Abstract
Current environmental impact analyses are mainly focused on land, soil, energy, and material consumption, while studies regarding blue water consumption are scarce. Based on the water footprint concept, this study evaluates the impacts of blue water consumption on human health, ecosystem quality, and water resources in China from the production and consumption perspective, respectively. The results indicate that environmental impacts due to blue water consumption in China were 15.82 × 106 DALY (disability-adjusted life years), 96.54 × 109 m2∙year, and 175.20 × 109 MJ, and provinces such as Xinjiang, Shandong, and Hebei could be targets for achieving smaller environmental impacts in the future. More than 80% of environmental impacts were related to the agricultural sector. In terms of agricultural production, about 70% of the environmental impacts were related to product export. Measures such as the shift of the agricultural production pattern from water-intensive crops and animal products toward less water-intensive ones, the increase of agricultural water use efficiency, and the adoption of water-saving technologies could contribute to smaller environmental impacts. In terms of agricultural consumption, more than 95% of the environmental impacts were related to agricultural products produced locally. The focus was on increasing awareness of the importance of saving water and whether products were imported from regions with relatively small environmental impacts.
Highlights
Water is one of the most important resources in the world, and how to keep water consumption at a sustainable level has become more and more difficult due to the growing population and changing climate, among other factors [1,2,3]
Based on the concept of water footprint, this study evaluates the environmental impacts due to blue water consumption in China from the production and consumption perspectives respectively, This study could feed the discussion about sustainable water consumption and forms a good basis for local water management
The agricultural sector was the largest contributor for the environmental influences in China, and more than 80% of the impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, and resources were due to the blue water consumption in agricultural production (Table 2)
Summary
Water is one of the most important resources in the world, and how to keep water consumption at a sustainable level has become more and more difficult due to the growing population and changing climate, among other factors [1,2,3]. The opportunity costs and environmental influences of blue water are more significant, and blue water use in irrigated agriculture has the potential to cause severe environmental problems such as water depletion, salinization, waterlogging, or soil degradation [4,5,6,7]. Based on the study of Kummu et al, the global blue water consumption per capita has increased from 209 m3 /(year·capita) in the 1900s to 230 m3 /(year·capita) in the 2000s, and total blue water consumption increased fourfold within the same period when taking. Public Health 2018, 15, 2445; doi:10.3390/ijerph15112445 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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