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Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy

Green water––rainfall over land that eventually flows back to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration––is the main source of water to produce food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. To understand how freshwater scarcity constrains production of these goods, we need to consider limits to the green wat...

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Autores principales: Schyns, Joep F., Hoekstra, Arjen Y., Booij, Martijn J., Hogeboom, Rick J., Mekonnen, Mesfin M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6421454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30804199
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817380116
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author Schyns, Joep F.
Hoekstra, Arjen Y.
Booij, Martijn J.
Hogeboom, Rick J.
Mekonnen, Mesfin M.
author_facet Schyns, Joep F.
Hoekstra, Arjen Y.
Booij, Martijn J.
Hogeboom, Rick J.
Mekonnen, Mesfin M.
author_sort Schyns, Joep F.
collection PubMed
description Green water––rainfall over land that eventually flows back to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration––is the main source of water to produce food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. To understand how freshwater scarcity constrains production of these goods, we need to consider limits to the green water footprint (WF(g)), the green water flow allocated to human society. However, research traditionally focuses on scarcity of blue water––groundwater and surface water. Here we expand the debate on water scarcity by considering green water scarcity (WS(g)). At 5 × 5 arc-minute spatial resolution, we quantify WF(g) and the maximum sustainable level to this footprint (WF(g,m)), while accounting for green water requirements to support biodiversity. We then estimate WS(g) per country as the ratio of the national aggregate WF(g) to the national aggregate WF(g,m). We find that globally WF(g) amounts to 56% of WF(g,m), and overshoots it in several places, for example in countries in Europe, Central America, the Middle East, and South Asia. The sustainably available green water flows in these countries are mostly or fully allocated to human activities (predominately agriculture and forestry), occasionally at the cost of green water flows earmarked for nature. By ignoring limits to the growing human WF(g), we risk further loss of ecosystem values that depend on the remaining untouched green water flows. We emphasize that green water is a critical and limited resource that should explicitly be part of any assessment of water scarcity, food security, or bioenergy potential.
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spelling pubmed-64214542019-03-19 Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy Schyns, Joep F. Hoekstra, Arjen Y. Booij, Martijn J. Hogeboom, Rick J. Mekonnen, Mesfin M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Green water––rainfall over land that eventually flows back to the atmosphere as evapotranspiration––is the main source of water to produce food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy. To understand how freshwater scarcity constrains production of these goods, we need to consider limits to the green water footprint (WF(g)), the green water flow allocated to human society. However, research traditionally focuses on scarcity of blue water––groundwater and surface water. Here we expand the debate on water scarcity by considering green water scarcity (WS(g)). At 5 × 5 arc-minute spatial resolution, we quantify WF(g) and the maximum sustainable level to this footprint (WF(g,m)), while accounting for green water requirements to support biodiversity. We then estimate WS(g) per country as the ratio of the national aggregate WF(g) to the national aggregate WF(g,m). We find that globally WF(g) amounts to 56% of WF(g,m), and overshoots it in several places, for example in countries in Europe, Central America, the Middle East, and South Asia. The sustainably available green water flows in these countries are mostly or fully allocated to human activities (predominately agriculture and forestry), occasionally at the cost of green water flows earmarked for nature. By ignoring limits to the growing human WF(g), we risk further loss of ecosystem values that depend on the remaining untouched green water flows. We emphasize that green water is a critical and limited resource that should explicitly be part of any assessment of water scarcity, food security, or bioenergy potential. National Academy of Sciences 2019-03-12 2019-02-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6421454/ /pubmed/30804199 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817380116 Text en Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Schyns, Joep F.
Hoekstra, Arjen Y.
Booij, Martijn J.
Hogeboom, Rick J.
Mekonnen, Mesfin M.
Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title_full Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title_fullStr Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title_full_unstemmed Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title_short Limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
title_sort limits to the world’s green water resources for food, feed, fiber, timber, and bioenergy
topic Physical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6421454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30804199
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817380116
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