Explaining virtual water trade: A spatial-temporal analysis of the comparative advantage of land, labor and water in China

Zhao, Dandan1,2; Hubacek, Klaus2,3,4; Feng, Kuishuang2; Sun, Laixiang2,4,5; Liu, Junguo6,7

2019-04-15

10.1016/j.watres.2019.01.025

WATER RESEARCH   影响因子和分区

0043-1354

The well-known "virtual water hypothesis" states that water-deficient regions/countries could alleviate water stress through importing water-intensive products from water-abundant regions/countries. Although observed trading patterns do often not support this hypothesis, there is a lack of research to explore the reasons why trade patterns often do not support the intuitive virtual water hypothesis. To fill this important gap, we introduce comparative advantage theory in a quantitative way to track the driving forces of net virtual water export based on the spatial-temporal distribution of resource productivity and opportunity costs of land, labor and water use in agricultural and non-agricultural sectors across Chinese provinces between 1995 and 2015. The results show that regional differences in land productivity between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors are the main forces determining the pattern of virtual water flows across major regions, and other resources such as labor and water have played only a limited role. Our study shows that the current market forces reflect the scarcity of land resources, but does not reflect the water scarcity in the context of interregional trade in China. Our findings suggest that the ongoing efforts to increase land productivity of agriculture in the southern regions would contribute to reducing water scarcity in the North and Northeast China Plain. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Virtual water Productivity Comparative advantage Opportunity cost

SCI ; EI ; SSCI

英语

NI期刊

通讯

CSC (China Scholarship Council)[201606510041]

Engineering ; Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Water Resources

Engineering, Environmental ; Environmental Sciences ; Water Resources

WOS:000460718300029

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

20190606478044

Agriculture ; Commerce ; Productivity

Water Resources:444 ; Agricultural Equipment and Methods; Vegetation and Pest Control:821

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

Web of Science

1.Beijing Forestry Univ, Sch Nat Conservat, Beijing 100083, Peoples R China
2.Univ Maryland, Dept Geog Sci, College Pk, MD 20742 USA
3.Masaryk Univ, Dept Environm Studies, Brno, Czech Republic
4.Int Inst Appl Syst Anal, Laxenburg, Austria
5.Univ London, SOAS, Sch Finance & Management, London, England
6.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Environm Sci & Engn, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China
7.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Environm Sci & Engn, State Environm Protect Key Lab Integrated Surface, Shenzhen 518055, Peoples R China

Zhao, Dandan,Hubacek, Klaus,Feng, Kuishuang,et al. Explaining virtual water trade: A spatial-temporal analysis of the comparative advantage of land, labor and water in China[J]. WATER RESEARCH,2019,153:304-314.

Zhao, Dandan,Hubacek, Klaus,Feng, Kuishuang,Sun, Laixiang,&Liu, Junguo.(2019).Explaining virtual water trade: A spatial-temporal analysis of the comparative advantage of land, labor and water in China.WATER RESEARCH,153,304-314.

Zhao, Dandan,et al."Explaining virtual water trade: A spatial-temporal analysis of the comparative advantage of land, labor and water in China".WATER RESEARCH 153(2019):304-314.