Impact of international trade on water scarcity: An assessment by improving the Falkenmark indicator

Water scarcity, a threat to the sustainable development of human society, is determined mainly by water resource endowment and withdrawals. International trade may affect national withdrawal, indirectly influencing nationwide scarcity. However, most previous studies could not disentangle indirect consumption for local international purposes, failing assess sole impact on Here, we developed an improved Falkenmark indicator separate effect trade-related withdrawal Results show that alleviates scarcity 2.2 billion people in high upper-middle income countries. it aggravates 2.1 low lower-middle countries, which almost all countries are already facing some even severe Furthermore, our analysis shows primary product food sectors contribute significantly intensifying alleviating respectively. Hence, much greater attention needs be paid water-scarce since make these drier, becoming more important improve sustainability global resources management with changing climate.