The Water-Food Nexus in Italy: A Virtual Water Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 319-334
Author(s):  
Francesco Laio ◽  
Stefania Tamea ◽  
Marta Tuninetti
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Water

Estimation of virtual water consumption structure and water efficiency in cities and rural areas of Xinjiang

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui SU ◽  
Ya-Ning CHEN ◽  
Yan ZHANG ◽  
Wei-Hong LI ◽  
Chao LENG
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Consumption Structure

Estimation of the virtual water trade between two Spanish regions: Castilla-la Mancha and Murcia

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 831-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel De Miguel ◽  
Eloy García ◽  
Irene De Buestamante
Keyword(s):  
Water Flow ◽  
Food Processing ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
International Context ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Spanish Regions ◽  
La Mancha ◽  
Virtual Water Flow

Virtual water is defined as the water needed to produce a product. We can use virtual water flow calculations to estimate the water efficiency of a country, as well as its economic dependence on water resources. Former studies on this area have focused on quantifying the virtual water flows between countries, in an international context. In this study we reduce the action framework to regions within a country, determining the virtual water balance between two Spanish regions: Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia. In 2004, Castilla-La Mancha exported to Murcia 2,453,442 tons of commercial products, from which 1,191,628 tons were agricultural goods. In terms of virtual water, it means 1,365 hm3, including food-processing, and industrial products. It is necessary to add 350 hm3 to the result, because of the water transfer (Tajo-Segura transfer) between the rivers basins of these regions, so the final virtual water number, in 2004, was 1,715 hm3. The other way round, Murcia exported in 2004 2,069,000 tons of products, from which 490,351 tons were agricultural goods. That supposes 712 hm3 of virtual water. Virtual water flow is unbalanced and displaced towards Murcia with a difference of 1,003 hm3.

Analysis of the Relationship between Vegetable Virtual Water Trade and Saltwater Intrusion in Shouguang City, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 996-1004
Author(s):  
Wenliang Li ◽  
Qing Sun ◽  
Guowei Cheng ◽  
Weiping Wang ◽  
Shisong Qu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saltwater Intrusion ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
The Relationship

Food and Water Security in West Asia

2018 ◽  
pp. 512-529
Author(s):  
Eckart Woertz
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Trade Surplus ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Water Scarce ◽  
Policy Solutions

West Asia is one of the most water-scarce regions of the world and one of its foremost importers of virtual water despite sustained efforts at self-sufficiency, especially in cereal production. Technology-oriented policy solutions eye a reorientation of agriculture towards fruit and vegetables that are less water-intensive than cereals and provide more value added per water unit consumed. Turkey is a role model here; the country has an agricultural trade surplus and ranks among the top ten agricultural economies globally in value terms. Yet technology-oriented policy prescriptions overlook the sociopolitical ‘problemsheds’ that emerge (along with new agro-lobbies) and agriculture as the main water consumer has to compete with other economic sectors and sprawling urbanization. This article looks at the different categories of countries and their specific challenges.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Virtual Water and Water Sustainability of Dairy Production in Trentino Alto Adige (North-Eastern Italy)

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1047
Author(s):  
Pier Paolo Miglietta ◽  
Federica De Leo ◽  
Benedetta Coluccia ◽  
Yari Vecchio ◽  
Fabian Capitanio
Keyword(s):  
Water Availability ◽  
Dairy Products ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Dairy Production ◽  
Water Sustainability ◽  
Freshwater Resource ◽  
Total Turnover ◽  
Protected Designations Of Origin

Dairy products play a significant role in the human diet, but they are often associated with high freshwater resource depletion. In Italy, the dairy sector represents more than 12% of the total turnover of the agri-food sector. Trentino Alto Adige is the first Italian region in terms of number of dairy farms, but it does not register a quantitatively consistent dairy production. Notwithstanding, it is characterized mostly by small-scale farms whose strengths are the Protected Designations of Origin and typical mountain productions. The present study aims at: (i) accounting for the virtual water VW of the main dairy products (milk, butter and cheese) produced in Trentino Alto Adige; (ii) estimating the renewable water resources based on the water flow assessment of the study area; (iii) assessing water sustainability comparing the virtual water consumption of the dairy sector at a regional level to the water availability. The findings show that the consumptive virtual water related to dairy production represents about 1% of the water availability in Trentino Alto Adige. Italy’s domestic dairy production is expanding to meet the growing demand, but the expansion of dairy farming in water-stressed regions should be avoided, preferring instead suitable mountain regions where small-scale farms represent a lively entrepreneurial substrate.

scholarly journals Evaluating Cryospheric Water Withdrawal and Virtual Water Flows in Tarim River Basin of China: An Input–Output Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7589
Author(s):  
Yang Yang ◽  
Shiwei Liu ◽  
Cunde Xiao ◽  
Cuiyang Feng ◽  
Chenyu Li
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Tarim River ◽  
Tarim River Basin ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Output Analysis ◽  
Water Flows

In Tarim River Basin (TRB), the retreat of glacier and snow cover reduction due to climate warming threatens the regional economy of downstream basins that critically depends on meltwater. However, the quantitative evaluation of its impact on multiple sectors of the socioeconomic system is incomplete. Based on compiled regional input–output table of the year 2012, this study developed a method to analyze the relationships between economic activities and related meltwater withdrawal, as well as sectoral transfer. The results show that the direct meltwater withdrawal intensity (DMWI) of agriculture was much higher than other sectors, reaching 2348.02 m3/10,000 CNY. Except for A01 (agriculture) and A02 (mining and washing of coal), the embodied meltwater withdrawal (EMW) driven by the final demand of other sectors was greater than direct meltwater withdrawal, and all sectors required inflows of virtual water (72.45 × 108 m3, accounting for 29% of total supply from cryospheric water resources) for their production processes in 2012. For sectors with high DMWI, improving water-use efficiency is an effective way to reduce water withdrawal. To some extent, the unbalanced supply of cryospheric water resources due to geographical segregation can be regulated by virtual water flows from water-saving to water-intensive sectors. Such decisions can affect the balance between socioeconomic development and environment conservation for long-term sustainability.

scholarly journals Agro-economic and socio-environmental assessments of food and virtual water trades of Iran

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Karandish ◽  
Hamideh Nouri ◽  
Marcela Brugnach
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Water Crisis ◽  
Food Trade ◽  
Water Limitations

AbstractEnding hunger and ensuring food security are among targets of 2030’s SDGs. While food trade and the embedded (virtual) water (VW) may improve food availability and accessibility for more people all year round, the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trade needs to be revisited. In this research, we assess the sustainability and efficiency of food and VW trades under two food security scenarios for Iran, a country suffering from an escalating water crisis. These scenarios are (1) Individual Crop Food Security (ICFS), which restricts calorie fulfillment from individual crops and (2) Crop Category Food Security (CCFS), which promotes “eating local” by suggesting food substitution within the crop category. To this end, we simulate the water footprint and VW trades of 27 major crops, within 8 crop categories, in 30 provinces of Iran (2005–2015). We investigate the impacts of these two scenarios on (a) provincial food security (FSp) and exports; (b) sustainable and efficient blue water consumption, and (c) blue VW export. We then test the correlation between agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators and provincial food security. Our results show that most provinces were threatened by unsustainable and inefficient blue water consumption for crop production, particularly in the summertime. This water mismanagement results in 14.41 and 8.45 billion m3 y−1 unsustainable and inefficient blue VW exports under ICFS. “Eating local” improves the FSp value by up to 210% which lessens the unsustainable and inefficient blue VW export from hotspots. As illustrated in the graphical abstract, the FSp value strongly correlates with different agro-economic and socio-environmental indicators, but in different ways. Our findings promote “eating local” besides improving agro-economic and socio-environmental conditions to take transformative steps toward eradicating food insecurity not only in Iran but also in other countries facing water limitations.

scholarly journals Virtual water trade in the semi-arid regions of Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 614 ◽  
pp. 012074
Author(s):  
J Abdullahi ◽  
G Elkiran ◽  
F Aslanova
Keyword(s):  
Arid Regions ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Virtual Water Trade ◽  
Semi Arid
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