A holistic water balance of Austria – how does the quantitative proportion of urban water requirements relate to other users?

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Vanham
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
Municipal Water ◽  
Available Resources

Traditional water use statistics only include the blue water withdrawal/consumption of municipalities, industry and irrigated agriculture. When, however, green water use of the agricultural sector is included as well as the virtual water use/water footprint (WF), water use quantity statistics become very different. In common water use statistics, Austria withdraws in total about 2.5 km3 per year, only 3% of available resources (total discharge 81.4 km3 = surface and ground water). The total water consumption (0.5 km3) is less than 1% of available resources. Urban (municipal) water requirements account for 27% of total withdrawal or 33% of consumption. When agricultural green water use (cropland) is included in statistics, the fraction of municipal water requirements diminishes to 7.6% of total withdrawal and 2.5% of total consumption. If the evapotranspiration of grassland and alpine meadows is also included in agricultural green water use, this fraction decreases to 3.2% and 0.9% respectively. When the WF is assessed as base value for water use in Austria, the municipal water use represents 5.8% of this value. In this globalized world, these traditional water use statistics are no longer recommendable. Only a holistic water balance approach really represents water use statistics.

scholarly journals GlobWat – a global water balance model to assess water use in irrigated agriculture

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 3829-3844 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hoogeveen ◽  
J.-M. Faurès ◽  
L. Peiser ◽  
J. Burke ◽  
N. van de Giesen
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Water Balance Model ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. GlobWat is a freely distributed, global soil water balance model that is used by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to assess water use in irrigated agriculture, the main factor behind scarcity of freshwater in an increasing number of regions. The model is based on spatially distributed high-resolution data sets that are consistent at global level and calibrated against values for internal renewable water resources, as published in AQUASTAT, the FAO's global information system on water and agriculture. Validation of the model is done against mean annual river basin outflows. The water balance is calculated in two steps: first a "vertical" water balance is calculated that includes evaporation from in situ rainfall ("green" water) and incremental evaporation from irrigated crops. In a second stage, a "horizontal" water balance is calculated to determine discharges from river (sub-)basins, taking into account incremental evaporation from irrigation, open water and wetlands ("blue" water). The paper describes the methodology, input and output data, calibration and validation of the model. The model results are finally compared with other global water balance models to assess levels of accuracy and validity.

scholarly journals GlobWat – a global water balance model to assess water use in irrigated agriculture

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 801-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hoogeveen ◽  
J.-M. Faurès ◽  
L. Peiser ◽  
J. Burke ◽  
N. van de Giesen
Keyword(s):  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Water Balance Model ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Balance Model ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Global Soil ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Global Water

Abstract. GlobWat is a freely distributed, global soil water balance model that is used by FAO to assess water use in irrigated agriculture; the main factor behind scarcity of freshwater in an increasing number of regions. The model is based on spatially distributed high resolution datasets that are consistent at global level and calibrated against values for Internal Renewable Water Resources, as published in AQUASTAT, FAO's global information system on water and agriculture. Validation of the model is done against mean annual river basin outflows. The water balance is calculated in two steps: first a "vertical" water balance is calculated that includes evaporation from in situ rainfall ("green" water) and incremental evaporation from irrigated crops. In a second stage, a "horizontal" water balance is calculated to determine discharges from river (sub-)basins, taking into account incremental evaporation from irrigation, open water and wetlands ("blue" water). The paper describes methodology, input and output data, calibration and validation of the model. The model results are finally compared with other global water balance models.

scholarly journals Water Resources Management Strategies for Irrigated Agriculture in the Indus Basin of Pakistan

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Muzammil ◽  
Azlan Zahid ◽  
Lutz Breuer
Keyword(s):  
Water Use ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Water Saving ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Indus Basin ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Saline Irrigation ◽  
Cropping Patterns ◽  
Support Tool

Agriculture of Pakistan relies on the Indus basin, which is facing severe water scarcity conditions. Poor irrigation practices and lack of policy reforms are major threats for water and food security of the country. In this research, alternative water-saving strategies are evaluated through a high spatio-temporal water footprint (WF) assessment (1997–2016) for the Punjab and Sindh provinces, which cover an irrigated area of 17 million hectares in the Indus basin of Pakistan. The SPARE:WATER model is used as a spatial decision support tool to calculate the WF and establish alternative management plans for more sustainable water use. The average water consumption (WFarea) is estimated to 182 km3 yr−1, composed of 75% blue water (irrigation water from surface water and groundwater sources), 17% green water (precipitation) and 8% grey water (water used to remove soil salinity or dilute saline irrigation water). Sugarcane, cotton, and rice are highly water-intensive crops, which consume 57% of the annual water use. However, WFarea can be reduced by up to 35% through optimized cropping patterns of the existing crops with the current irrigation settings and even by up to 50% through the combined implementation of optimal cropping patterns and improved irrigation technologies, i.e., sprinkler and drip irrigation. We recommend that the economic impact of these water-saving strategies should be investigated in future studies to inform stakeholders and policymakers to achieve a more sustainable water policy for Pakistan.

scholarly journals An improved method for calculating the regional crop water footprint based on a hydrological process analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 5111-5123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Bo Luan ◽  
Ya-Li Yin ◽  
Pu-Te Wu ◽  
Shi-Kun Sun ◽  
Yu-Bao Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Irrigation District ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Hydrological Process ◽  
Total Water ◽  
Crop Water

Abstract. Fresh water is consumed during agricultural production. With the shortage of water resources, assessing the water use efficiency is crucial to effectively manage agricultural water resources. The water footprint is an improved index for water use evaluation, and it can reflect the quantity and types of water usage during crop growth. This study aims to establish a method for calculating the regional-scale water footprint of crop production based on hydrological processes, and the water footprint is quantified in terms of blue and green water. This method analyses the water-use process during the growth of crops, which includes irrigation, precipitation, groundwater, evapotranspiration, and drainage, and it ensures a more credible evaluation of water use. As illustrated by the case of the Hetao irrigation district (HID), China, the water footprint of wheat, corn and sunflowers were calculated using this method. The results show that canal water loss and evapotranspiration were responsible for most of the water consumption and accounted for 47.9 % and 41.8 % of the total consumption, respectively. The total water footprint of wheat, corn and sunflowers were 1380–2888, 942–1774 and 2095–4855 m3 t−1, respectively, and the blue footprint accounts for more than 86 %. The spatial distribution pattern of the green, blue and total water footprints for the three crops demonstrated that higher values occurred in the eastern part of the HID, which had more precipitation and was further away from the irrigation gate. This study offers a vital reference for improving the method used to calculate the crop water footprint.

scholarly journals A Spatially Detailed and Economically Complete Blue Water Footprint of the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard R. Rushforth ◽  
Benjamin L. Ruddell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
The United States ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Energy Information Administration ◽  
United States Geological Survey ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
The U.S

Abstract. This paper quantifies and maps a spatially detailed and economically complete blue water footprint for the United States, utilizing the National Water Economy Database version 1.1 (NWED). NWED utilizes multiple mesoscale federal data resources from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to quantify water use, economic trade, and commodity flows to construct this water footprint. Results corroborate previous studies in both the magnitude of the U.S. water footprint (F) and in the observed pattern of virtual water flows. The median water footprint (FCUMed) of the U.S. is 181 966 Mm3 (FWithdrawal: 400 844 Mm3; FCUMax: 222 144 Mm3; FCUMin: 61 117 Mm3) and the median per capita water footprint (F'CUMed) of the U.S. is 589 m3 capita−1 (F'Withdrawal: 1298 m3 capita−1; F'CUMax: 720 m3 capita−1; F'CUMin: 198 m3 capita−1). The U.S. hydro-economic network is centered on cities and is dominated by the local and regional scales. Approximately (58 %) of U.S. water consumption is for the direct and indirect use by cities. Further, the water footprint of agriculture and livestock is 93 % of the total U.S. water footprint, and is dominated by irrigated agriculture in the Western U.S. The water footprint of the industrial, domestic, and power economic sectors is centered on population centers, while the water footprint of the mining sector is highly dependent on the location of mineral resources. Owing to uncertainty in consumptive use coefficients alone, the mesoscale blue water footprint uncertainty ranges from 63 % to over 99 % depending on location. Harmonized region-specific, economic sector-specific consumption coefficients are necessary to reduce water footprint uncertainties and to better understand the human economy's water use impact on the hydrosphere.

Assessment of Water Footprint for Koshi River Basin (KRB), Nepal

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Deva Singh ◽  
Kumar Ghimire ◽  
Ashish Pandey
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Total Water ◽  
Green And Blue Water ◽  
Koshi River Basin

<p>Nepal is an agrarian country and almost one-third of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is dependent on agricultural sector. Koshi river basin is the largest basin in the country and serves large share on agricultural production. Like another country, Nepalese agriculture holds largest water use in agriculture. In this context, it is necessary to reduce water use pressure. In this study, water footprint of different crop (rice, maize, wheat, millet, sugarcane, potato and barley) have been estimated for the year 2005 -2014 to get the average water footprint of crop production during study period. CROPWAT model, developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2010b).</p><p>For the computation of the green and blue water footprints, estimated values of ET (the output of CROPWAT model) and yield (derived from statistical data) are utilised. Blue and green water footprint are computed for different districts (16 districts within KRB) / for KRB in different years (10 years from 2005 to 2014) and crops (considered 7 local crops). The water footprint of crops production for any district or basin represents the average of WF production of seven crops in the respective district or basin.</p><p>The study provides a picture of green and blue water use in crop production in the field and reduction in the water footprint of crop production by selecting suitable crops at different places in the field. The Crop, that has lower water footprint, can be intensified at that location and the crops, having higher water footprint, can be discontinued for production or measure for water saving technique needs to be implemented reducing evapotranspiration. The water footprint of agriculture crop production can be reduced by increasing the yield of the crops. Some measures like use of an improved variety of seed, fertilizer, mechanized farming and soil moisture conservation technology may also be used to increase the crop yields.</p><p>The crop harvested areas include both rainfed as well as irrigated land. Agricultural land occupies 22% of the study area, out of which 94% areas are rainfed whereas remaining 6% areas are under irrigation. The study shows 98% of total water use in crop production is due to green water use (received from rainfall) and remaining 2 % is due to blue water use received from irrigation (surface and ground water as source). Potato has 22% blue water proportion and contributes 85% share to the total blue water use in the basin. Maize and rice together hold 77% share of total water use in crops production. The average annual water footprint of crop production in KRB is 1248 cubic meter/ton having the variation of 9% during the period of 2005-2014. Sunsari, Dhankuta districts have lower water footprint of crop production. The coefficient of variation of water footprint of millet crop production is lower as compared to those of other crops considered for study whereas sugarcane has a higher variation of water footprint for its production.</p>

scholarly journals Blue and Green Water Footprint Assessment for China—A Multi-Region Input–Output Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyu Hou ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Xu Zhao ◽  
Martin Tillotson ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Single Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Trading Partners ◽  
Net Export

Research on blue and green water footprints (WF) for China has typically been carried out based on bottom-up and top-down approach using a single-region input–output table. However, this research typically lacks detail on the sectoral interrelationships which exist between China and its trading partners in other countries/regions of the world. Here, a multi-region input–output approach using the WIOD database was applied to quantify the blue and green WF for China in 2009. The quantification was conducted from both production (WFP) and consumption (WFC) perspectives. The results show that the total WFP for China in 2009 was 1152.2 km3, second only to India. At 1070.9 km3, China had the largest WFC volume in the world. The internal WF was 953.5 km3, taking the substantial share for both the WFC and WFP. Overall, China’s trade resulted in a net export of 53.5 km3 virtual water. In contrast, the agricultural sector resulted in a net import of 70.6 km3 virtual water to China, with United States, Brazil, and Canada acting as major suppliers. This study suggests that quantifying the WF of China at global level through a MRIO framework is a necessary step towards achieving sustainability for China’s water management.

scholarly journals Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (11) ◽  
pp. 4893-4898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joep F. Schyns ◽  
Arjen Y. Hoekstra ◽  
Martijn J. Booij ◽  
Rick J. Hogeboom ◽  
Mesfin M. Mekonnen
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Footprint ◽  
Limited Resource ◽  
Green Water ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Blue Water ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
The Cost

Green water––rainfall over land that eventually flows back to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration––is the main source of water to produce food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. To understand how freshwater scarcity constrains production of these goods, we need to consider limits to the green water footprint (WFg), the green water flow allocated to human society. However, research traditionally focuses on scarcity of blue water––groundwater and surface water. Here we expand the debate on water scarcity by considering green water scarcity (WSg). At 5 × 5 arc-minute spatial resolution, we quantify WFg and the maximum sustainable level to this footprint (WFg,m), while accounting for green water requirements to support biodiversity. We then estimate WSg per country as the ratio of the national aggregate WFg to the national aggregate WFg,m. We find that globally WFg amounts to 56% of WFg,m, and overshoots it in several places, for example in countries in Europe, Central America, the Middle East, and South Asia. The sustainably available green water flows in these countries are mostly or fully allocated to human activities (predominately agriculture and forestry), occasionally at the cost of green water flows earmarked for nature. By ignoring limits to the growing human WFg, we risk further loss of ecosystem values that depend on the remaining untouched green water flows. We emphasize that green water is a critical and limited resource that should explicitly be part of any assessment of water scarcity, food security, or bioenergy potential.

Integrating Climate and Socio-Economic Scenarios in a Hydrological Model for the Santa River Basin, Peru

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Teutsch ◽  
Faizan Anwar ◽  
Jochen Seidel ◽  
András Bárdossy ◽  
Christian Huggel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Hydrological Model ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Domestic Water ◽  
Study Region ◽  
River Catchment

<p>High mountain regions, like the Andes, face various risks due to climate change. In the Santa River catchment in Peru which includes the glaciated Cordillera Blanca, water availability is threatened by many climatic and non-climatic impacts. The water resources in the catchment heavily rely on seasonal precipitation and during the dry season glacier melt water plays an important role. However, both, precipitation patterns and glacier extent are affected by climate change impacts. Additionally, socio-economic changes put further pressure on water resources and hence on water availability.</p> <p>Within the AguaFuturo Project we established a conceptual integrated water balance model based on a semi-distributed HBV model for the data scarce Santa River catchment. The hydrological model processes are extended by feedback loops for agricultural and domestic water use. The model runs on daily time scale and includes two hydrological response units. One includes the irrigated agricultural areas which are predominately located in the valley of the catchment; the other includes non-irrigated areas and domestic water use.</p> <p>To assess future water balance challenges we downscaled and disaggregated monthly CORDEX scenarios for 2020-2050 using information from the new Peruvian precipitation dataset PISCO (Peruvian Interpolated data of the SENAMHI’s Climatological and hydrological Observations) for simulations of future changes in hydro-climatology. In the model, these climate scenarios are combined with possible socio-economic scenarios which are translated into time series for domestic and agricultural water demand. The socio-economic scenarios are developed by using the Cross-Impact-Balance-Analysis (CIB), a method used for analyzing impact networks. Using CIB, the interrelations between 15 social, economic and policy descriptors were analyzed and as a result a total of 29 possible consistent scenarios were determined. For further analysis and validation of these scenarios a participatory process was included, involving local experts and stakeholders of the study region.</p> <p>The climate and socio-economic scenarios are independent and can be combined randomly. The uncertainties of the climatic and socio-economic scenarios are quantified by Monte Carlo simulations.</p> <p>The output of the model runs is an ensemble of possible future discharges of the Santa River, which can be further analyzed statistically to assess the range of the possible discharges. This evaluation provides an estimate of the probability of water shortages, especially with regard to conflict potential with hydropower production and the large scale irrigated agriculture areas in the adjacent coastal desert which also rely on water from the Santa River.</p>

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