Water footprint and virtual water flows embodied in China`s supply chain

Abstract

Due to the increasingly serious water shortage in China, water conservation becomes more and more important. This paper analyzes the amount of water consumption in every link of the goods supply to explore the water conservation feasibility in every link. This paper establishes an EIO-LCA model based on the life cycle assessment method for water consumption from supply chains in various sectors, and decomposes the water footprint of the inter-sector supply chain into six levels and calculates the water consumption at each level. The results show that the total water footprint of China`s supply chain increases by 6.5% from 2007 to 2017; industrial sector is the core sector for indirect water footprint consumption. China is an importing country of virtual water, imported intermediate products are the main source of imported virtual water and re-exported products account for an increasing proportion of exported virtual water.