Abstract
We quantify the potential impacts of global food production on freshwater availability (water scarcity footprint; WSF) by applying the water unavailability factor (fwua) as a characterization factor and a global water resource model based on life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Each water source, including rainfall, surface water, and groundwater, has a distinct fwua that is estimated based on the renewability rate of each geographical water cycle. The aggregated consumptive water use level for food production (water footprint inventory; WI) was found to be 4344 km3/year, and the calculated global total WSF was 18,031 km3 H2Oeq/year, when considering the difference in water sources. According to the fwua concept, which is based on the land area required to obtain a unit volume of water from each source, the calculated annual impact can also be represented as 98.5 × 106 km2. This value implies that current agricultural activities requires a land area that is over six times larger than global total cropland. We also present the net import of the WI and WSF, highlighting the importance of quantitative assessments for utilizing global water resources to achieve sustainable water use globally.
Highlights
Water is a vital resource for human health, personal livelihoods, and quality of life
The global WSF of food production reached 18,031 km3 H2 Oeq/year and was described as 98.5 ˆ 106 km2 of the required land area, which is equivalent to 4.2 times the value of the summation of the water footprint inventory (WI)
Southern Asia is a net WI importing region, it is a net WSF exporting region, which implies its dependence on scarcer water resources for food production rather than on water used to produce imported foods
Summary
Water is a vital resource for human health, personal livelihoods, and quality of life. The planetary boundary concept states that limitations on global freshwater use range between 1100 and 4500 km3 /year [5,6]. These methods are based on the simple aggregated values of freshwater resources and their use; renewable freshwater resources exhibit spatiotemporal variability [7,8], implying that the potential environmental impacts of water use on freshwater availability exhibit spatiotemporal variability. This finding shows that freshwater sustainability should be assessed in consideration of geographical distributions
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