Global virtual water trade and the hydrological cycle
Patterns, drivers, and socio-environmental impacts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15550558 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paolo D’odorico (0000-0002-0007-5833, University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author), Joel A Carr (0000-0002-9164-4156, United States Geological Survey), Joel Carr, Carole Dalin (0000-0002-2123-9622, Centre for Sustainable Energy), Jampel Dell’angelo (0000-0003-1431-5364, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Megan Konar (0000-0003-0540-8438, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Francesco Laio (0000-0003-3931-1482, Politecnico di Torino), Luca Ridolfi (0000-0003-2947-8641, Politecnico di Torino), Lorenzo Rosa (0000-0002-1280-9945, University of California, Berkeley), Samir Suweis (0000-0002-1603-8375, University of Padua), Stefania Tamea (0000-0001-6388-3283, Politecnico di Torino), Marta Tuninetti (0000-0003-2619-8783, Politecnico di Torino) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 053001-053001 |
| Publication date | 2019-02-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ab05f4 |
| OpenAlex | W2911760408 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 39 |
| References cited | 250 |
The increasing global demand for farmland products is placing unprecedented pressure on the global agricultural system and its water resources. Many regions of the world, that are affected by a chronic water scarcity relative to their population, strongly depend on the import of agricultural commodities and associated embodied (or virtual ) water. The globalization of water through virtual water trade (VWT) is leading to a displacement of water use and a disconnection between human populations and the water resources they rely on. Despite the recognized importance of these phenomena in reshaping the patterns of water dependence through teleconnections between consumers and producers, their effect on global and regional water resources has just started to be quantified. This review investigates the global spatiotemporal dynamics, drivers, and impacts of VWT through an integrated analysis of surface water, groundwater, and root-zone soil moisture consumption for agricultural production; it evaluates how virtual water flows compare to the major ‘physical water fluxes’ in the Earth System; and provides a new reconceptualization of the hydrologic cycle to account also for the role of water redistribution by the hidden ‘virtual water cycle’
Agricultural productivity · Agriculture · Economics · Geography · Natural resource economics · Virtual water · Water cycle · Water resource management · Water resources · Water scarcity · Environmental Science · Water resources management and optimization · Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies · Ecology
Operationalizing water-energy-food nexus research for sustainable development in social-ecological systems
Markets and misfits in adaptive water governance
Water Conservation
A growing produce bubble
Accounting for socioeconomic constraints in sustainable irrigation expansion assessments
Potential of wastewater reuse to alleviate water scarcity under future warming scenarios
Climate change impacts on water sustainability of South African crop production
Future evolution of virtual water trading in the United States electricity sector
Water shortage risks from perennial crop expansion in California’s Central Valley
Adapting agriculture to climate change via sustainable irrigation
Spatiotemporal heterogeneities in water and land appropriations related to food losses and waste in China
Large agri-food corporations in the global staple and cash crops markets
Global unsustainable virtual water flows in agricultural trade
Evolution of global water footprints of crop production in 1990–2019
Global food self-sufficiency in the 21st century under sustainable intensification of agriculture
Energy and food security implications of transitioning synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to net-zero emissions
Trading water
Virtual water flows and economic water productivity of Italian fair-trade
Enhanced risk of concurrent regional droughts with increased Enso variability and warming
Virtual water in global supply chains
Exploring the global trade networks of the tungsten supply chain
Food system resilience to phosphorus shortages on a telecoupled planet
The dual impact of trade on the water–energy–food nexus globally
Socio-hydrological features of armed conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin
Using indicators to inform the sustainable governance of water-for-food systems
Measuring economic water scarcity in agriculture
Global trade in the Anthropocene
Assessing global agri-food system exceedance of national cropland limits for linking responsible consumption and production under SDG 12
The impact of foreign land acquisitions on Africa virtual water exports
Canada Kills, Inc
Appropriation pathways of water grabbing
The globalization of virtual water flows
Impacts of Global Food Systems on Biodiversity and Water
Agricultural market integration preserves future global water resources
Rising agricultural water scarcity in China is driven by expansion of irrigated cropland in water scarce regions
Global drivers of local water stresses and global responses to local water policies in the United States
Hydrological sustainability of international virtual water trade
An integrated assessment of the global virtual water trade network of energy
Domestic outsourcing characteristics and driving forces of the virtual water trade in Zhejiang Province, eastern China
A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products
Groundwater use for irrigation – a global inventory
Feeding humanity through global food trade
Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade
Modelling the role of agriculture for the 20th century global terrestrial carbon balance
The rise of South–South trade and its effect on global CO2 emissions
The Natural Flow Regime
A food systems approach to researching food security and its interactions with global environmental change
Environmental and social footprints of international trade
Emerging trends in global freshwater availability
The Global Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus
Systems integration for global sustainability
From Food Insufficiency towards Trade Dependency
The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products
Humanity’s unsustainable environmental footprint
Virtual Water
How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world
Can sub-Saharan Africa feed itself?
Four billion people facing severe water scarcity
Global land and water grabbing
Mirca2000—Global monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas around the year 2000
Groundwater depletion and sustainability of irrigation in the US High Plains and Central Valley
Green Revolution
Water footprints of nations
Substantial nitrogen pollution embedded in international trade
Agricultural green and blue water consumption and its influence on the global water system
Nonsustainable groundwater sustaining irrigation
Shared Waters
Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity
Evolution of the global virtual water trade network
The water footprint of humanity
Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future
Global depletion of groundwater resources
Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources
Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Food Security
The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe
Virtual Water - the Water, Food, and Trade Nexus. Useful Concept or Misleading Metaphor
Hydro-hegemony – a framework for analysis of trans-boundary water conflicts
Conflict and cooperation along international waterways
Water depletion
Growth in Environmental Footprints and Environmental Impacts Embodied in Trade
Material Footprint Assessment in a Global Input‐Output Framework
Virtual Water Flows in the EU27
Embodied phosphorus and the global connections of United States agriculture
International energy trade impacts on water resource crises
Towards more spatially explicit assessments of virtual water flows
Virtual water transfers unlikely to redress inequality in global water use
Resilience in the global food system
The water footprint of staple crop trade under climate and policy scenarios
Reserves and trade jointly determine exposure to food supply shocks
Spatial organization and drivers of the virtual water trade
Inequality or injustice in water use for food
The surprisingly small but increasing role of international agricultural trade on the European Union’s dependence on mineral phosphorus fertiliser
Measuring scarce water saving from interregional virtual water flows in China
Todayʼs virtual water consumption and trade under future water scarcity
Imported water risk
Teleconnected food supply shocks
Trade in the US and Mexico helps reduce environmental costs of agriculture
Assessing the evolving fragility of the global food system
Vulnerability to shocks in the global seafood trade network
Causes and trends of water scarcity in food production
Economic aspects of virtual water trade
Closing the yield gap while ensuring water sustainability
Spatial decoupling of agricultural production and consumption
Energy implications of bottled water
Past and present biophysical redundancy of countries as a buffer to changes in food supply
A Fast Track approach to deal with the temporal dimension of crop water footprint
Water resources transfers through southern African food trade
The past and future of food stocks
Virtual water trade in industrial products
Assessment of regional trade and virtual water flows in China
A gravity model of virtual water trade
Can Eemrio analyses establish the occurrence of ecologically unequal exchange
Measuring telecouplings in the global land system
Refuting two claims about virtual water trade
Response to Hornborg et al
International trade of scarce water
Does ecologically unequal exchange occur
A multi-regional input–output analysis of domestic virtual water trade and provincial water footprint in China
Effect of aggregation and disaggregation on embodied material use of products in input–output analysis
National natural capital accounting with the ecological footprint concept
The Impact of Commercial Horticulture on River Water Resources in the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro River Basin, Kenya
Trade and the role of non-food commodities for global eutrophication
The global risks of increasing reliance on bottled water
Towards a revised planetary boundary for consumptive freshwater use
Globalization of land use
Land Grabbing and Global Governance
Famine responses in the world food crisis 1972–5 and the World Food Conference of 1974
Spatially explicit assessment of water embodied in European trade
The Global Water Grabbing Syndrome
Strategic importance of green water in international crop trade
Are we in deep water? Water scarcity and its limits to economic growth
Food or flowers? Contested transformations of community food security and water use priorities under new legal and market regimes in Ecuador's highlands
Environmental impact food labels combining carbon, nitrogen, and water footprints
Connected we stand
Climate change and trade in agriculture
Rethinking the global food crisis
The Tragedy of the Grabbed Commons
| Unique citing works | 39 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,57 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 37 |