Abstract
Chongming Island is a distinct developing area in Shanghai and is currently being transformed as an international eco-island. The area is located in the Yangtze River estuary and secures the crop supply in Shanghai because of its unique geographical position and abundant water resource. Chongming is an agriculture-dominated district in an industrial city and is characterized by balanced utilization and natural preservation. In this study, the water footprint in Chongming Island from 2011 to 2014 was calculated and the water shortage was analyzed using virtual water as a criterion. Result shows that agricultural water footprint accounted for a major proportion of the total water footprint in Chongming Island. Water footprint from the manufacture of consumer products or services for residents was within the local water resource capacity, indicating that the self-sufficiency rate of water resource in Chongming Island was high. Nevertheless, this rate had been decreasing because of large imports that transfer water burden to other areas to optimize sustainable water consumption. However, Chongming Island had a higher water scarcity than other cities near Shanghai. Agricultural water footprint was categorized to assess the water utilization structure in Chongming's agriculture. On the basis of the data from 2005 to 2014, four different scenarios were analyzed to predict the water footprint by 2040. The influence of the agricultural structure adjustment on the water resources of Chongming Island was assessed. Water consumption could be obviously reduced by 11.5% when the agricultural structure was changed. This situation should not be ignored by policy makers.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 376-385 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Resources, Conservation and Recycling |
| Volume | 132 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was partially funded by Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 15dz1208103 ). This work was also partially funded by Seeding Program from Beijing Green Future Environment Foundation . It was also supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the UK-China Industry Academia Partnership Programme Scheme “Global water scarcity: a case study on urban water crisis and its relation to businesses in China and UK” . We thank Miss Amanda McDonald for her assistance with manuscript proofreading. We thank Guo Jiaxin for her previous works. The authors have declared no conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
- Agricultural structure
- Chongming island
- Scenario analysis
- Virtual water trade
- Water footprint
