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The Spanish Food Industry on Global Supply Chains and Its Impact on Water Resources

The study of the impact of economic activities on natural resources through global supply chains is increasingly demanded in the context of the growing globalization of economies and product fragmentation. Taking Spain as a case study and a sector with significant economic and environmental impacts, the agri-food industry, the objective of this work is two-fold. First, we estimate the associated water impact, both from the production and consumption perspectives, paying special attention to the water embodied in production exchanges among countries and sectors. To that aim, we use an environmentally-extended multiregional input-output model (MRIO). Second, we assess the main driving factors behind changes in direct and embodied water consumption between the years 1995 and 2009 by means of a structural decomposition analysis. The MRIO model provides a comprehensive estimate of the economic linkages among regions and economic sectors and, therefore, allows calculating the environmental impacts over international value chains. The results indicate that the food industry exerts large impacts on global water resources, particularly given the remarkable interactions with the domestic and foreign agricultural sectors, These growing linkages show how consumption patterns, and, therefore, lifestyles, involve large environmental impacts through the whole and global supply chains

Water, 2015, 7, 132-152

MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

Author: Duarte, Rosa
Pinilla Navarro, Vicente
Serrano González, Ana
Date: 2015
Abstract: The study of the impact of economic activities on natural resources through global supply chains is increasingly demanded in the context of the growing globalization of economies and product fragmentation. Taking Spain as a case study and a sector with significant economic and environmental impacts, the agri-food industry, the objective of this work is two-fold. First, we estimate the associated water impact, both from the production and consumption perspectives, paying special attention to the water embodied in production exchanges among countries and sectors. To that aim, we use an environmentally-extended multiregional input-output model (MRIO). Second, we assess the main driving factors behind changes in direct and embodied water consumption between the years 1995 and 2009 by means of a structural decomposition analysis. The MRIO model provides a comprehensive estimate of the economic linkages among regions and economic sectors and, therefore, allows calculating the environmental impacts over international value chains. The results indicate that the food industry exerts large impacts on global water resources, particularly given the remarkable interactions with the domestic and foreign agricultural sectors, These growing linkages show how consumption patterns, and, therefore, lifestyles, involve large environmental impacts through the whole and global supply chains
Format: application/pdf
ISSN: 2073-4441
Document access: http://hdl.handle.net/10256/13062
Language: eng
Publisher: MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)
Collection: Reproducció digital del document publicat a: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w7010132
Articles publicats (D-EC)
Is part of: Water, 2015, 7, 132-152
Rights: Attribution 4.0 Spain
Rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/es/
Subject: Aigua -- Consum
Water consumption
Indústria agroalimentària
Agricultural processing industries
Title: The Spanish Food Industry on Global Supply Chains and Its Impact on Water Resources
Type: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Repository: DUGiDocs

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