The global trade of goods is associated with a virtual transfer of the water required for their production. The way changes in trade affect the virtual redistribution of freshwater resources has been recently documented through the analysis of the virtual water network. It is, however, unclear how these changes are contributed by different types of products and regions of the world. Here we sho...

The current trade of agricultural goods, with connections involving all continents, entails for global exchanges of "virtual" water, i.e. water used in the production process of alimentary products, but not contained within. Each trade link translates into a corresponding virtual water trade, allowing quantification of import and export fluxes of virtual water. The assessment of the virtual wat...

Trade plays an increasingly important role in the global food system, which is projected to be strained by population growth, economic development, and climate change. For this reason, there has been a surge of interest in the water resources embodied in international trade, referred to as ‘‘global virtual water trade.’’ In this paper, we present a comprehensive assessment of virtual water flow...

Global freshwater resources are under increasing pressure from economic development, population growth, and climate change. The international trade of water-intensive products (e.g., agricultural commodities) or virtual water trade has been suggested as a way to save water globally. We focus on the virtual water trade network associated with international food trade built with annual trade data...

the study of virtual water and water productivity in agricultural crops requires the establishment of relations where represent the actual amount of water in order to produce the respective crop. this feature presents a new approach in studies regarding agricultural ecology. this survey evaluates the virtual water, water productivity and ecological water footprint of wheat and corn fields in th...

introduction the average annual precipitation in iran is about 250 mm that is not regularly distributed spatially and temporally. more than 70 percent of total precipitation is not accessible due to evapotranspiration. total renewable water resources of the country are estimated to be around 130 billion cubic meters. in spite of limitation in water resources, they are not used properly. agricul...