Exogenous pressures and probabilistic assessment of risk and vulnerability of urban water systems in Ghana

Abstract

Risk and vulnerability assessment of urban water systems can be extended to include several components. This work formulates a probable quantitative assessment of risk and vulnerability of urban water system based on climatic conditions and urban population growth. Climate change scenarios and population projections are used to estimate susceptibility to water supply systems’ risk and vulnerability. Quantile regression was used to establish the exponent correlation between the climate variables and population; and evaluate their consequential influences on urban water supply systems. We complemented the analysis with a probabilistic model to assess the robustness of urban water system that depends wholly on the climate for freshwater source. The study established that Climatic conditions, though uncertain, point to freshwater deficiency in the future. Moreover, population trends project a higher urban population thereby increasingly lowering water per capita and subsequently leading to doubtful urban water system’s resilience to the exogenous pressures.