Changing global cropping patterns to minimize national blue water scarcity

Chouchane, Hatem; Krol, Maarten S.

doi:10.5194/hess-24-3015-2020

Cited by 53 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…It has been predicted that about 59% of the global human population will face blue water scarcity by 2050 (Rockström et al 2009 ). It has been suggested that changing global cropping patterns may help minimize blue water scarcity (Chouchane et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Linking Blue and Green Water For Rice–fish Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Blue–green water utilization in rice–fish cultivation towards sustainable food production

Ahmed

Hornbuckle

Turchini

2022

Ambio

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Integrated rice–fish culture is a competitive alternative to rice monoculture for environmental sustainability and food productivity. Compared to rice monoculture, rearing fish in rice field ecosystems could increase food (rice and fish) production from this coculture. Moreover, the water productivity of rice–fish coculture is considerably higher than that of rice monoculture, because of double cropping. Despite these benefits, rice–fish coculture has not yet been broadly practiced. One of the potential challenges for the wider adoption of rice–fish coculture is water management. There are two forms of water involved in rice–fish cultivation: (1) blue water–surface and groundwater, and (2) green water–soil water from rainfall. The aim of this article is to focus on key factors determining the adoption of rice–fish cultivation through the effective utilization of blue–green water. We suggest that the efficient application of blue and green water in rice–fish coculture could help confronting water scarcity, reducing water footprint, and increasing water productivity.

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Section: Linking Blue and Green Water For Rice–fish Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Blue–green water utilization in rice–fish cultivation towards sustainable food production

Ahmed

Hornbuckle

Turchini

2022

Ambio

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“…In this study, we defined "water supply constraints" as water consumption that must be reduced to mitigate regional water stress by one level in line with water stress index, which is categorized based on the ratio of water consumption to water availability for human, this index originate from and Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2016) , many previous publications has applied this index for their studies (e.g. Chouchane et al, 2020 ;. Ma et al, 2020 ;Zhuo et al,2016 ;Sun et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Industrial Transition Scenarios For Evaluating Water Rationi...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China

Zhao¹,

Liu²,

Sun³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China&#160;Dandan Zhao a,b, Junguo Liub,&#8727;, Laixiang Sunc,d,e,&#8727;, Bin Ye b, Klaus Hubacekf, Kuishuang Fengc, Olli Varisa&#160;a Water & Development Research Group, Aalto University, PO Box 15200, 00076 Espoo, Finlandb School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Chinac Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, USAd School of Finance and Management, SOAS, University of London, London, UKe Institute of Blue and Green Development, Weihai Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Shandong University, Weihai&#65292;f Integrated Research of Energy, Environment and Society (IREES) , University of Groningen, the Netherlands&#160;Sustainable water management is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is characterized by a high level of interdependencies with other SDGs from regional to global scales. Many water as[1]sessment studies are restricted to silo thinking, mostly focusing on water-related consequences, while lacking a quantification of trade-offs and synergies of economic, social, and environmental dimensions. To fill this knowledge gap, we propose a &#8220;nexus&#8221; approach that integrates a water supply constrained multi-regional input-output (mixed MRIO) model, scenario analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to quantify the trade-offs and synergies at the sectoral level for the capital region of China, i.e. the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. A total of 120 industrial transition scenarios includ[1]ing nine major industries with high water-intensities and water consumption under current development pathways were developed to facilitate the trade-off and synergy analysis between economic loss, social goals (here, the number of jobs) and environmental protection (with grey water footprint representing water pollution) triggered by water conservation measures. Our simulation results show that an imposi[1]tion of a tolerable water constraint (a necessary water consumption reduction for regional water stress level to move from severe to moderate) in the region would result in an average economic loss of 68.4 (&#177; 16.0) billion Yuan (1 yuan &#8776; 0.158 USD$ in 2012), or 1.3 % of regional GDP, a loss of 1.94 (&#177; 0.18) million jobs (i.e. 3.5 % of the work force) and a reduction of 1.27 (&#177; 0.40) billion m3 or about 2.2% of the regional grey water footprint. A tolerable water rationing in water-intensive sectors such as Agriculture, Food and tobacco processing, Electricity and heating power production and Chemicals would result in the lowest economic and job losses and the largest environmental benefits. Based on MCDA, we selected the 10 best scenarios with regard to their economic, social and environmental performances as references for guiding future water management and suggested industrial transition policies. This integrated approach could be a powerful policy support tool for 1) assessing trade-offs and synergies among multiple criteria and across multiple region-sectors under resource constraints; 2) quantifying the short-term supply-chain effects of different containment measures, and 3) facilitating more insightful evaluation of SDGs at the regional level so as to determine priorities for local governments and practitioners to achieve SDGs.

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“…Furthermore, regional impacts of crop production on ecosystems and freshwater resources can only be assessed by relating the total WF of production (agricultural, industrial, and domestic) to maximum sustainable levels within a given geographical unit (Bunsen et al, 2021;Hoekstra et al, 2012b;Liu et al, 2017;Hogeboom et al, 2020). WFs in crop growing areas that already overshoot (or soon to overshoot) these levels can be further assessed in ACEA to propose potential measures of WF reduction, such as more efficient irrigation and field management (Chukalla et al, 2015(Chukalla et al, , 2017Campbell et al, 2017;Nouri et al, 2019) or change of cropping patterns (Chouchane et al, 2020).…”

Section: Future Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical simulation of maize water footprints with a new global gridded crop model ACEA

Mialyk

Schyns

Booij

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Crop water productivity is a key element of water and food security in the world and can be quantified by the water footprint (WF). Previous studies have looked at the spatially explicit distribution of crop WFs but little is known about the temporal dynamics. We develop a new global gridded crop model – AquaCrop-Earth@lternatives (ACEA) – that can simulate three consumptive WF components: green (WFg), blue from irrigation (WFbi), and blue from capillary rise (WFbc) at high temporal and spatial resolutions. The model is applied to analyse global maize production during 1986–2016 at 5 × 5 arc minute grid. Our results show that in 2012–2016, the global average unit WF of maize is 723.2 m3 t−1 y−1 (89.5 % WFg, 8.3 % WFbi, 2.2 % WFbc) with values varying greatly around the world. Regions characterised by high agricultural development generally show a small unit WF and its interannual variation, such as Western Europe and Northern America (WF < 500 m3 t−1 y−1, CV < 15 %). On the contrary, regions with low agricultural development show opposite outcomes, such as Middle and Eastern Africa (WF > 2500 m3 t−1 y−1, CV > 40 %). Since 1986, the global unit WF of maize has reduced by 34.6 % mainly due to the historical decrease in yield gaps. However, due to the rapid expansion of rainfed and irrigated cropland, the global WF of maize production has increased by 48.8 % peaking at 762.9 × 109 m3 y−1 in 2016. As many regions still have a high potential in decreasing yield gaps, the unit WF of maize is likely to continue reducing, whereas the WF of maize production is likely to continue growing as humanity’s rising appetite can lead to further cropland expansion. The simulation of other crops with ACEA is necessary to assess the pressure of overall crop production on ecosystems and freshwater resources worldwide.

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Changing global cropping patterns to minimize national blue water scarcity

Cited by 53 publications

References 49 publications

Blue–green water utilization in rice–fish cultivation towards sustainable food production

Blue–green water utilization in rice–fish cultivation towards sustainable food production

Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China

Historical simulation of maize water footprints with a new global gridded crop model ACEA

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