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Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption. Agriculture uses roughly two thirds of all fresh water extracted from the environment. [1] [2] [3] Fresh water is a renewable and variable, but finite natural resource.
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Liquid water is found in bodies of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, canal, pond, or puddle. The majority of water on Earth is seawater. Water is also present in the atmosphere in solid, liquid, and vapor states. It also exists as groundwater in aquifers.
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificially from other sources, such as from reclaimed water or desalinated water (). 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh ...
Water (H2O) is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound [ 19 ] and is described as the "universal solvent " [ 20 ] and the "solvent of life". [ 21 ]
Hydrosphere. The hydrosphere (from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) 'water' and σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'sphere') [1][2] is the combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet, minor planet, or natural satellite. Although Earth 's hydrosphere has been around for about 4 billion years, [3][4] it continues to change in ...
Human-made surface water is water that can be continued by infrastructures that humans have assembled. This would be dammed artificial lakes, canals and artificial ponds (e.g. garden ponds) or swamps. [3] The surface water held by dams can be used for renewable energy in the form of hydropower. Hydropower is the forcing of surface water sourced ...
Ecology portal. v. t. e. Freshwater environmental quality parameters are those chemical, physical or biological parameters that can be used to characterise a freshwater body. Because almost all water bodies are dynamic in their composition, the relevant quality parameters are typically expressed as a range of expected concentrations.