Korea has no water scarcity!

Abstract

Water scarcity has been an important issue for many countries. The water scarcity is still growing in some region but may be exacerbated by recent climate change. Both international and domestic reports classified Korea into water scarcity country on the basis of Falkenmark indicator. Korea, however, missed the concept of green water in calculating their annual renewable water resources per capita and erroneously defined them as water scarcity country. A new calculation shows that Korea has no water scarcity with 1712 m³ of annual renewable water resource per capita. Wrong information in Korea was badly used for political propagation and private purpose. This may be happening to other countries. Water resources experts need to include the concept of green water in reanalyzing the annual renewable water resources to provide decision-makers with acceptable guideline. Decision should be made with more reliable ground.