Abstract:Current studies neglect how virtual water transfer (VWT) between countries within a drainage basin affects water stress and then yields an invisible effect on the water quantity conflict in transboundary rivers, which would further make management policies on water quantity conflict less fair and reasonable. Therefore, this study first constructs the Inequality Index of VWT and water stress index (WSI) to assess water stress. Next, different types are set according to the Inequality Index and WSI to analyze ma… Show more
“…The data on virtual water in this paper were collected from the Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs) [54], data on water consumption in the four regions were taken from the China Statistic Yearbook (2017) [55], and data on the physical water allocation in the Taihu Lake Basin were taken from the water-related Communiques of the four regions and the Taihu Basin Authority in 2017 [51,[56][57][58][59]. This paper chose the year 2017 as the study period because the latest public input-output data from CEADs is in 2017.…”
Section: Date Sourcementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Thus, VWT needs to be converted from the provincial level to the riparian level. However, a few studies that focus on this topic convert VWT using the water efficiency coefficient [50][51][52]. Therefore, this paper also employed the proportion of the riparian water efficiency coefficient to the provincial water efficiency coefficient to quantify and convert the provincial VWT.…”
Virtual water exerts an indispensable influence on water resources, yet the existing studies on the water rights allocation of transboundary rivers hardly consider virtual water transfer (VWT). Therefore, in this paper, we used Taihu Lake as an example with data collected in 2017 that described both physical and virtual water use. We used these data to evaluate water rights allocation schemes by coupling virtual and physical water use. In order to achieve this goal, we first determined the physical water rights allocated for the four regions connected to the Basin. Next, we employed the multi-regional input–output (MRIO) approach to calculate the VWT among the four regions; then, we converted the VWT to the riparian level via the water efficiency coefficient. Finally, with virtual water included in the physical water rights allocation, we formulated a final water rights allocation for Taihu Lake. The results showed the following findings: (1) The ranking of the amount of physical water rights allocation is: Jiangsu > Zhejiang > Shanghai > Anhui. (2) Anhui and Jiangsu produce a net export of virtual water (2.259 billion m3 and 1.78 billion m3, respectively), while Zhejiang and Shanghai have a net import of virtual water (2.344 billion m3 and 1.695 billion m3, respectively), indicating that Anhui houses more water-consuming industries and is in greater need of economic restructuring. (3) The integration of virtual water makes a difference: Jiangsu achieved 16.208 billion m3 in terms of the amount of water rights allocated, Zhejiang achieved 6.606 billion m3, Shanghai achieved 3.040 billion m3, and Anhui achieved 4.319 billion m3, with a ranking of Jiangsu > Zhejiang > Anhui > Shanghai. The results detailed above prove that virtual water exerts an indispensable influence, and integrating virtual water can make the physical water rights allocation of transboundary rivers more equal and reasonable.
“…The data on virtual water in this paper were collected from the Carbon Emission Accounts and Datasets (CEADs) [54], data on water consumption in the four regions were taken from the China Statistic Yearbook (2017) [55], and data on the physical water allocation in the Taihu Lake Basin were taken from the water-related Communiques of the four regions and the Taihu Basin Authority in 2017 [51,[56][57][58][59]. This paper chose the year 2017 as the study period because the latest public input-output data from CEADs is in 2017.…”
Section: Date Sourcementioning
confidence: 99%
“…Thus, VWT needs to be converted from the provincial level to the riparian level. However, a few studies that focus on this topic convert VWT using the water efficiency coefficient [50][51][52]. Therefore, this paper also employed the proportion of the riparian water efficiency coefficient to the provincial water efficiency coefficient to quantify and convert the provincial VWT.…”
Virtual water exerts an indispensable influence on water resources, yet the existing studies on the water rights allocation of transboundary rivers hardly consider virtual water transfer (VWT). Therefore, in this paper, we used Taihu Lake as an example with data collected in 2017 that described both physical and virtual water use. We used these data to evaluate water rights allocation schemes by coupling virtual and physical water use. In order to achieve this goal, we first determined the physical water rights allocated for the four regions connected to the Basin. Next, we employed the multi-regional input–output (MRIO) approach to calculate the VWT among the four regions; then, we converted the VWT to the riparian level via the water efficiency coefficient. Finally, with virtual water included in the physical water rights allocation, we formulated a final water rights allocation for Taihu Lake. The results showed the following findings: (1) The ranking of the amount of physical water rights allocation is: Jiangsu > Zhejiang > Shanghai > Anhui. (2) Anhui and Jiangsu produce a net export of virtual water (2.259 billion m3 and 1.78 billion m3, respectively), while Zhejiang and Shanghai have a net import of virtual water (2.344 billion m3 and 1.695 billion m3, respectively), indicating that Anhui houses more water-consuming industries and is in greater need of economic restructuring. (3) The integration of virtual water makes a difference: Jiangsu achieved 16.208 billion m3 in terms of the amount of water rights allocated, Zhejiang achieved 6.606 billion m3, Shanghai achieved 3.040 billion m3, and Anhui achieved 4.319 billion m3, with a ranking of Jiangsu > Zhejiang > Anhui > Shanghai. The results detailed above prove that virtual water exerts an indispensable influence, and integrating virtual water can make the physical water rights allocation of transboundary rivers more equal and reasonable.
“…However, there are only a few studies to refer to. Some scholars have adopted water efficiency coefficient to convert from a qualitative perspective [41,61,62]. Considering this, we also measured and converted VWT using the proportion of the water efficiency coefficient of basin area to that of the corresponding province.…”
Virtual water exerts an essential effect on water resources, yet such effect is rarely considered in current studies on water rights allocation in transboundary rivers. Hence, this paper ran a case study on Taihu Lake Basin, collecting data from 2017 to make clear the physical water rights of four regions—Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Anhui Province, and Shanghai City—in the Basin. After that, the multiregional input–output (MRIO) approach was utilized to measure the trade in value-added (TiVA) transfer and virtual water transfer (VWT) and construct an inequality index of VWT (VWI). Next, water efficiency coefficient was employed to convert the VWT into riparian level. Finally, VWT and VWI were incorporated into the water rights allocation model to form up a water rights allocation scheme for Taihu Lake Basin. Results showed: (1) Jiangsu enjoys the most allocated physical water rights, followed by Zhejiang, and Anhui ranks the lowest; (2) Anhui and Jiangsu are net virtual water exporters (2.259 billion m3 and 1.78 billion m3, respectively), while Zhejiang and Shanghai are net importers (2.344 billion m3 and 1.695 billion m3, respectively); (3) Anhui suffers the most inequality—0.4401—followed by 0.5076 of Jiangsu, while Zhejiang has the most equal environment—0.7012; (4) after the inclusion of virtual water, the quantity of water rights allocation changes, whereas Anhui experiences the largest growth—144 million m3—due to the dual effects from the highest VWT and inequality. In conclusion, the effect of virtual water is indispensable, so VWT and VWI should both be considered in the physical water rights allocation of transboundary rivers.
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