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Classification of Soil Water
Published in A. Zaman, Md. Hedayetullah, Sustainable Water Resource Development and Management, 2022
Basically, water used to produce agricultural and industrial products is called the virtual water of the product. The third World Water Forum was held in Kyoto, Japan, and the gained popularity in the 1990s. The emphasis was given on water and added a new era to the debate on world water management. The highlighted phrase, “Virtual Water,” can be traced to Israeli economists. Water is used for growing cereals, vegetables, meat, and dairy products. The amount of water used in the production process is called the “virtual water.” The water in the contained product refers to virtual water. The “virtual” named, because it is not contained anymore in the product but it is transformed only. For the production of 1 kg of wheat, we need about 1000 L of water and for 1 kg meat production, we need about 5000 L of water. Nowaday rising global population and increasing water scarcity and human requirements for drinking and sanitation are pushing demand to scarcity levels. The daily requirement of drinking water is approximately 3 L, people consume “virtual water” in the form of food and fiber that require a huge quantity of water for their production. As per United Nations World Water Development (UNWWD) Report, people in developed nations have on average 3000 L virtual water consumption per day.
Microbiological Degradation of Organic Pollutants from Industrial Wastewater
Published in Amit Kumar, Chhotu Ram, Nanobiotechnology for Green Environment, 2021
Ayantika Banerjee, Moharana Choudhury, Arghya Chakravorty, Vimala Raghavan, Bhabatush Biswas, Siva Sankar Sana, Rehab A. Rayan, Nalluri Abhishek, Neeta L. Lala, Seeram Ramakrishna
Virtual water is a concept developed by Allan in 1993 and it refers to the volume of water required to produce goods and services. This in turn is linked to the concept of “water footprint.” This is given by the following expression (Hossain and Mertig, 2020): Water footprint = domestic water withdrawal + water imports – water exports
Water − state of the resource
Published in Amithirigala Widhanelage Jayawardena, Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydrology and Water Resources for Civil Engineers, 2021
Amithirigala Widhanelage Jayawardena
Virtual water has major impacts on global trade. Water-rich countries can export virtual water in the form of goods and services to water poor countries, thereby increasing the water trade. Food security can be enhanced by virtual water which can be considered as another water ‘source’. For the period 1995–1999, the countries with the largest net virtual water export were United States, Canada, Thailand, Argentina and India. The countries with the largest net virtual water import in the same period were Sri Lanka, Japan, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea and China (Hoekstra and Hung, 2002).
The problem with water footprints outside of irrigated drylands
Published in Water International, 2022
Hydrologically, virtual water is the water consumed in the production of a product by evapotranspiration during the growth of the associated crop and/or the water contaminated during extraction and processing operations. We can separate evaporative water footprints from water pollution footprints and food processing footprints, continuing all the way through the supply chain to the water footprint of cooking. The total water footprint of a product includes all of these. Water consumed or contaminated is no longer available for downstream use. In this way, the production of food for distant markets takes water out of the local terrestrial hydrological cycle (placing it in the atmosphere or contaminating it) for the benefit of sometimes distant users, denying that water to other downstream local uses but often supporting their local and national economy through trade payments.
Water security and the pursuit of food, energy, and earth systems resilience
Published in Water International, 2018
Christopher A. Scott, Tamee R. Albrecht, Rafael De Grenade, Adriana Zuniga-Teran, Robert G. Varady, Bhuwan Thapa
Water scarcity in arid areas also induces planners to seek market-based solutions to expand supplies, for instance, importing water-intensive crops to reduce domestic agricultural water demand. ‘Virtual water’ gained through importing water-intensive goods can help water-scarce nations reduce local water consumption (Siddiqi & Anadon, 2011), particularly for low-value water uses, such as agriculture (Ghaffour et al., 2013). But, while this market-based solution may reduce national water demands and improve food security, foreign imports to supplement water and food supplies increase international dependence and potentially impose international trade restrictions on these essential supplies (Hanjra & Qureshi, 2010). Furthermore, virtual water is energy-intensive due to the transportation required. As an alternative, viewed from a nexus perspective, local forms of food production, including urban agriculture, can provide food using less energy in transportation. And the cost of virtual-water imports of products may further disadvantage poor communities, who may not have access to these alternatives.
Virtual water: its implications on agriculture and trade
Published in Water International, 2018
Chittaranjan Ray, David McInnes, Matthew Sanderson
Virtual water is the amount of water ‘embedded’ in a product (Allan, 2011). As agricultural products are sold and traded, the water that is used to produce them (natural rainfall or irrigation) is also essentially traded. Identifying the amount of virtual water embedded in a product has implications for water management, practice, and policy. For instance, with irrigation, many arid regions around the world are major producers of our food and feed, and an important source of agricultural exports. Yet, increasing climate stress and competition for scarce water in these regions raise significant questions for stakeholders in an integrated, globalizing food system: Where should food be produced? How best to use limited water resources? What information should be available to consumers to assist them in making more informed decisions?