TY - JOUR
T1 - Virtual Water Scarcity Risk to the Global Trade System
AU - Qu, Shen
AU - Liang, Sai
AU - Konar, Megan
AU - Zhu, Zeqi
AU - Chiu, Anthony S.F.
AU - Jia, Xiaoping
AU - Xu, Ming
N1 - Funding Information:
Ming Xu and Shen Qu thank the support of Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies in the University of Michigan. Xiaoping Jia thanks the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41771575).
Funding Information:
The material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 1438197. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. S.Q. thanks the support of the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program. Sai Liang thanks the financial support of the Interdisciplinary Research Funds and the Start-up Funds of Beijing Normal University (312232104).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2018/1/16
Y1 - 2018/1/16
N2 - Local water scarcity risk (LWSR, meaning potential economic output losses in water-using sectors due to physical water scarcity) can be transmitted to downstream economies through the globalized supply chains. To understand the vulnerability of the global economy to water scarcity, we examine the impacts of local water scarcity risk on the global trade system from 1995 to 2009. We observe increasingly intensified geographical separation between physical water scarcity and production losses due to water scarcity. We identify top nation-sectors in virtual water scarcity risk (VWSR) exports (indicating local water scarcity risk in each nation transmitted to foreign nations through its exports), including agriculture and utilities in major economies such as China, India, Spain, France, and Turkey. These nation-sectors are critical to the resilience of the global economy to water scarcity. We also identify top nation-sectors in virtual water scarcity risk imports (indicating each nation's vulnerability to foreign water scarcity risk through the global trade system), highlighting their vulnerability to distant water scarcity. Our findings reveal the need for nations to collaboratively manage and conserve water resources, and lay the foundation for firms in high VWSR-importing sectors to develop strategies to mitigate such risk.
AB - Local water scarcity risk (LWSR, meaning potential economic output losses in water-using sectors due to physical water scarcity) can be transmitted to downstream economies through the globalized supply chains. To understand the vulnerability of the global economy to water scarcity, we examine the impacts of local water scarcity risk on the global trade system from 1995 to 2009. We observe increasingly intensified geographical separation between physical water scarcity and production losses due to water scarcity. We identify top nation-sectors in virtual water scarcity risk (VWSR) exports (indicating local water scarcity risk in each nation transmitted to foreign nations through its exports), including agriculture and utilities in major economies such as China, India, Spain, France, and Turkey. These nation-sectors are critical to the resilience of the global economy to water scarcity. We also identify top nation-sectors in virtual water scarcity risk imports (indicating each nation's vulnerability to foreign water scarcity risk through the global trade system), highlighting their vulnerability to distant water scarcity. Our findings reveal the need for nations to collaboratively manage and conserve water resources, and lay the foundation for firms in high VWSR-importing sectors to develop strategies to mitigate such risk.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041435415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85041435415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.7b04309
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.7b04309
M3 - Article
C2 - 29231718
AN - SCOPUS:85041435415
VL - 52
SP - 673
EP - 683
JO - Environmental Science & Technology
JF - Environmental Science & Technology
SN - 0013-936X
IS - 2
ER -