Global unsustainable virtual water flows in agricultural trade
By L. Rosa, D. Chiarelli, Chengyi Tu, Maria Cristina Rulli, Paolo D'Odorico. Environmental Research Letters, 2019
183 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Recent studies have highlighted the reliance of global food production on unsustainable irrigation practices, which deplete freshwater stocks and environmental flows, and consequently impair aquatic ecosystems. Unsustainable irrigation is driven by domestic and international demand for agricultural products. Research on the environmental consequences of trade has often concentrated on the global displacement of pollution and land use, while the effect of trade on water sustainability and the drying of over-depleted watercourses has seldom been recognized and quantified. Here we evaluate unsustainable irrigation water consumption (UWC) associated with global crop production and determine the share of UWC embedded in international trade. We find that, while about 52% of global irrigation is unsustainable, 15% of it is virtually exported, with an average 18% increase between year 2000 and 2015. About 60% of global virtual transfers of UWC are driven by exports of cotton, sugar cane, fruits, and vegetables. One third of UWC in Mexico, Spain, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Morocco, and Australia is associated with demand from the export markets. The globalization of water through trade contributes to running rivers dry, an environmental externality commonly overlooked by trade policies. By identifying the producing and consuming countries that are responsible for unsustainable irrigation embedded in virtual water trade, this study highlights trade links in which policies are needed to achieve sustainable water and food security goals in the coming decades.
Subfields: Environmental Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Water Science and Technology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/208660086825fdd027fe4e5f5cf2fdfed403a440
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Environmental Engineering
In Ocean Engineering
In Water Science and Technology
Citations in the corpus
- Global food self-sufficiency in the 21st century under sustainable intensification of agriculture (2020, background): “Sustainable irrigation expansion ensures that freshwater stocks are not depleted and environmental flows are maintained, while preventing agricultural expansion into biodiversity-rich ecosystems (Rosa et al 2019).”
- Quantitative assessment of agricultural sustainability reveals divergent priorities among nations (2021, background): “…are heavily influenced by agricultural activities, including freshwater use (water consumption: sustainability of irrigation water consumption), 22,23 human disturbance to N and P cycles (N surplus and P surplus), land system change, biodiversity loss (land-use change: deforestation due to…”