The Water Footprint of European Agricultural Imports: Hotspots in the Context of Water Scarcity

Iulia Dolganova, Natalia Mikosch, Markus Berger, Montserrat Núñez, Andrea Müller-Frank and Matthias Finkbeiner
Additional contact information
Iulia Dolganova: Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Natalia Mikosch: Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Markus Berger: Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Montserrat Núñez: Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Andrea Müller-Frank: Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung e.V., Brot für die Welt—Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, Caroline-Michaelis-Straße 1, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Matthias Finkbeiner: Chair of Sustainable Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Resources, 2019, vol. 8, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: This study investigates the Water Footprint (WF) resulting from the agricultural imports of the European Union (EU-28). Import trade statistics were compiled and linked with crop- and country-specific water consumption data and water scarcity factors. Within the study, the virtual water imports of 104 agricultural commodities for the baseline year 2015 were assessed and product and country hotspots were evaluated. It was shown that (a) Europe imported 100 million tons of agricultural goods and 11 km 3 of associated virtual irrigation water; (b) the highest impacts of water consumption do not necessarily result from high import amounts, but from water-intensive goods produced in water scarce countries; (c) the largest external EU-28 water footprint occurred due to the product categories cotton, nuts and rice; and (d) the highest share of the EU external water footprint took place in the United States (US), Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and India.

Keywords: water footprint; water scarcity; virtual water trade; agricultural water use; agricultural imports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/8/3/141/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/8/3/141/ (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:jresou:v:8:y:2019:i:3:p:141-:d:255419

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

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