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Titel |
Virtual water trade and development in Africa |
VerfasserIn |
M. Konar, K. K. Caylor |
Medientyp |
Artikel
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Sprache |
Englisch
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ISSN |
1027-5606
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Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 17, no. 10 ; Nr. 17, no. 10 (2013-10-15), S.3969-3982 |
Datensatznummer |
250085958
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Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/hess-17-3969-2013.pdf |
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Zusammenfassung |
A debate has long existed on the relationships between human population,
natural resources, and development. Recent research has expanded this debate
to include the impacts of trade; specifically, virtual water trade, or the
water footprint of traded commodities. We conduct an empirical analysis of
the relationships between virtual water trade, population, and development in
Africa. We find that increases in virtual water imports do not lead to
increases in population growth nor do they diminish human welfare. We
establish a new index of virtual water trade openness and show that levels of
undernourishment tend to fall with increased values of virtual water trade
openness. Countries with small dam storage capacity obtain a higher fraction
of their agricultural water requirements from external sources, which may
indicate implicit "infrastructure sharing" across nations. Globally,
increased crop exports tend to correlate with increased crop water use
efficiency, though this relationship does not hold for Africa. However,
internal African trade is much more efficient in terms of embodied water
resources than any other region in the world. Thus, internal African trade
patterns may be compensating for poor internal production systems. |
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