Inter-Regional Agricultural Virtual Water Flow in China Based on Volumetric and Impact-Oriented Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) Approach

Virtual water trading is an effective strategy to alleviate water shortage. Several different methods have been developed to achieve quantitative description and evaluation of virtual water, which can be broadly divided into volumetric and impact-oriented water footprint approaches. The former focuses on the consumption of water resources, while the latter puts greater emphasis on assessing the water use impacts. Based on the volumetric and impact-oriented water footprint, this paper conducted a comprehensive study on the virtual water flow of agricultural products among regions in China. The results show that different water footprint evaluation methods have different tendencies in evaluating virtual water flow. Volumetric virtual water mainly flows from northwest and northeast China to north and east China, while impact-oriented virtual water mainly flows from northwest and central south China to east and north China. Northwest China is the largest net export region of agricultural virtual water, and it is dominated by direct water consumption. In addition, we compared the net export volume of virtual water and the water shortage situation among regions in China. North China, where the water shortage is very serious, mainly relies on external water sources, while northwest China, which also faces a water shortage problem, exports a large amount of virtual water to external sources. The findings of this study highlight the importance of taking full account of the response measures in both cases when formulating policies. In other words, the virtual water strategy should consider water quantity and water quality simultaneously.

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Virtual Water Trade in the Service Sector: China’s Inbound Tourism as a Case Study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041769 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1769

Author(s):

Yu Zhang ◽

Jin-he Zhang ◽

Qing Tian

Keyword(s):

Density Estimation ◽

Water Flow ◽

Kernel Density Estimation ◽

Service Sector ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Kernel Density ◽

Virtual Water ◽

Virtual Water Trade ◽

Inbound Tourism ◽

Virtual Water Flow

Research on virtual water and the water footprint is mainly focused on agriculture and industry, and less so on the service sector. The trade in products generates virtual water flow, as does the flow of people. The flow of international tourists will inevitably lead to the transfer and exchange of water resources embedded in the virtual form. This study takes China’s inbound tourism flow as the research object, from the perspective of the water footprint, in order to explore virtual water “exports” to the world. Based on kernel density estimation and ArcGIS spatial analysis, spatial-temporal evolution and structural difference were investigated. Virtual water “exports” showed an increasing trend. The kernel density estimation curves basically exhibited a “single peak” feature which indicated that virtual water “exports” from tourism were not significantly polarized in China. In terms of spatial evolution, this varied greatly at the provincial and regional level and Guangdong was always in the high value area. The south displayed greater values than the north, but this difference in provinces narrowed over the years. The water footprint of food was the largest, more specifically, the green component of this water footprint. Promoting a reasonable diet, reducing food waste, improving agricultural production technology, reducing the frequency of changing hotel supplies, and encouraging the use of new energy helped to reduce the water footprint. Virtual water trade in the service sector provides a new idea for helping to mitigate the global water crisis, in addition to virtual water flow for agricultural products.

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Virtual water flow and water footprint as optimizer of water resource management in the state of Ceará, Brazil

Revista Brasileira de Ciências Ambientais (Online) ◽

10.5327/z217694781003 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 608-620

Author(s):

Ivana Sampaio Leite ◽

Rodolfo José Sabiá ◽

Andrezza Pereira Matos ◽

Camila Cavalcante Silva

Keyword(s):

Water Flow ◽

Water Resource Management ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Multicriteria Decision Making ◽

Virtual Water ◽

The State ◽

Agricultural Products ◽

The World ◽

Virtual Water Flow ◽

Hierarchy Process

The water exported indirectly by sending products to other countries, or vice versa, is called a virtual water flow and this can be measured through water footprint (WF) calculations, which represent the embedded water needed to manufacture a product. This present study aims to analyze the virtual water flow and the WF of the main products exported by municipalities in the state of Ceará in the year 2019, in order to enhance the management of the state’s water resources. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the most commonly used multicriteria decision-making method in the world, was used to determine which product is more sustainably produced by the municipalities of Ceará, with the criteria: WF, price, and volume exported. The alternatives are at least two of the seven categories of products exported by the state where the “fruit or vegetable juices” class was preferred as the most sustainable. It was found that most cities in the state that export agricultural products use only one basin, which can lead to very low reservoir levels, while the other hydrographic basins in the state are underused. It is worth noting that the Metropolitan Basin concentrates on 11 out of 32 municipalities that export abroad and that it is responsible for supplying more than 4,074,730 inhabitants, according to Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2019).

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

Water Science & Technology Water Supply ◽

10.2166/ws.2010.477 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 831-840 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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Virtual versus real water transfers within China

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2005.1644 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 361 (1469) ◽

pp. 835-842 ◽

Cited By ~ 146

Author(s):

Jing Ma ◽

Arjen Y Hoekstra ◽

Hao Wang ◽

Ashok K Chapagain ◽

Dangxian Wang

Keyword(s):

South China ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

North China ◽

Virtual Water ◽

Water Transfer ◽

Qualitative Description ◽

The North ◽

Food Deficit ◽

Virtual Water Flow ◽

North Water

North China faces severe water scarcity—more than 40% of the annual renewable water resources are abstracted for human use. Nevertheless, nearly 10% of the water used in agriculture is employed in producing food exported to south China. To compensate for this ‘virtual water flow’ and to reduce water scarcity in the north, the huge south–north Water Transfer Project is currently being implemented. This paradox—the transfer of huge volumes of water from the water-rich south to the water-poor north versus transfer of substantial volumes of food from the food-sufficient north to the food-deficit south—is receiving increased attention, but the research in this field has not yet reached further than rough estimation and qualitative description. The aim of this paper is to review and quantify the volumes of virtual water flows between the regions in China and to put them in the context of water availability per region. The analysis shows that north China annually exports about 52 billion m 3 of water in virtual form to south China, which is more than the maximum proposed water transfer volume along the three routes of the Water Transfer Project from south to north.

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