07-21","2017-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Natural Res & Env Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Access","Water","Availability","Indicator","Developing","Semi-arid","Rural"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2017 Mary Richardson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98437"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["In 2015, 663 million people did not have access to improved drinking water; the majority lived in the rural, water scarce regions of lesser developed nations. Global discussions of water scarcity had begun in the mid-1970’s, and over the following 30 years, several water availability indicators evolved to try to understand this water availability quandary. This thesis provides an integrative literature review to identify and describe the current water availability indicators that are most commonly used to assess regional potable water resources around the world. It then assesses the adequacy of those indicators for use in the developing, semi-arid, rural regions of the globe with a focus on measuring community access to available water. One key finding is that existing indicators metrics focus solely on the physical availability of the water, but do not include metrics for quantity or quality or readily available access to it. This thesis also finds that while the base data collected for the indicators are at the spatial scale of country or region; these data are often arbitrarily applied to the local scale. This scalar variation is then found to create erroneous availability statistics. The resulting conclusion is that there is a need for an indicator, which more accurately represents access to water at the local level. Also discussed are the socio-economic issues of access that are missing from current indicators. For water access indicators to work at the local level, they must use data beyond water quantity and quality measured at the national or regional scale. Water access indicators need to be: easy to calculate, cost effective to implement, scalable to the micro-level, based on existing data, developed using a transparent process and, not least, must be easy to understand by all the stakeholders. Ideal indicators will use data and new technologies that include scalable tools that allow selection and use of appropriate water purification tactics.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2017-09-29 without embargo terms","The student, Mary Richardson, accepted the attached license on 2017-07-20 at 16:08.","The student, Mary Richardson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-07-20 at 16:12.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-07-21 at 11:34.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #11561 on 2017-09-29 at 11:32:26","Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-29T17:57:12Z (GMT). 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Global discussions of water scarcity had begun in the mid-1970’s, and over the following 30 years, several water availability indicators evolved to try to understand this water availability quandary. This thesis provides an integrative literature review to identify and describe the current water availability indicators that are most commonly used to assess regional potable water resources around the world. It then assesses the adequacy of those indicators for use in the developing, semi-arid, rural regions of the globe with a focus on measuring community access to available water. One key finding is that existing indicators metrics focus solely on the physical availability of the water, but do not include metrics for quantity or quality or readily available access to it. This thesis also finds that while the base data collected for the indicators are at the spatial scale of country or region; these data are often arbitrarily applied to the local scale. This scalar variation is then found to create erroneous availability statistics. The resulting conclusion is that there is a need for an indicator, which more accurately represents access to water at the local level. Also discussed are the socio-economic issues of access that are missing from current indicators. For water access indicators to work at the local level, they must use data beyond water quantity and quality measured at the national or regional scale. Water access indicators need to be: easy to calculate, cost effective to implement, scalable to the micro-level, based on existing data, developed using a transparent process and, not least, must be easy to understand by all the stakeholders. Ideal indicators will use data and new technologies that include scalable tools that allow selection and use of appropriate water purification tactics.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2017-09-29 without embargo terms","The student, Mary Richardson, accepted the attached license on 2017-07-20 at 16:08.","The student, Mary Richardson, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2017-07-20 at 16:12.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2017-07-21 at 11:34.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #11561 on 2017-09-29 at 11:32:26","Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-29T17:57:12Z (GMT). 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