Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade of Brazil

Abstract

Freshwater scarcity has increased at an alarming rate worldwide; improved water management plays a vital role in increasing food production and security. This study aims to determine the water footprint of Brazil's national food consumption, the virtual water flows associated with international trade in the main agricultural commodities, as well as water scarcity, water self-sufficiency and water dependency per Brazilian region. While previous country studies on water footprints and virtual water trade focused on virtual water importers or water-scarce countries, this is the first study to concentrate on a water-abundant virtual water-exporting country. Besides, it is the first study establishing international virtual water trade balances per state, which is relevant given the fact that water scarcity varies across states within the country, so the origin of virtual water exports matters. The results show that the average water footprint of Brazilian food consumption is 1619 m 3 /person/year. Beef contributes most (21%) to this total. We find a net virtual water export of 54.8 billion m 3 /year, mainly to Europe, which imports 41% of the gross amount of the virtual water exported from Brazil. The northeast, the region with the highest water scarcity, has a net import of virtual water. The southeast, next in terms of water scarcity, shows large virtual water exports, mainly related to the export of sugar. The north, which has the most water, does not show a high virtual water export rate.

Advancing Water Footprint Assessment Research: Challenges in Monitoring Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6

“…Thirteen of the fourteen papers in this special issue consider green and blue WFs [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], while eight papers include grey WF estimation. All papers that include the grey WF specifically focus on pollution through nitrogen [14,15,17,19,21,22,25,27].…”

“…They also study difficulties in estimating pollutant loads to groundwater, which is necessary to estimate the grey WF of crop production. The paper by Da Silva et al [18] on Brazil's virtual water export and on the virtual water trade flows between states within Brazil shows another difficulty in WF studies: the precise tracing of crops. It is relatively simple to establish whether a region is a net virtual water importer or exporter, but much more difficult to know precise trade flows and thus water dependencies.…”

Paradox of Limited Water Resources in Iran and Goals of Self-Sufficiency in Agricultural Sector

“…In the exporting countries, however these products are produced only with 1253 Gm y -1 which make saving of 352 Gm y -1 of water [3]. Silva et al (2016) in a study in Brazil, have determined national water footprint of food consumption in Brazil, linking the virtual water trade in goods with the main agricultural, water shortages, water sufficiency and dependence of water in each region of Brazil. Their results showed that the average water footprint of food consumption in Brazil was 1619 per year per person [9].…”

“…Silva et al (2016) in a study in Brazil, have determined national water footprint of food consumption in Brazil, linking the virtual water trade in goods with the main agricultural, water shortages, water sufficiency and dependence of water in each region of Brazil. Their results showed that the average water footprint of food consumption in Brazil was 1619 per year per person [9]. In a study by Serrano et al (2016), it demonstrated that the total per capita water footprint was 2.280 m³ for EU consisting mainly of green water that has been removed in conventional calculations of water.…”

Projetos ambientais corporativos: do gerenciamento ao sucesso

“…Tais organizações são exportadoras virtuais de água, pois usam recursos hídricos domésticos para produção para exportação. Isso evidentemente requer custos com tratamento de forma a evitar escassez e redução de qualidade dos recursos hídricos nacionais (Hoekstra, 2014;Hoekstra & Mekonnen, 2012; V. P. R. Silva et al, 2016).…”