Analysis of the impact of major crop trade on regional water resources in Northwest China

With the shift of Chinac s foo d pro duction centr e to the no rth, Northw est China pla ys an prominent ro le in the na2 tional foo d security . H ow ever, the la ck o f w ater reso urces and the po o r spatia l and tem po r al compatibility of w ate r and so il reso urces pose a hug e thr eat to the lo cal eco lo g ical security, foo d security , and w ater security in this r egion. In r ecent y ears, gr ain pr oductio n and t ransport v o lume in Northw est China has been increasing ra pidly due to pr om pt dev elo pm ent o f ur bani2 zation and r egional tr ade. A larg e am ount o f cr op v irtual w at er has been t ransported to all o ver the co unt ry alo ng w ith t he gr ain tr ade, w hich has furt her exa cer bated the pressure on w ater r eso urces and seriously restricts t he sustainable develop2 m ent in northw est r egion o f China. Based o n abov e scena rio , th is study co nducted a quantitativ e analysis of w a ter fo o tprint and v irtual w ater flow pattern accom pa nied by ag ricultur al pro ductc s t rade in No rt hw est China from 2000 to 2015 . Besides, the wa ter r eso urce pressur e caused by ag ricultural pr o ductc s t rade in Northw est China w as also assessed. T he results show s that during the study perio d fr om 2000 t o 2015 , the w ater foo tprint of m ajo r cr ops in No rthw est China a ppear ed in an up2 w a rd trend, fr om 411 716 billio n m 3 in 2 000 to 431 98 7 billio n m3 in 201 5. M or eov er, the v irtual w ater flow associated w ith agricultural pro ductc s tra de signif icantly incr eased, w hich w a s betw een 22 billion m 3 ( 2 000) to 27. 29 billion m3 ( 20 15) , w ith an incr eased rate o f 24% . Consequent ly , lo cal w ate r r esour ce pr essure w as sev ere. T he w ater reso urce pr essur e of Shaanx i, Inner M ong o lia , Xinjiang and Gansu w as hig her than t he natio nal aver ag e w ater r esour ce pressure, w hile Shaanx i w as in a state o f sev er e w a ter reso ur ce str ess. The refo re, this paper pro posed co ping strateg ies and sug g estio ns on techno2 log ical developm ent fo r innov ativ e ag ricultura l entity w ater reso urces utilizatio n efficiency , and rationally optimizing and ad2 just ing reg io nal industrial str ucture, to pr ovide scientific r eference fo r ensuring sustainable utilizatio n o f w ater r eso ur ces in No rthw est China.

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