Spatial and temporal scales

Resilience to water stress can be related to various spatial scales, for instance:

• Local users optimize their processes and water usage, resulting in water savings;
• Industries and households / local communities may introduce technology for (internal) water recycling;
• Multi-sourcing: other local sources of fresh water may be used, for instance effluents of nearby wastewater treatment plants. Another option is storage(buffering) and transport of redundant fresh water from precipitation. These steps involve various stakeholders and adaptation of spatial planning.

Resilience to water stress also has various temporal scales, for instance:

• Internal changes with few stakeholder can be done within several months or years;
• Changes involving spatial planning or even cross-border collaborations are likely to take more than a decade;
• Water stress might increase as a result of climate change and increased salinization in the course of decades.