Global network of embodied water flow by systems input-output simulation

Abstract

The global water resources network is simulated in the present work for the latest target year with statistical data available and with the most detailed data disaggregation. A top-down approach of systems input-output simulation is employed to track the embodied water flows associated with economic flows for the globalized economy in 2004. The numerical simulation provides a database of embodied water intensities for all economic commodities from 4928 producers, based on which the differences between direct and indirect water using efficiencies at the global scale are discussed. The direct and embodied water uses are analyzed at continental level. Besides, the commodity demand in terms of monetary expenditure and the water demand in terms of embodied water use are compared for the world as well as for three major water using regions, i.e., India, China, and the United States. Results show that food product contributes to a significant fraction for water demand, despite the value varies significantly with respect to the economic status of region.

Keywords

embodied flow / international trade / water resources / world economy

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Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This study has been supported by the Ministry of Education Foundation of China (No. 12YJCZH021).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg