Long-Term Water Footprint Assessment in a Rainfed Olive Tree Grove in the Umbria Region, Italy

Luca Rossi, Luca Regni, Sara Rinaldi, Paolo Sdringola, Roberto Calisti, Antonio Brunori, Francesca Dini and Primo Proietti
Additional contact information
Luca Rossi: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Luca Regni: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Sara Rinaldi: Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, via G. Duranti 67, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Paolo Sdringola: ENEA Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development—Casaccia Research Centre, via Anguillarese 301, 00123 S. Maria di Galeria, Rome, Italy
Roberto Calisti: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Antonio Brunori: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Francesca Dini: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
Primo Proietti: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, via Borgo XX Giugno, 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy

Agriculture, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Life Cycle Assessment (the systematic analysis of the environmental impact of products during their entire life cycle), Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint assessments play an important role in decision-making processes. These assessments can help guide land management decisions and will likely play a larger role in the future, especially in natural areas with high biodiversity. Agriculture is a substantial consumer of fresh water, so it is important to identify causes and possible solutions to optimize agricultural water use. Water footprint assessments consider water consumption from several points of view and aid in reaching Sustainable Development Goals. Olive trees are a widespread agricultural crop growing in the Mediterranean Basin and are particularly important in the Umbria region in Italy. This paper estimates the water footprint impact related to the production of 1 kg of olives in a rainfed olive orchard managed using low environmental impact techniques. Eleven years of data collection (meteorological data, olives yield data, processes data) are analyzed for typical rural conditions. The results show that local management techniques have lower water requirements than standard international usages. These results can be used to improve and to further explore agricultural water use.

Keywords: olive trees; water footprint assessment; freshwater consumption; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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