Abstract
The amount of water withdrawn to support economic activity in the southeastern United States is estimated using a multiregional Environmental Input-Output/Life Cycle Analysis model. Water multipliers are measured as gallons of water withdrawn to meet a one-dollar increase in a commodity’s final demand. The analysis finds that direct and indirect water withdrawal requirements embedded in the production of goods and services is heterogeneous across the study region. The utilities and crop production sectors exhibit the largest water multipliers. For an increase in final demand for crop production, direct regional effects contribute more to water multipliers compared to contributions from inter-regional and intersectoral sources. Alternatively, regional and inter-sectoral multipliers contribute more to the composition of the utilities sectors’ water multipliers. The resulting water footprint could inform the design of water management policies for local, state, and regional institutions, including markets for water.
Highlights
The southeastern United States (U.S.) is undergoing rapid population growth
The analysis provides a snapshot of the flow of water through the region’s economy; across economic sectors and between sub-regions because the InputOutput component of the LCA is augmented to account for inter-regional transactions
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first application of a multi-regional Economic Input-Output Life-Cycle Analysis (EIO-LCA) for the southeastern U.S We focus on identifying the structure and quantity of inter-regional transfers in terms of multipliers; i.e. the water requirement throughout the entire economy to satisfy one dollar’s worth of final demand in that industry, for 21 sectors across 43 Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regions
Summary
The southeastern United States (U.S.) is undergoing rapid population growth. From 2010 to 2017, the population of the southeastern U.S (defined here as the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) grew by 7.9 percent, while the population of the rest of the nation grew by 4.8 percent (U.S Census Bureau, 2017). Rural communities that continue to attract retirees will need to develop long-term plans to address increased demand for limited water resources and utility infrastructure in their communities (Mullinix, 2014) These trends fuel dialogue among state officials, media, and research institutions concerning water use rights, water conservation, the economic value of water, and opportunities for water trading. Withdrawals from the United States Geological Survey (Maupin et al, 2014) are used to estimate water multipliers - defined as the gallons required to meet a one-dollar increase in final demand - for 21 aggregated sectors across 43 Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regions (Table 1). The interregional analysis of the region’s water footprint could inform local and regional policy on water management and potentially provide a starting point from which to model water transfer between economic sectors and regions
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