A Country-Specific Water Consumption Inventory Considering International Trade in Asian Countries Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Table

Yuya Ono,Norihiro Itsubo,Young Deuk Kim

doi:10.3390/su9081351

Yuya Ono, Norihiro Itsubo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081351

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Abstract

Interest in the impacts of water use in the life cycle of products and services are increasing among various stakeholders. The water footprint is a tool to identify critical and effective points for reducing the impact of water use through the entire life cycle of products, services, and organizations. The purpose of this study was to develop a water consumption inventory database that focused on identifying of Asian water consumption using an input-output (IO) framework. An Asia International Input-Output table (AIIO) was applied in this study. The amount of water consumption required for agricultural products was estimated by modeling; for other sectors it was estimated from statistical reports. The intensities of direct water consumption in each sector were calculated by dividing the amount of water consumption by the domestic production. Based on the IO analysis using Leontief’s inverse matrix, the intensities of water consumption from cradle to gate were estimated for all goods and services. There was high intensity of water consumption in the primary industry sectors, together with a high dependency on rainwater as an input water source. The water consumption intensities generally showed a larger reduction in secondary sectors, in comparison with the tertiary sectors, due to the use of recycled water. There were differences between this study and previous studies due to the use of site-specific production data and the temporal resolution of crop production. By considering site-specific conditions, it is expected that the dataset developed here can be used for estimating the water footprint of products, services, and organizations in nine countries (Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and USA).

Highlights

The quantity and quality of available freshwater is threatened by uneven distribution, increasing water demand, and emissions to freshwater resources due to worldwide population growth and changes in life style in developing countries (METI [1]; MLIT [2])
We developed a water consumption intensity database that covered all of the goods and services produced in Asia, and estimated the water consumption associated with the economic sectors in nine Asian countries using the Asia International Input-Output table (AIIO) table
Focusing on the Japanese water consumption intensity, we identified domestic consumption and the effect of importing/exporting produce

Summary

Introduction

The quantity and quality of available freshwater is threatened by uneven distribution, increasing water demand, and emissions to freshwater resources due to worldwide population growth and changes in life style in developing countries (METI [1]; MLIT [2]). The scope of a water footprint assessment is: (a) to evaluate the environmental impacts of activities related to water use by accounting for inventory data (amount of freshwater consumed and emissions to water), and (b) to quantify the impacts throughout the life cycle of products, services, and organizations. Both aspects of such an assessment have a common underlying concept basically, to account for the amounts of direct and indirect water use related to the target products, services, organizations, and activities. Inventory databases are essential for practitioners because of the great difficulties in collecting all the required inventory information for the variety of processes over the whole life cycle of a product or service

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