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In order to quantify trade-associated virtual water flows and evaluate their impact on regional water systems, this paper used the multi-region input-output model to reveal the pattern and structure of the virtual water trade inside and outsided of the Yellow River Basin in 2012,2015 and 2017 and used LMDI method to analyze the impact of the virtual water net output of the watershed relative to others, and used the QAP model to analyze the impact factors of the virtual water trade among provinces within the watershed. The results show that a) the Yellow River Basin as a whole presents a virtual water net input state, but the Yellow River Basin net exports virtual water to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and other 12 regions. b) The virtual water trade export industry is mainly the production and supply of agriculture, electricity, gas and water. c) Structure effect and intensity effect are important driving factors of virtual water net output in the watershed. d) QAP regression outcomes prove that economic development level, geographic distance and water use intensity differences are the main factors affecting the virtual water trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The virtual water trade in a region is affected by both natural factors and human activities. In order to quantitatively study the influence of human activities to the virtual water trade, a new quantitative comparative analysis method was proposed in this paper. By adjusting the natural climate factors into a uniform standard, this paper quantitatively analyzed the impact of the increase and decrease of external water diversion and the strictest water resources management policies on the virtual water trade in agricultural and industrial sectors by year and inter-year. Taking Shandong Province as an example, this study applied this method to make a quantitative analysis of virtual water trade in Shandong Province in the past 20 years. The results show that with the development of economy, the net output curves of agricultural and industrial virtual water are U-shaped and irregular inverted U-shaped, respectively. Virtual net water output can adversely affect the local water environment. In 1997, when the Yellow River stopped flowing, the decrease of water diversion reduced the net virtual water output of agriculture and industry by 20.13% and 49.67%, respectively. In 2017, the input of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project increased the net virtual water output of agriculture and industry by 1.32% and 41.99%, respectively, compared with that without the diversion, while the implementation of the strictest water resources management policy reduced it by 10.01% and 20.39%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote the rational allocation of water resources in Shaanxi Province and the Yellow River Basin and ensure regional water security, based on virtual water theory and inter-regional input-output table of China, this paper calculated the water consumption coefficients of three major industries virtual water volume in Shaanxi Province, and the virtual water trade volume between this province and other provinces in China in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017 with the help of input-output model, and explored the main factors affecting the change of virtual water volume in Shaanxi Province by using gray correlation model. Further, the inter-industry allocation characteristics of virtual water in Shaanxi Province were analyzed and the virtual water trade network between Shaanxi Province and other provinces were established. The results show that a) the coefficient of direct water consumption and complete water consumption coefficient of the primary industry in Shaanxi Province are higher than that of the secondary and tertiary industries, but all show a decreasing trend over this time, indicating that the province’s water use efficiency are constantly improving. b) The primary and secondary industries account for the majority of the virtual water supply in Shaanxi Province, and the level of agricultural technology, population size, urbanization rate, food production, industry and construction development level are the main factors affecting the virtual water supply of the primary and secondary industries in the province. c) More than 70% of the virtual water in Shaanxi Province are consumed by itself and transported to other provinces mainly are Guangdong, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Henan provinces. It mainly exports to the primary industry. More than 90% of the virtual water input derives from the secondary and tertiary industries of Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang and Hunan provinces. d) Shaanxi Province has maintained net input state for a long time in the inter-provincial trade; compared with the actual water resources trade net virtual water trade between Shaanxi Province and Sichuan, Liaoning, Jilin and other provinces is unreasonable. Shaanxi Province should promote the spatial and temporal matching of virtual water and physical water by adjusting the industrial structure and optimizing the inter-provincial trade network, which is of great significance for the rational use of water resources at the Yellow River Basin scale and even at the national scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to help solve the water resources issues that restrict the high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, based on the multi-regional input-output table of China, this paper calculated the virtual water of the nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin from 2012 to 2015 by building a multi-regional input-output（MRIO） model, and analyzed its flow pattern and trend. The results show that a)the Yellow River Basin changes from virtual net water outflow area to inflow area between 2012 and 2015. The upstream area is always the virtual water outflow area, the downstream area is always the virtual water inflow area, and the midstream area is transformed from the virtual water inflow area to outflow area. The flow pattern of virtual water is not coordinated with water resources. b)Virtual water flow sectors have great industry similarities. However, there are differences in the trade structure of virtual water in different regions. c)In the virtual water trade within the Yellow River Basin, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan are the main virtual water consumers, while Qinghai and Ningxia are the main virtual water suppliers. The virtual water flowing out of the Yellow River Basin mainly flows to the northeast and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Finally, the suggestions are proposed to promote the optimization and allocation of water resources and help the high-quality and coordinated development in the Yellow River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a city suffering from serious water resources shortage, Beijing is in urgent need to improve water use efficiency. Based on the method of multi-scale input-output analysis, this work calculates and analyzes the virtual water consumption and trade of Beijing in 2012, and compares the results to that of 2007. The results indicate that the consumption- based water resources use of Beijing were estimated up to 13.95 billion m3 in 2012, which were 3.89 times larger than the production- based direct water resources use (3.59 billion m3). Compared with 2007, the virtual water consumption (23.7%) grew faster than direct water use (11.8%). For all water resources related to Beijing, only 5% was from local water withdrawal, while more than 3/5 was domestically imported from other Chinese regions and about 35% was imported from foreign countries. Meanwhile, about 1/5 of these water resources was consumed to meet Beijing's local final demand, approximately 3/4 was exported to other domestic regions, and 6% was exported to other countries. Beijing changed from a net domestic virtual water importer in 2007 into a net exporter in 2012, and the net domestically exported virtual water in 2012 was 1.1 times larger than the net import in 2007. On the other hand, Beijing changed from a net international virtual water exporter in 2007 into a net importer in 2012, and the net international virtual water import (19.60 billion m3) was 837.2 times larger than the net export (0.02 billion m3) in 2007. Beijing net imported 10.36 billion m3 virtual water in 2012 (all from international trade), which has successfully avoided the over- withdrawal of local water resources. At the same time, Beijing re- exported plenty of internationally imported virtual water to other Chinese regions, which has contributed a lot to alleviate domestic water shortage pressure. In order to reduce domestic water resources use and improve water use efficiency worldwide, Beijing is suggested to strategically increase the international import of mineral, energy, construction and transportation equipment products under the consideration of energy and mineral resource supply security, and to absorb domestic excess capacity in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]