Efficiency and sustainability of inter-provincial crop-related virtual water transfers in China

Gao, Jie; Zhuo, La; Liu, Yilin; Xie, Pengxuan; Wang, Wei; Li, Meng; Gao, Xuerui; Wu, Pute

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2020.103560

Cited by 31 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The unit WF of crops is calculated using the fast track method (Tuninetti et al 2017), which has been extensively used (Dalin et al 2012, Tuninetti et al 2020, Ma et al 2021, Liu et al 2021b. The method has been demonstrated to be acceptable at a global scale (with a standard deviation of the error of approximately 0.1) (Tuninetti et al 2017) and a national scale (with a difference between the FastTrack and WF assessment manual method within 20% in China) (Gao et al 2020) The total WF of animal products is composed of feed crop WF, which accounts for 98% of the total WF, service water, and drinking water consumed (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2010). The feed conversion efficiency of the animal, feed composition, and feed origin are predominant in the WF of the animal, and the production system influences these three factors (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2010).…”

Section: Wf and Lf Accounting Related To Flwmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal heterogeneities in water and land appropriations related to food losses and waste in China

Zhuo

Liu

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Fast-growing food losses and waste (FLW) have caused major environmental issues, yet little is known about the role of trade in the inefficient resource consumption related to FLW. In this study, we estimated the inter-annual water footprints (WFs) and land footprints (LFs) related to FLW in consideration of associated inter-provincial virtual water (VW) and virtual land (VL) flows within China from 2000 to 2017. Additionally, differences between eating at home and out in rural and urban regions were distinguished. The FLW-related WF and LF showed 1.5- and 1.2-fold increasing trends, respectively, over the study period. Eating at home in rural regions caused the most FLW and associated water and land appropriations. Both FLW-related gross inter-provincial VW and VL flows increased by 99% and 22% during the study period, respectively, and inter-provincial VW and VL flows in corresponding FLW-related WF and LF differed significantly. In addition, food losses were found to cause more inefficient resource consumption than food waste. This analysis shows that the substantial role of FLW in shaping the intra-national food-related VW and VL networks, and that the policies for FLW diminution at the food supply chain stage are as important as those at the consumption stage.

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Section: Wf and Lf Accounting Related To Flwmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal heterogeneities in water and land appropriations related to food losses and waste in China

Zhuo

Liu

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…The method was tested as valid within 10% of error through a global scale uncertainty analysis (Tuninetti et al, 2017). Gao et al (2020) found that the method has an error of less than 20% at the provincial level in China. The method has the characteristics of low calculation cost and high reliability of results and has been widely used (Gao et al, 2020;Soligno, Malik & Lenzen, 2019, Soligno, Rodolfi & Laio, 2019Tamea et al, 2020;Xie et al, 2020).…”

Section: 𝑎𝑎𝑖𝑖[𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑚𝑚]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The VW consumed and embedded in trade products under the same cases is called unsustainable virtual blue water . Within the WFN framework, Rosa et al (2019) found that 52% of the world's irrigation water is unsustainable, 15% of which is for export; Mekonen and Hoekstra (2020) reported that 57% of the global blue WF of crop production is unsustainable, of which nearly 70% is contributed by the production of wheat, rice, cotton, sugar cane, and fodder; Gao et al (2020) found that the flow of unsustainable virtual blue water related to major crops between provinces in mainland China increased by 8% from 2004 to 2013. For the LCA framework, multiplying the blue WF with the local WS index obtains the water scarcity footprint (WSF; ISO, 2014;Pfister et al, 2009;Ridoutt & Pfister, 2013), and the corresponding VW export is scarce weighted VW (SVW; Lenzen et al, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Footprints, Intra‐National Virtual Water Flows, and Associated Sustainability Related to Pork Production and Consumption: A Case for China

Xie

Zhuo

et al. 2022

Water Resources Research

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Growth in water consumption with intensified virtual water (VW) flows from increased production and consumption of both meat and feed crops threatens the sustainability of water resources in water‐scarce countries and export regions. However, a sustainability assessment of both water footprints (WFs) and VW flows related to animal products at a subnational scale is lacking. Here we estimate direct and indirect WFs as well as the inter‐provincial VW flows associated with pork production and consumption in China for the years 2008 and 2017. The contributions of feed crop production and consumption were identified. Both life cycle assessment and WF network frameworks were applied to evaluate the sustainability of blue WF and VW flows. Results show that the national annual consumptive (green‐blue) WF and degradative (gray) WF of pork production increased by 8.7% and 15.8%, respectively. More than 80% of the blue WF in pork production was unsustainable. By 2017, 62% of the unsustainable blue WF and 64% of the water scarcity footprints of pork production in the south resulted from consuming the feed crops from the north. This analysis highlights the importance and provides feasible approaches to uncover remote geographical effects on regional water scarcities from different steps in the value chains of livestock products.

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“…Previous findings clearly reported negative effects of virtual water trade on local water resources, which also deepens our concerns on inter-provincial virtual water trade in China. Researchers highlighted that policy-makers should consider the potential environmental externalities when designing virtual water trade policy [28][29][30]. However, to the best of our knowledge, limited studies considered the difference between water withdrawal under trade and no-trade.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water-Saving Efficiency and Inequality of Virtual Water Trade in China

Tian

et al. 2021

Water

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Virtual water trade is widely considered as a potential method to solve local water shortage and unequal distribution. However, limited research investigated water-saving efficiency and water inequality of inter-provincial virtual water trade. In this study, we sought to explore this issue within China based on the 2015 input-output data. A multi-regional input-output model and a modified input-output model were used to estimate the virtual water trade and its impact on water-saving and water inequality. Our results suggest that: (1) The total virtual water flow across the country is 200.03 × 109 m3, which accounts for 32.77% of water withdrawal. The agriculture sector contributes the highest proportion (73.99%) to virtual water flow. (2) Virtual water trade could decrease water withdrawal by 446.08 × 109 m3 compared with withdrawal under no-trade situation at a national level, and 22 provinces could gain benefits through inter-provincial trade with a positive water-saving efficiency index. (3) Virtual water trade also causes water inequality, which exacerbates water scarcity of exported provinces, especially in northwest provinces. (4) There is a conflict between water conservation and water inequality, but different provinces show significant heterogeneity.

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Efficiency and sustainability of inter-provincial crop-related virtual water transfers in China

Cited by 31 publications

References 47 publications

Spatiotemporal heterogeneities in water and land appropriations related to food losses and waste in China

Spatiotemporal heterogeneities in water and land appropriations related to food losses and waste in China

Water Footprints, Intra‐National Virtual Water Flows, and Associated Sustainability Related to Pork Production and Consumption: A Case for China

Water-Saving Efficiency and Inequality of Virtual Water Trade in China

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