38 research outputs found
Growth in Environmental Footprints and Environmental Impacts Embodied in Trade: Resource Efficiency Indicators from EXIOBASE3
Most countries show a relative decoupling of economic growth from domestic resource use,
implying increased resource efficiency. However, international trade facilitates the exchange
of products between regions with disparate resource productivity. Hence, for an understanding
of resource efficiency from a consumption perspective that takes into account the
impacts in the upstream supply chains, there is a need to assess the environmental pressures
embodied in trade. We use EXIOBASE3, a new multiregional input-output database,
to examine the rate of increase in resource efficiency, and investigate the ways in which
international trade contributes to the displacement of pressures on the environment from
the consumption of a population. We look at the environmental pressures of energy use,
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, material use, water use, and land use. Material use stands
out as the only indicator growing in both absolute and relative terms to population and
gross domestic product (GDP), while land use is the only indicator showing absolute decoupling
from both references. Energy, GHG, and water use show relative decoupling. As
a percentage of total global environmental pressure, we calculate the net impact displaced
through trade rising from 23% to 32% for material use (1995¿2011), 23% to 26% for water
use, 20% to 29% for energy use, 20% to 26% for land use, and 19% to 24% for GHG
emissions. The results show a substantial disparity between trade-related impacts for Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries.
At the product group level, we observe the most rapid growth in environmental footprints
in clothing and footwear. The analysis points to implications for future policies aiming to
achieve environmental targets, while fully considering potential displacement effects through
international trade
Key Issues for Determining the Exploitable Water Resources in a Mediterranean River Basin
[EN] One of the major difficulties in water planning is to determine the water availability in a water resource system in order to distribute water sustainably. In this paper, we analyze the key issues for determining the exploitable water resources as an indicator of water availability in a Mediterranean river basin. Historically, these territories are characterized by heavily regulated water resources and the extensive use of unconventional resources (desalination and wastewater reuse); hence, emulating the hydrological cycle is not enough. This analysis considers the Jucar River Basin as a case study. We have analyzed the different possible combinations between the streamflow time series, the length of the simulation period and the reliability criteria. As expected, the results show a wide dispersion, proving the great influence of the reliability criteria used for the quantification and localization of the exploitable water resources in the system. Therefore, it is considered risky to provide a single value to represent the water availability in the Jucar water resource system. In this sense, it is necessary that policymakers and stakeholders make a decision about the methodology used to determine the exploitable water resources in a river basin. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The authors wish to thank the Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of the Environment) for the data provided in developing this study and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for its financial support through the projects SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065) and NUTEGES (CGL2012-34978). We also value the support provided by the European Community's Seventh Framework Program in financing the projects DROUGHT-R82SPI (FP7-ENV-2011, 282769), ENHANCE (FP7-ENV-2012, 308438), WAMCD (EC-DG Environment No. 07.0329/2013/671291/ SUB/ENV.C1) and LIFE ALBUFERA (LIFE12 ENV/ES/000685).Pedro Monzonís, M.; Ferrer Polo, FJ.; Solera Solera, A.; Estrela Monreal, T.; Paredes Arquiola, J. (2015). Key Issues for Determining the Exploitable Water Resources in a Mediterranean River Basin. Science of the Total Environment. 503-504:319-328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.07.042S319328503-50