Inter-provincial Virtual Water Research Articles

Interprovincial Water Transfer in Electricity Transmission System from 2005 to 2014

Since the electricity is not generated and consumed in the same region, the requirements of electricity transmission are increasing which drive inter-provincial virtual water transmission in China. The spatial distribution imbalance of water resources and large volumes of energy resources might aggravate the water scarcity in water shortage regions. It is vital to have a better understanding of the interprovincial virtual water flows coupled with electricity flows, which could provide insights into water resource reallocation through electricity system. Here, we combined interprovincial electricity transmission data with water intensity of different electricity types to analyze the interprovincial electricity-related water transfer during the period of 2005 and 2014. According to the electricity mix of each province and water intensity of each generation type, the synthetical water intensity was obtained. Eventually, inter-provincial virtual water trade model was built by combining provincial synthetical water intensity with electricity flow data, the inter-provincial virtual water transmission matrix from 2005 to 2014 was analyzed to investigate the evolvement of virtual water network related to electricity transmission. The main results showed that the number of provincial water transfers have increased from 449.75Mm3 to 2559.71Mm3 for ten years. Besides, water transfers in several provinces are improving rapidly, and that of most provinces keep steady. By optimizing the deployment transmission of electricity to reallocate water resources of provinces might be a new perspective to stave off water scarcity in China.

Water Footprint and Virtual Water Accounting for China Using a Multi-Regional Input-Output Model

Water footprint (WF) is a measure of the actual appropriation of water resources. WF accounting can provide a scientific basis for the managements of water resources. In this study, a multi-regional input-output model is employed to measure the quantity of blue WF (WF) and inter-provincial virtual water (VW) flows in China for the years of 2007 and 2010. The results show that: (1) China’s total WF increased from 205.42 billion m3 in 2007 to 229.34 billion m3 in 2010. Approximately 42% of the WF was attributed to VW embodied in inter-provincial trade. Xinjiang is the largest province of VW export, whereas Shanghai had the largest net VW inflows. (2) From 2007 to 2010, the share of the agricultural sector in the entire VW trade declined, but was still as high as 82.78%, followed by the industrial sector. (3) The north-to-south and south-to-south patterns were witnessed in the domestic VW flows. The provincial WF variations are found to be affected by the per capital GDP, total water resources, per capita water resources, and urban population. (4) By linking VW with an integrated WAVE+ (water accounting and vulnerability evaluation) factor, it was found that virtual scarce water (VSW) was mainly exported by the provinces in northern China. At the national level, the amounts of VSW inflows were consistently greater than those of VSW outflows for both years, 2007 and 2010, implying an increased pressure on the provinces with water deprivation issues. Overall, these results can provide a basis for refining the spatiotemporal allocation of water resources and mitigating the conflict between water supply and demand in China.

The electricity-water nexus in Chinese electric trade system

A great amount of electricity generation exerts a tremendous pressure on China's water resources. The spatial mismatch between primary energy and water in China aggravates the pressure of water resources and results in virtual water transfers from drier to wetter regions through electricity trade. Firstly, we construct an electricity generation-consumption (EGC) model to model inter-provincial electricity trade in China and propose a hybrid virtual water intensity (HVWI) indicator to represent the provincial overall virtual water consumption factor. Then, we combine the inter-provincial electricity trade and the provincial HVWI to build China's virtual water trade network. The results show that total inter-provincial virtual water embodied in the electricity trade is 5637 GL. The top three largest electricity trade flows are Yunnan-to-Guangdong (111 billion kWh), Inner Mongolia-to-Beijing (32.7 billion kWh) and Inner Mongolia-to-Liaoning (31.1 billion kWh), and the top three largest virtual water flows are Yunnan-to-Guangdong (1527 GL), Sichuan-to-Chongqing (432.6 GL) and Sichuan-to-Shanghai (418.7 GL).

Categorising virtual water transfers through China’s electric power sector

Water consumption in thermoelectric and hydropower plants in China increased from 1.6 and 6.1 billion m3, respectively, to 3.8 and 14.6 billion m3 from 2002 to 2010. Using the concept of virtual water, we attribute to different electricity users the total water consumption by the electric power sector. From 2002 to 2010, virtual water embodied in the final consumption of electricity (hereinafter referred to as VWEF) increased from 1.90 to 7.35 billion m3, whilst virtual water in electricity used by industries (hereinafter referred to as VWEI) increased from 5.82 to 11.13 billion m3. The inter-provincial virtual water trades as a result of spatial mismatch of electricity production and consumption are quantified. Nearly half (47.5% in 2010) of the physical water inputs into the power sector were virtually transferred across provincial boundaries in the form of virtual water embodied in the electricity produced, mainly from provinces in northeast, central and south China to those in east and north China. Until 2030, VWEF and VWEI are likely to increase from 5.27 and 14.89 billion m3 to 7.19 and 20.33 billion m3, respectively. Climate change mitigation and water conservation measures in the power sector may help to relieve the regional pressures on water resources imposed by the power sector.

An inquiry into water transfer network of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

As a typical region moving forward on green development demonstration belt, Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is sensitive to profound conflict between coordination development and unbalanced water allocation. Uncovering water transfer network can help improving water resource coordination development from the perspective of water-trade nexus. An integrated framework by uniting the inter-regional input-output (IRIO) analysis and social network analysis (SNA) in this study can estimate not only the scale and structure of water trade pattern, but also the topological characteristic of water transfer network of YREB. Results show that the rank of production-based virtual water volume was roughly in the order of middle, lower and upper reaches except Jiangsu, while the rank of consumption-based virtual water volume was in the order of lower, middle and upper reaches. The provincial virtual water external dependence in YREB was not well consistent with the water resource endowment. Water transfer network was constructed on basis of the inter-provincial virtual water transfers between every two provinces inside YREB. Furthermore, the water transfer network assessment results illustrated the network structural form and revealed the network property and characteristics. Inside YREB, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi were predominant in the water transfer network (from degree centrality), while Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan and Anhui acted as the important medium and bridge (from betweenness centrality). The AFAF sector (Agriculture, Forestry, Animal husbandry and Fishery) and Industry sector of Jiangxi, and the Industry sector of Hubei and Jiangsu were the critical exporters in the network. Jiangsu received large amounts of virtual water from many good hubs and also transferred much to many good authorities when acted as bagmen in the network. Some provinces received large virtual water flow but provided few to others, such as Shanghai, and the AFAF sectors of most provinces transferred much to others. Thus, the research results would help understand the regional responsibility transfer in the hidden network linkages of interprovincial and intersectoral virtual water flows.

Informing National Food and Water Security Policy through Water Footprint Assessment: the Case of Iran

Iran’s focus on food self-sufficiency has led to an emphasis on increasing water volumes available for irrigation with little attention to water use efficiency, and no attention at all to the role of consumption and trade. To better understand the development of water consumption in relation to food production, consumption, and trade, we carried out the first comprehensive water footprint assessment (WFA) for Iran, for the period 1980–2010, and estimated the water saving per province associated with interprovincial and international crop trade. Based on the AquaCrop model, we estimated the green and blue water footprint (WF) related to both the production and consumption of 26 crops, per year and on a daily basis, for 30 provinces of Iran. We find that, in the period 1980–2010, crop production increased by 175%, the total WF of crop production by 122%, and the blue WF by 20%. The national population grew by 92%, and the crop consumption per capita by 20%, resulting in a 130% increase in total food consumption and a 110% increase in the total WF of national crop consumption. In 2010, 26% of the total water consumption in the semi-arid region served the production of crops for export to other regions within Iran (mainly cereals) or abroad (mainly fruits and nuts). Iran’s interprovincial virtual water trade grew by a factor of 1.6, which was mainly due to increased interprovincial trade in cereals, nuts, and fruits. Current Iranian food and water policy could be enriched by reducing the WFs of crop production to certain benchmark levels per crop and climatic region and aligning cropping patterns to spatial differences in water availability and productivities, and by paying due attention to the increasing food consumption per capita in Iran.

Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China

Intra-national electricity transmission drives virtual water transfer from electricity production regions to electricity consumption regions. In China, the water-intensive thermoelectric power industry is expanding quickly in many water-scarce energy production hubs in northern and northwestern provinces. This study constructed a node-flow model of inter-provincial electricity transmission to investigate the virtual water and scarcity-adjusted virtual water (or virtual scarce water) embodied in the electricity transmission network. It is revealed that total inter-provincial virtual water transfer embodied in electricity transmission was 623millionm3 in 2011, equivalent to 12.7% of the national total thermoelectric water consumption. The top three largest single virtual water flows are West Inner Mongolia-to-Beijing (44millionm3), East Inner Mongolia-to-Liaoning (39millionm3), and Guizhou-to-Guangdong (37millionm3). If the actual volumes of consumptive water use are translated into scarcity-adjusted water consumption based on Water Stress Index, West Inner Mongolia (81millionm3), Shanxi (63millionm3) and Ningxia (30millionm3) become the top three exporters of virtual scarce water. Many ongoing long-distance electricity transmission projects in China will enlarge the scale of scarce water outflows from northwestern regions and potentially increase their water stress.

Uncovering regional disparity of China's water footprint and inter-provincial virtual water flows

With rapid economic development in China, water crisis is becoming serious and may impede future sustainable development. The uneven distribution of water resources further aggravates such a problem. Under such a circumstance, the concepts of water footprint and virtual water have been proposed in order to respond water scarcity problems. This paper focuses on studying provincial disparity of China's water footprints and inter-provincial virtual water trade flows by adopting inter-regional input–output (IRIO) method. The results show that fast developing areas with larger economic scales such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Xinjiang had the largest water footprints. The most developed and water scarce areas such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong intended to import virtual water, a rational choice for mitigating their water crisis. Xinjiang, Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi and Hunan, had the largest per GDP water intensities and were the main water import regions. Another key finding is that agriculture water footprint was the main part in water footprint composition and water export trade. On the basis of these findings, policy implications on agriculture geographical dispersion, consumption behavior changes, trade structure adjustment and water use efficiency improvement are further discussed.

The water footprint of Indonesian provinces related to the consumption of crop products

Abstract. National water use accounts are generally limited to statistics on water withdrawals in the different sectors of economy. They are restricted to "blue water accounts" related to production, thus excluding (a) "green" and "grey water accounts", (b) accounts of internal and international virtual water flows and (c) water accounts related to consumption. This paper shows how national water-use accounts can be extended through an example for Indonesia. The study quantifies interprovincial virtual water flows related to trade in crop products and assesses the green, blue and grey water footprint related to the consumption of crop products per Indonesian province. The study shows that the average water footprint in Indonesia insofar related to consumption of crop products is 1131 m3/cap/yr, but provincial water footprints vary between 859 and 1895 m3/cap/yr. Java, the most water-scarce island, has a net virtual water import and the most significant external water footprint. This large external water footprint is relieving the water scarcity on this island. Trade will remain necessary to supply food to the most densely populated areas where water scarcity is highest (Java).