Evaluation of Environmental Impacts Due to Blue Water Consumption in China from Production and Consumption Perspectives

Jing Liu, Mengyang Wu and Zhongbo Yu
Additional contact information
Jing Liu: State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, Jiangsu, China
Mengyang Wu: College of Agricultural Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, Jiangsu, China
Zhongbo Yu: State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, Jiangsu, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-17

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 × 10 6 DALY (disability-adjusted life years), 96.54 × 10 9 m 2 ∙year, and 175.20 × 10 9 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.

Keywords: blue water consumption; environmental impacts; water footprint; China; production; consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/11/2445/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/11/2445/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:11:p:2445-:d:180088

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().