Impact of Inter-Basin Water Transfer on Water Scarcity in Water-Receiving Area under Global Warming

Water scarcity is increasingly perceived as a risk in semi-arid and arid regions and it will be more critical in the future. Inter-basin water transfer (IBT) is widely considered as a climate adaptation strategy to minimize water scarcity in water-receiving areas. The South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project is the world’s largest IBT project to alleviate severe water shortages in the Huang–Huai–Hai (HHH) region in China. This chapter takes the SNWD project as an example to quantitatively investigate the impact of the large scale IBT on water scarcity in the HHH region within the context of climate change. The results show that during the twenty-first century, the water supply risk in the region is projected to increase as a result of climatic and societal change. The SNWD project can greatly alleviate water scarcity but might be insufficient in some cases. Besides, to keep pace with escalating demands and completely alleviate water supply problems, demand-oriented management schemes, such as improvement in irrigation water use efficiency, must be undertaken.