Water resources are a very important issue in the Global Risk 2015 published by the World Economic Forum. The research objective of this study was to construct a Water Poverty Index (WPI) for islands. The empirical scope of this study was based on Kinmen Island in the Taiwan Strait, which has very scarce water resources. Kinmen has a dry climate with low rainfall and high evaporation. Therefore, the Kinmen area is long-term dependent on groundwater resources and faces serious water resource problems. This study used the WPI to examine various issues related to water resources. In addition, this study selected several main indicators and performed time series calculations to examine the future trends of water resources in Kinmen. The results show that the overall water resources of Kinmen are scarce. To ensure sustainable development of water resources in Kinmen, policies to improve water scarcity, such as water resource development, water storage improvement, and groundwater control, should be researched. The research results of this study can be used as a reference for government agencies in formulating and revising water resources to achieve the sustainable development of island-type water resources.In the past decade, especially within environmental politics, there has been a growing interest in, and concern for, the ways in which discourses are constructed, used, and misinterpreted in public political debates about shared water resources [17][18][19]. Because of the aforementioned issues, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in the UK began to develop the Water Poverty Index (WPI) in 2002 [20]. The main purpose of the WPI is to provide a numerical value that can be used to calculate how much national welfare is represented by water and to denote the extent of water poverty's effects on humans. The main considerations in this index system are water availability, water accessibility, the ability for people to acquire water, and the background environmental quality of water conservation for a country or a region. The development of this index makes the ranking and comparison of countries or communities possible and can consider various physical and socioeconomic factors of water scarcity [20].The WPI uses the local scale as its starting point for development. A WPI has been developed and applied to various countries, such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania. In 2002, the WPI team considered the commonality and accessibility of national data in the WPI architecture for the three aforementioned countries to develop a WPI suitable for the nation, based on the use in [21]. Water is a vital resource for natural ecosystems and for sustainable human life [22], especially in arid and semiarid regions [23]. Water bodies are the focus of the interactions among various components of the terrestrial system, and, in many areas, they are the most important freshwater resources [24]. This comprehensive indicator will guide the improvement of various issues related to water resources and enable policy makers to imple...
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