Water resources are one of the limiting factors of regional development around the Eastern and Southern Mediterranean. Scarcity and conflict, but also considerable uncertainty, inter-annual variability, and simple lack of reliable data characterize the problems of water resource management in many countries and river basins. Within the EU sponsored international RTD project OPTIMA a water resou...

this article examines the livelihood strategies of land scarce peasants in ethiopian. land scarce peasants have a limited livelihood security on a sustainable manner and bypassed by major development programmes. the study was centred on two sets of rationales. first, for those peasants who do not have sufficient farmland, agriculture provides only a limited portion of households’ livelihood sec...

Rising demand for food, fiber, and biofuels drives expanding irrigation withdrawals from surface water and groundwater. Irrigation efficiency and water savings have become watchwords in response to climate-induced hydrological variability, increasing freshwater demand for other uses including ecosystem water needs, and low economic productivity of irrigation compared to most other uses. We iden...

Growing pearl millet and cowpea in combination with raising ruminant livestock is widely practised in the Sahel. In this farming system, livestock feeding depends mostly on rangeland, fallows and cropland grazing. Nutritional constraints to grazing ruminants stem primarily from feed scarcity and seasonal fluctuations in feed supply associated with low rainfall and poor soil fertility. Low feed ...

China has dramatically increased its virtual water import over recent years. Many studies have focused on the quantity of traded virtual water, but very few go into analysing geographic distribution and the properties of China’s virtual water trade network. This paper provides a calculation and analysis of the crop-related virtual water trade network of China based on 27 major primary crops bet...

While the sustainability of resource depletion is a longstanding environmental concern, wider attention has recently been given to growing water scarcity and groundwater depletion. This study seeks to test the substitutability assumption embedded in weak sustainability indicators using a case study of Californian water supply. The volume of groundwater depletion is used as a proxy for unsustain...

Scarcity tactics are an essential tool for marketers. Cues that signal the current or potential unavailability of a product generally enhance its value and desirability in turn increase purchase intentions. While there have been earlier reviews, fragmented nature research to date means is no cohesion across findings. Given retailers employ variety scarcity cues diversity settings, it important ...

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) may be an effective alternative water supply solution in regions affected by water scarcity. It has recently become a particularly important option in arid and semi-arid areas (like Mediterranean basins), mostly because of its many benefits and affordable costs. This study provides an analysis of the reliability of using a rainwater harvesting system to supply water f...

This study estimates the pressure exerted by Italian consumption on domestic and foreign water resources, adopting Multiregional Input Output (MRIO) approach using information of most recent (year 2014) World Input-Output Database (WIOD). Disaggregated results are obtained at country/industry level, identifying geographical sectoral hotspots. The standard volumetric measure footprint (WF) is co...