TITLE:
Virtual Water Trade as a Strategy to Water Resource Management in Iran
AUTHORS:
F. Mohammadi-Kanigolzar, J. Daneshvar Ameri, N. Motee
KEYWORDS:
Virtual Water; Footprint; Water Resource Management; Environmental; Iran
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.6 No.2,
February
25,
2014
ABSTRACT: Agriculture has historically played a central role in the
economy, life and culture of the Iranian population. Nowadays, this sector is facing
the reality that its natural fresh water resources become fully utilized. Considering
the climate conditions and limitation of using new water resources and the necessity
of increasing agricultural product as a result of population growth, there is
a general doubt about Iran’s ability to maintain this level of production amid the
mounting water challenges, among other obstacles. Therefore, the evaluation of virtual
water and water footprint can provide new indicators for informing water policy
decisions. So, in
order to study the situation at the national level, we estimated
virtual water consumption in term of virtual water theory as well water footprint
in agriculture sector of Iran. Data from 2001-2008 were used to account for yearly.
The results of this study show that Iran has water import dependency and also net
water import is 12.7 billion m3 averages. So Iran country saved 12.7
billion m3 from their domestic water resource for utilization in other
sectors. Finally, it should be concluded that virtual water trade as a policy
measure to water resources management will be provided to a great extent in
order to reach both significant water saving and environmental sustainability.