scholarly journals Impact of Crop Replacement Concept as a Solution for Water Scarcity Problem

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1855-1861
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
High Water ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Relative Area ◽  
Replacement Process ◽  
The World ◽  
Market Needs

Water scarcity is one of the important global risks causing a great dispute around the world. How to obtain a suitable water quantity or quality that affects the economy of the world. Egypt is a country suffering from water scarcity due to the high rates of population growth with a fixed share of the Nile water which is considered as the main Egyptian water resource. The present work aims to apply the concept of virtual water on the agricultural products to suggest the replacement of crops having relatively high water consumption and low prices with other crops having low water consumption and high prices. The impacts of the replacement process was achieved through the classification of selected 22 crops and grouped into four groups based on their Specific Water Demand (SWD) and their world prices, then the crops contained in the group of the lowest water consumption and the highest price will be proposed to be exported and the crops in the group of the highest water consumption with the lowest price will be proposed to be imported. The effect of crop replacement within the 22 crops was measured by calculating the Relative Specific Water Demand (RSWD), the Relative Area (RA) saved and consequently the relative cash return. A Matlab program was constructed and calibrated through comparing its results with the CropWat model of FAO database to calculate the SWD of the selected crops cultivated in Egypt. Regarding the results, “Barley” was the best crop proposed to be imported and replaced by Tomato where the RSWD reaches 15.70 m 3 /ton, the relative area saved reaches 10.138 ha/ton and the relative cash return reaches 5691 (1000$/ton). On the other hand, the process of replacement gives a complete vision to the decision makers to decide the priority of the imported crops according to the local market needs taking into consideration the economic situation in the country.

scholarly journals Vulnerabilities of the European Union’s Economy to Hydrological Extremes Outside its Borders

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ertug Ercin ◽  
Daniel Chico ◽  
Ashok K. Chapagain
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Green Water ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Water ◽  
External Water ◽  
The Eu

Climate change is leading to increased water scarcity and drought in many parts of the world. This has implications for the European Union (EU) because a lot of the water intensive goods consumed or used there are produced abroad. This makes the EU’s economy dependent on water resources well beyond its borders since when a country imports water intensive goods, indirectly it also imports virtual water (water needed to produce the imported goods). This study maps the EU’s global dependency on water resources outside its borders in terms of virtual water imports and assesses how water scarcity and drought may disrupt supplies of key food crops that it imports. The EU uses approximately 668 km3 of water for all of the goods it produces, consumes and exports, annually. Around 38% of that water comes from outside its borders, which means that the EU’s economy is highly dependent on the availability of water in other parts of the world. In the near future, supplies of certain crops to the EU could be disrupted due to water scarcity in other parts of the world; a large portion of the water used in producing soybeans, rice, sugarcane, cotton, almonds, pistachios and grapes for import to the EU comes from areas with significant or severe levels of water scarcity. Although the immediate risks to the EU’s economy are due to current water scarcity levels, any disruption to rainfall patterns that occur in the future, due to the effects of climate change in the countries of origin of key crops, could have a far greater impact. This is because as much as 92% of the EU’s total external water demand from agriculture is attributed to green water use, availability of which has relatively higher vulnerability to drought.

Agricultural infrastructure: the forgotten key driving force on crop-related water footprints and virtual water flows in developing countries: a case for China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongrong Huang ◽  
La Zhuo ◽  
Pute Wu
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Water Productivity ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
High Water ◽  
North Coast ◽  
Water Flows

<p>Agricultural infrastructure plays important roles in boosting food production and trade system in developing countries, while as being a ‘grey solutions’, generates increasingly risks on the environmental sustainability. There is little information on impacts of agricultural infrastructure developments on water consumption and flows, (i.e. water footprint and virtual water flows) related to crop production, consumption and trade especially in developing countries with high water risk. Here we, taking mainland China over 2000-2017 as the study case, identified and evaluated the strengths and spatial heterogeneities in main socio-economic driving factors of provincial water footprints and inter-provincial virtual water flows related to three staple crops (rice, wheat and maize). For the first time, we consider irrigation (II), electricity (EI) and road infrastructures (RI) in the driving factor analysis through the extended STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology) model. Results show that the II, EI and RI in China were expanded by 33.8 times, 4.5 times and 2.4 times, respectively by year 2017 compared to 2000. Although the II was the most critical driver to effectively reduce the per unit water footprint, especially the blue water footprint in crop production (i.e., increasing water efficiency), the developments of II led to the bigger total water consumption. Such phenomenon was observed in Jing-Jin region, North Coast and Northwest China with water resource shortage. The EI and RI had increasing effects on provincial virtual water export, and the corresponding driving strengths varied across spaces. Obviously, the visible effects from the agricultural infrastructures on regional water consumption, water productivity and virtual water patterns cannot be neglected. </p>

In-plant control applications and their effect on treatability of a textile mill wastewater

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 287-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Dulkadiroglu ◽  
G. Eremektar ◽  
S. Dogruel ◽  
H. Uner ◽  
F. Germirli-Babuna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Industrial Wastewater ◽  
High Water ◽  
Wastewater Management ◽  
Textile Mill ◽  
Control Applications ◽  
Control Survey ◽  
Plant Control

Water minimization and exploration of the potential for wastewater recovery and reuse are priority issues of industrial wastewater management. They are extremely significant for the textile industry commonly characterized with a high water demand. The study presents a detailed in-plant control survey for a wool finishing plant. A comprehensive process profile and wastewater characterization indicate that process water consumption can be reduced by 34%, and 23% of the wastewater volume can be recovered for reuse. Treatability of reusable wastewater fraction and the effect of in-plant control applications on effluent treatability were also investigated.

Water footprint

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
Mohammad Delpasand ◽  
Omid Bozorg-Haddad ◽  
Erfan Goharian
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
Basin Water ◽  
Public Economy

Abstract Uneven water distribution in the world is the main reason today that some countries face problems due to water scarcity. Human activities consume and pollute large amounts of water. Globally, agriculture is the largest water user by volume. However, the water used by industrial and household sectors is still significant. Water consumption and pollution are caused by specific activities such as irrigation, bathing, washing, cleaning, cooling and by various other processes. Little attention has been paid to how much water use and pollution ultimately result from such activities, and how much water is consumed by communities, compared to the attention paid to the structure of the public economy that supplies consumer goods and services. Overall, to mitigate water scarcity problems, there are several approaches that can be made, such as inter-basin water transfer, increasing efficiency of water consumption and also using new concepts such as virtual water and the water footprint. The footprint of a product is the amount of fresh water used to produce it, measured across the complete supply chain. Water footprint is a multidimensional indicator that shows the amount of water consumed by the source as well as the amount and types of contamination.

A multi-risk assessment of water scarcity in the south-eastern Italian Alps using a System Dynamics approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Terzi ◽  
Janez Sušnik ◽  
Sara Masia ◽  
Silvia Torresan ◽  
Stefan Schneiderbauer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
High Water ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Multiple Impacts ◽  
Dam Reservoirs

<p>Mountain regions are facing multiple impacts due to climate change and anthropogenic activities. Shifts in precipitation and temperature are affecting the available water influencing a variety of economic activities that still rely on large quantities of water (e.g. ski tourism, energy production and agriculture). The Alps are among those areas where recent events of decreased water availability triggered emerging water disputes and spread of economic impacts across multiple sectors and from upstream high water availability areas to downstream high water demand areas. In order to make our water management systems more resilient, there is a need to unravel the interplays and dependencies that can lead to multiple impacts across multiple sectors. However, current assessments dealing with climate change usually account for a mono sectoral and single risk perspective.</p><p>This study hence shows an integrative assessment of multi-risk processes across strategic sectors of the Alpine economy. System dynamics modelling (SDM) is applied as a powerful tool to evaluate the multiple impacts stemming from interactions and feedbacks among water-food-energy economic sectors of the Noce river catchment in the Province of Trento (Italy).</p><p>The SDM developed for the Noce catchment combined outputs from physically based models to evaluate water availability and statistical assessments for water demands from three main sectors: (i) apple orchards cultivation, (ii) water releases from large dam reservoirs for hydropower production and (iii) domestic and seasonal tourism activities.</p><p>Hydrological results have been validated on historical time series (i.e. 2009-2017) and projected in the future considering RCP 4.5 and 8.5 climate change scenarios for 2021-2050 medium term and 2041-2070 long term. Results show a precipitation decrease affecting river streamflow with consequences on water stored and turbined in all dam reservoirs of the Noce catchment, especially for long-term climate change scenarios. Moreover, temperature scenarios will increase the amount of water used for agricultural irrigation from upstream to downstream. Nevertheless, decreasing population projections will have a beneficial reduction of water demand from residents, counterbalancing the increasing demand from the other sectors.</p><p>Finally, the integrated SDM fostered discussions in the Noce catchment on interplays between climate change and anthropogenic activities to tackle climate-related water scarcity.</p>

scholarly journals The Water Footprint of European Agricultural Imports: Hotspots in the Context of Water Scarcity

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iulia Dolganova ◽  
Natalia Mikosch ◽  
Markus Berger ◽  
Montserrat Núñez ◽  
Andrea Müller-Frank ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
External Water ◽  
Agricultural Imports ◽  
Water Scarce

This study investigates the Water Footprint (WF) resulting from the agricultural imports of the European Union (EU-28). Import trade statistics were compiled and linked with crop- and country-specific water consumption data and water scarcity factors. Within the study, the virtual water imports of 104 agricultural commodities for the baseline year 2015 were assessed and product and country hotspots were evaluated. It was shown that (a) Europe imported 100 million tons of agricultural goods and 11 km3 of associated virtual irrigation water; (b) the highest impacts of water consumption do not necessarily result from high import amounts, but from water-intensive goods produced in water scarce countries; (c) the largest external EU-28 water footprint occurred due to the product categories cotton, nuts and rice; and (d) the highest share of the EU external water footprint took place in the United States (US), Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and India.

scholarly journals Todayʼs virtual water consumption and trade under future water scarcity

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 074007 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Orlowsky ◽  
A Y Hoekstra ◽  
L Gudmundsson ◽  
Sonia I Seneviratne
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Virtual Water

scholarly journals The Innovation of Worship Products for the Future Generation

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4332-4339
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
Future Generation ◽  
Design And Technology ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
The World ◽  
Innovative Products ◽  
Islamic Science ◽  
Market Needs

The heyday of Islam began as early as the middle of the 7th century and once again proved that Islamic science was the forerunner of all kinds of creations and innovations in science and technology. However, today, we see Muslims struggling to make a name for themselves in pioneering science and technology. It should not be so since many of the creations enjoyed today are based on inventions from Islamic civilizations rather than Western ones. Therefore, to restore the past glory, a new plan must begin from now. Among others, through the development of worship products for the use of Muslims worldwide. Studies have shown that efforts to produce tangible products are still low due to the increased focus on non-tangible products such as banking systems, health, and beauty products. Therefore, to ensure the idea of developing this worship product is clearly understood, several examples of existing worship products are presented and discussed regarding their weaknesses from a design perspective. Four examples of the latest innovative products designed specifically for the needs of Muslims are described. The rationale for the need for innovations in worship products is also statistically discussed in light of the rapid growth of Muslims, with over 1.6 billion Muslims. Furthermore, as many as nine groups of worship products have the potential to develop, such as products for prayer, knowledge gathering, pilgrimage, and umrah. Finally, the design features that need to be considered for developing next-generation worship products to meet customer and market needs are also discussed. The results of this research are intended to raise awareness to the world about the golden age of Islamic science and that this innovation is still relevant today. Innovation is a catalyst for high-income economic development. In this regard, developing and producing innovative worship products can generate wealth to improve the quality of life of Muslims worldwide. Such is the initiative introduced by the professional design team in Faculty of Innovative Design and Technology (FRIT) at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) Malaysia that has developed a range of Islamic conceptual products. Based on the results of the observation technique during the pilot test, conducted in many states across the country, there are several issues that need to be resolved namely that Muslims in Malaysia desperately need innovative products that can help them to worship consistently and confidently. This means that there are still no well-built innovative Islamic-based products available in the local market. As such, the Muslim demographic group in the country as well as around the world, comprising senior citizens, adults, teens and children will be able to enjoy the contributions produced by FRIT at UniSZA.

scholarly journals Barriers and opportunities for behavior change in managing high water demand in water scarce Indigenous communities: an Australian perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-773
Author(s):  
Safaa Aldirawi ◽  
Regina Souter ◽  
Cara D. Beal
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Change ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
High Water ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Household Water

Abstract Managing water demand by reducing water consumption and improving water use efficiency has become essential for ensuring water security. This research aimed to identify the primary determinants of household water consumption in an Australian Indigenous community to develop evidence-based water demand management policies and strategies that might be implemented by the water service provider. A behavior change framework was applied to investigate the opportunity, ability, and motivational determinants affecting household water consumption and conservation in an Australian Indigenous community. The lack of water conservation knowledge and skills of high water users could be barriers to saving water. Low water users have positive attitudes towards water conservation and a higher level of awareness about their own water use. While there is a lack of a belief that water shortages will occur, low water users do have concerns of vulnerability to droughts, and that could be a driver for their sense of obligation to engage in water conservation practices. The research recommended communication messages and tools to address identified barriers to enabling positive changes to water use behaviors, which have wider applications in remote Australian Indigenous communities.

scholarly journals Social Norms Based Eco-Feedback for Household Water Consumption

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2796
Author(s):  
Ukasha Ramli
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Habit Formation ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Feedback Intervention ◽  
Household Water ◽  
The World

Physical water scarcity is a growing threat to people’s lives around the world. Non-pecuniary interventions that encourage water conservation amongst households are an effective tool to promote sustainable consumption. In a randomised field experiment on 3461 UK households, a social norms based eco-feedback intervention was found to reduce water consumption by around 5.43 L a day or by 1.8% over 29 months. This effect did not persist for the 10 months after the intervention was stopped suggesting a lack of habit formation. Unlike previous studies, households with low consumption at baseline reduced their consumption the most, while high consumers did not. Heterogeneity was also found across quantile treatment effects, where households in the top and bottom quantiles increased their consumption. These results further contribute to the growing evidence on the effectiveness of combining social norms and eco-feedback as an intervention for conservation.

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