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    Assigment 4-Spain S Water Footprint

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    Alba Maqueda
    Spain has one of the largest water footprints in the world at around 2000 m3/capita/year due to its agricultural sector and imports of water-intensive crops like wheat, maize, and soybeans. The majority of Spain's water footprint comes from agricultural production, especially crops like vineyards and olive trees that rely more on blue water sources. By importing these water-intensive crops and exporting water-extensive crops adapted to its climate like olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, Spain is able to preserve more of its limited domestic water resources for other uses.

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    Assigment 4-Spain S Water Footprint

    Uploaded by

    Alba Maqueda
    47 views3 pages
    Spain has one of the largest water footprints in the world at around 2000 m3/capita/year due to its agricultural sector and imports of water-intensive crops like wheat, maize, and soybeans. The majority of Spain's water footprint comes from agricultural production, especially crops like vineyards and olive trees that rely more on blue water sources. By importing these water-intensive crops and exporting water-extensive crops adapted to its climate like olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, Spain is able to preserve more of its limited domestic water resources for other uses.

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    A detailed descripcion of Spain´s water footprint

    Original Title

    Assigment 4-Spain´s water footprint

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    Spain has one of the largest water footprints in the world at around 2000 m3/capita/year due to its agricultural sector and imports of water-intensive crops like wheat, maize, and soybeans. The majority of Spain's water footprint comes from agricultural production, especially crops like vineyards and olive trees that rely more on blue water sources. By importing these water-intensive crops and exporting water-extensive crops adapted to its climate like olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, Spain is able to preserve more of its limited domestic water resources for other uses.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    47 views3 pages

    Assigment 4-Spain S Water Footprint

    Uploaded by

    Alba Maqueda
    Spain has one of the largest water footprints in the world at around 2000 m3/capita/year due to its agricultural sector and imports of water-intensive crops like wheat, maize, and soybeans. The majority of Spain's water footprint comes from agricultural production, especially crops like vineyards and olive trees that rely more on blue water sources. By importing these water-intensive crops and exporting water-extensive crops adapted to its climate like olive oil, fruits, and vegetables, Spain is able to preserve more of its limited domestic water resources for other uses.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    Alba Maqueda Mateos

    SPAINS WATER FOOTPRINT


    NUMBERS
    It is important to establish whether the water used in the production of a
    given crop proceeds from rainwater stored in the soil as soil moisture
    evaporated during the production process (green water) or from surface
    water and/or groundwater evaporated as a result of the production of the
    crop (blue water). Thus, the numbers of each color belonging to the water
    footprint in Spain are seen in the picture below.

    Figure 1. Spains water footprint of production

    CAUSES
    As the most arid country in the European Union, Spain faces serious challenges in water

    The Spanish economy has gradually decoupled from


    water consumption, using less water per euro of output.
    resources management.

    At national or regional level, a nation can preserve its domestic water


    resources by importing products instead of producing them domestically.
    This is particularly relevant to arid or semi-arid countries with scarce water
    resources such as the case of Spain. Spain imports water-intensive loweconomic value crops (mainly wheat, maize and soybeans) while it exports
    water-extensive high-economic value commodities adapted to the
    Mediterranean climate, essentially olive oil, fruits and vegetables. That is
    why Spain has one of the largest water footprints in the world, amounting
    to about 2000 m/capita/year (USA: 2,480 m3/capita/year, India: 980
    m3/capita/year, China: 700 m3/capita/year), the water that other countries
    waste to produce the low value crops it is sum to Spains water footprint
    suffering a high increase this one.

    Alba Maqueda Mateos

    Figure 2. Internal distribution of Spains footprint

    As it shows the image above, the water footprint in urban and industrial
    sectors is negligible compare to the total water footprint. That is why the
    causes of the distribution in Spains water footprint are mainly focus on the
    agriculture sectors.
    Spain is a net virtual water importer concerning agricultural products, but a
    net virtual water exporter when considering livestock products. Spain
    exports high economic value and low virtual water content crops, such as
    citrus fruits, vegetables or olive oil, while it imports water-intensive loweconomic value crops, such as cereals. Spanish cereal imports represent
    about 70% of all water agricultural imports. This not only has a huge
    potential for relieving local hydrologic and political stress in Spain but it is
    also very relevant for the national economy and water balance.
    At the present time, Spain changes in crop production are giving blue water
    consumption an increasing importance, especially in the fastest growing
    sectors like vineyards and olive trees. On the contrary, in the animal sector
    the water footprint is turning greener, as the imports of feedstuff have
    increased significantly, to attend the increase in production and exports.
    To conclude, the relation between the economy and water resources has
    potentially damaging effects at local and basin levels. Agricultural
    production has evolved differently between the crop types, and accordingly
    between regions. Not every region is capable of competitively producing the
    most valuable crops, and thus, as international overview of the extended
    water footprint in Spain trade increases and competition arises, the biggest
    producing regions will increase their production.

    REFERENCES
    A. Garrido. "The Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Spain".
    Universidad politcnica de Madrid. 2010.
    http://temp.waterfootprint.org/

    Alba Maqueda Mateos

    D. Chico. "Overview of the extended water footprint in Spain: The


    importance of agricultural water consumption in the Spanish economy.".
    University of Madrid, Spain (2011).

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