Abstract
Beijing, the capital of China, is experiencing a serious lack of water, which is becoming a main factor in the restriction of the development of the social economy. Due to the low economic efficiency and high consumption proportion of agricultural water use, the relationship between economic growth and agricultural water use is worth investigating. The “decoupling” index is becoming increasingly popular for identifying the degree of non-synchronous variation between resource consumption and economic growth. However, few studies address the decoupling between the crop water consumption and agricultural economic growth. This paper involves the water footprint (WF) to assess the water consumption in the crop production process. After an evaluation of the crop WF in Beijing, this paper applies the decoupling indicators to examine the occurrence of non-synchronous variation between the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and crop WF in Beijing from 1981 to 2013. The results show that the WF of crop production in 2013 reduced by 62.1% compared to that in 1980 — in total, 1.81 × 109 m3. According to the decoupling states, the entire study period is divided into three periods. From 1981 to 2013, the decoupling states represented seventy-five percent of the years from 1981 to 1992 (Period I) with a moderate decoupling degree, more than ninety percent from 1993 to 2003 (Period II) with a very strong decoupling degree and moved from non-decoupling to strong decoupling from 2004 to 2013 (Period III). Adjusting plantation structure, technology innovation and raising awareness of water-saving, may promote the decoupling degree between WF and agricultural GDP in Beijing.
Highlights
Water is the fountain of life and an important material base for a city to sustain economic growth
The water footprint (WF) of wheat, rice, potatoes, peanuts and maize decreased from 2.17 × 109 m3, 5.54 × 108 m3, 7.63 × m3, 2.14 × m3, and 1.42 × m3 to 3.52 × 108 m3, 2.16 × 106 m3, 8.84 × m3, 2.90 × m3, and 9.35 × m3, respectively
The WF of soybeans in 2013 is much lower than in 1980, and when compared with soybeans, we can see that the WF of vegetables is very different — 1.6 times greater than the WF from 34 years ago
Summary
Water is the fountain of life and an important material base for a city to sustain economic growth. To solve the water crisis in the Middle East, Allan (1993) proposed the concept of “virtual water”, and, based on this concept, Hoekstra et al (2011) proposed the term “water footprint,” which refers to direct water use and to the indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Crop Water Footprint rainwater, and WFgrey refers to the volume of freshwater that is used to dilute the pollution generated in the crop production process (Chapagain and Hoekstra, 2011). The distribution of water resources and economic conditions exist significant regional differences (Deng et al, 2021). Due to the high consumption proportion of agricultural water use, assessing the crop water use based on water footprint indicator is significant for sustainable crop production and water consumption
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.