Abstract
Food production and consumption require large amounts of freshwater. There is no literature on the decomposition analysis of the intensities of water supply-demand balances (water balance intensities) for each country worldwide. The aim of this study is to evaluate the water balance intensities and elucidate the promoting factors and offset factors of water balance intensities for each country worldwide, focusing on food supply-demand balances and considering food trade balances on a global scale. The modified Laspeyres index method is applied to both a production-based water balance index (WBIPB) and a consumption-based water balance index (WBICB). The major promoting factor for the WBIPB is the renewable freshwater resources, whereas the major offset factor is the produced item preference. The major promoting factor for the WBICB is the consumed item preference, whereas the major offset factor is the producing area preference. Improving irrigation efficiencies of rice and cereals is effective because rice requires the largest blue water footprint intensities, considering irrigation efficiency on a calorie content basis in all of the items, whereas cereals are the largest share of calorie-based production quantities in all of the items worldwide. This study provides the foundation for decreasing water balance intensities regarding food production and consumption.
Highlights
Food production and consumption are essential for human life but require large amounts of freshwater
ConclusionsThis study aims to evaluate the intensities of water supply-demand balances and elucidate the promoting factors of water balance intensities
This study aims to evaluate the intensities of water supply-demand balances (water or offset factors of water balance intensities for each balance intensities) and elucidate the promoting factors water balance intensities country, focusing on food supply-demand balances and of considering food trade balances
Summary
Food production and consumption are essential for human life but require large amounts of freshwater. Freshwater resources tend to be unevenly distributed in water-rich regions worldwide. It is said that the direct trade of freshwater resources between waterrich and water-poor regions is impossible due to the costs incurred in long-distance transportation [2]. Trading food could be an important option for water-poor regions to compensate for their food shortage, which leads to an unintentional increase in freshwater requirements for food-producing regions. Most goods and services are consumed by households, businesses, and offices at the final demand stages and arrive at the end-of-life stages via raw material, processing, distribution, and retail sale stages. The water requirements of goods and services are estimated by summarizing the water consumption for all stages.
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