Through the provision of drinking and agricultural irrigation water, groundwater resources fundamentally underpin the existence of modern human society across large regions of the world. Despite this, decades of unsustainable exploitation have led to acute degradation of groundwater quantity and quality, creating pressing challenges that society must address if we are to maintain viable access to this crucial resource for future generations. Taking stock of the current situation, in this contribution we begin by reviewing some of the major global groundwater resource pressures, before exploring a range of technological, engineering, societal and nature-based solutions to address these challenges. We look at examples of emerging groundwater resource threats and potential innovative solutions to tackle them, before concluding with a forward look at future research opportunities that can ultimately enhance our management of this vital resource.

The current generation of climate models has proven very helpful in understanding and projecting anthropogenic climate change but has also shown to be insufficient for studying the interactions of tipping elements and their impact on overall climate stability. As a consequence, tipping elements are mostly absent from climate projections that are commonly used by the drinking water industry to test the resilience of their systems. There is, however, mounting evidence for the existence and potential (possibly even imminent) activation of some of these tipping elements. The drinking water sector is, by necessity, slow-moving as its infrastructure is meant to operate for many decades and in practice often does so even longer. The time scales of possible changes associated with tipping element activations may, however, be much shorter. We provide a review of the current understanding of climate tipping elements and present a simple model that investigates potential magnitudes and time scales of rapid climate change associated with tipping element activations. We study the potential consequences for drinking water supply systems, focusing on Europe, and argue that given the associated deep uncertainty and far-reaching consequences, it is essential to include tipping scenarios in the decision-making processes in the drinking water sector.

Water is essential for sustaining life and required for carrying out basic daily activities. Even though water covers the vast majority of the earth’s surface, the availability of fresh water, which is necessary to maintain human activities, is limited, making it a scarce resource. Climate change, overexploitation of groundwater, and population growth are all putting significant pressure on natural water sources, which pose a serious threat to various sectors of society, especially in agriculture. Future projections of freshwater availability indicate agriculture production will suffer a significant shock globally, including in India, leading to a threat to food security and sustainability. To ensure the sustainability of this vital resource, it is crucial to use water sensibly. Moreover, it is essential to adopt certain strategies to manage agricultural water use effectively. This includes adopting various water-efficient techniques such as ‘micro-irrigation’, ‘irrigation scheduling’, ‘conservation agriculture’, ‘crop switching’ and so on. In this review, firstly, we discuss water scarcity and its types, causes, crisis for water shortages and hindrance to sustainable development from a global perspective emphasizing the Indian scenario as a developing nation. Secondly, we elaborated our discussion on water scarcity in agriculture including the impacts of water scarcity on agricultural production and its connection to climate change, population growth, and overexploitation of natural resources globally focusing on the Indian scenario. In addition, innovative water management practices and adaptation strategies to manage agricultural water use, constraints, and the need for further research are also covered. It is anticipated that this review will benefit researchers and policymakers by providing useful information on the impacts of water limitation and adoption strategies.