A Study about Regional Water Footprint of Rice Production in Agriculture Industry

Abstract

The water footprint of product and service is the total volume of freshwater consumed, directly and indirectly, in the life cycle of a product and service. Up to date, water consumption data for industries and products were not well quantified and developed. Especially it is important to construct for agriculture industry which consumes lots of water. In this study, by using Cropwat 8.0 model, we tried to evaluate regionalized water consumption related with rice production in agriculture industry in eight regions (Gangwon, Gyeongi, Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, Chungnam, Chungbuk). As a result, Gyeongbuk region has the lowest water consumption in rice production, which is 1,356.68 m 3 /ton, on the other hand, Jeonnam region has the highest water consumption (1,669.54 m 3 /ton). By using the average indirect water consumption (1,487.87 m 3 /ton) of eight regions and direct water consumption, the total water footprint for the rice amount of rice bowl size (130 g), which is 193.6 L was calculated. Based on this research approach, we should develop water footprint database of all agriculture products and expand to other industrial sectors.