Virtual water embodied in the export from various provinces of China using multi-regional input–output analysis

Abstract

China is a large exporter and consumer of water embodied in export products. In addition, there is much trade among regions within China, and exports from various provinces consume not only local water but national non-local water. However, former calculations of the water consumption embodied in the exports of various provinces do not reflect the sources of the water consumption. Previous studies on virtual water in China's exports have focused on national aggregate analyses and have paid little attention to the inter-regional water consumption transfer driven by exports. We used a multi-regional input–output model of thirty provinces to examine the virtual water export. The results show that the total virtual water in China's exports was 106.3 billion m3, and 77.0% of the embodiment was from exports from the eastern provinces, where over 90% of China's exports occur. However, the virtual water driven by per unit of export in the eastern regions is far less than that in the central and western regions. Moreover, the central and western provinces, whose exports are small, indirectly export much virtual water by supporting eastern China's exports via inter-regional economic linkages. The results yield important implications for China's export and virtual water export control policy.