农产品水足迹研究进展

水是人类生产生活的重要资源,科学合理地评价人类活动对水资源的影响是实现水资源可持续利用的重要保障.水足迹概念的提出创新性地将人类活动消耗的水资源区分为绿水、蓝水和灰水,拓展了水资源可持续利用的评价思路.基于虚拟水(VW)的水足迹理论和基于生命周期(LCA)的水足迹理论将水质与水量的概念相结合,成为了农业水资源管理研究的热点内容.基于VW的水足迹理论主要包括绿水足迹、蓝水足迹和灰水足迹的计算,以及水环境可持续性评价,而基于LCA的水足迹理论体现了水资源的消耗和污染及其对环境造成的综合影响.本文详细介绍了这两种水足迹理论的计算方法与环境可持续评价的研究进展,对比分析两种水足迹理论在描述农产品生产用水及其环境影响方面的差异性,并对其研究前景进行了展望.     

水足迹研究进展

水为生命之源,水资源的合理分配与科学管理是区域可持续发展与流域综合管理的核心环节;水足迹作为一种全面核算人类活动对水资源真实占用的综合指标,将人类消费终端与水资源利用密切关联,为维护流域水资源安全、提高区域水资源利用效率提供了重要的科学依据,已成为当前国际水资源管理的前沿研究领域。在明确水足迹及水资源生态足迹相关概念的基础上,对比分析了水足迹与生态足迹、水资源生态足迹模型的异同,明晰了过程、产品及区域等不同研究对象的水足迹核算方法,系统梳理了产品和区域水足迹评价、基于水足迹的区域水资源安全研究、区域水足迹可持续性分析等水足迹主要研究内容的近今进展,并展望了进一步的重点研究方向,即水足迹综合研究、水足迹评价不确定性分析、水足迹与物质流核算的关联研究,以及基于足迹整合的可持续发展多维测度等。     

Theoretical exploration for the combination of the ecological,energy, carbon,and water footprints: Overview of a footprint family

Over the past two decades, a continuously expanding list of footprint-style indicators has been introduced to the scientific community with the aim of raising public awareness of how humanity exerts pressures on the environment. A deeper understanding of the connections and interactions between different footprints is required in an attempt to support policy makers in the measurement and choice of environmental impact mitigation strategies. Combining a selection of footprints that address different aspects of environmental issues into an integrated system is, therefore, a natural step. This paper starts with the idea of developing a footprint family from which most important footprints can be compared and integrated. On the basis of literature review in related fields, the ecological, energy, carbon, and water footprints are employed as selected indicators to define a footprint family. A brief survey is presented to provide background information on each of the footprints with an emphasis on their main characteristics in a comparative sense; that is, the footprints differ in many aspects more than just the impacts they are addressed. This allows the four footprints to be complementarily used in assessing environmental impacts associated with natural resource use and waste discharge. We evaluate the performance of the footprint family in terms of data availability, coverage complementarity, methodological consistency, and policy relevance and propose solutions and suggestions for further improvement. The key conclusions are that the footprint family, which captures a broad spectrum of sustainability issues, is able to offer a more complete picture of environmental complexity for policy makers and, in particular, in national-level studies. The research provides new insights into the distinction between environmental impact assessment and sustainability evaluation, properly serving as a reference for multidisciplinary efforts in estimating planetary boundaries for global sustainability.     

Methodological proposal to assess the water footprint accounting of direct water use at an urban level: A case study of the Municipality of Vicenza

Climate change, world population growth and industrialization have placed considerable stress on the local availability of water resources. Considering that most of the world's population currently resides in cities, this issue has particular relevance in an urban environment. One of the methods that is recognized to support better water management is water footprint accounting. However, due to the requirement of large amounts of data and their limited availability, applications of this method at an urban scale use national or regional water use data. The goal of this study is to develop a methodological proposal to assess the water footprint accounting of direct water use at an urban level to support the local management of water resources by using local data, by adopting a bottom-up approach and by verifying its applicability in a real case study. The water footprint accounting approach was modified by adopting a modular approach in the definition of boundaries and by adapting the blue, green and gray water footprint accounting formulations. The proposed method was successfully tested in the municipality of Vicenza (north east Italy) and provided interesting responses in terms of water management. Herein, we also discuss the latest developments in impact assessments related to water based on a life cycle assessment, which should be used as a framework for the future development of the model that is presented.     

Environmental sustainability measurement in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index: An empirical analysis of its reliability

Indices provide a straightforward summary of the status of an object or concept. Examples of concepts are diverse and go from city quality of life, country level of freedom, human development to environment sustainability. This paper introduces a methodology to assess the reliability of the environmental sustainability index implemented by the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index that is published by the World Economic Forum using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.Results show that the original index is not reliable as most of the variables are weakly correlated. A simplified version of the original index is obtained by exploratory factor analysis and tested by confirmatory factor analysis. Measures of reliability show that the new index called TTESI – Travel & Tourism Environmental Sustainability Index – is reliable. Results also show that combining data from different sources (e.g., survey data and physical measurements) proves problematic. A z-score value for each country was computed and countries were ranked based on the TTESI. Additionally, the new index is more in line with the HDI – Human Development Index – and can therefore be integrated more easily in an overall index of sustainable development.     

How to monitor environmental pressures of a circular economy: An assessment of indicators

Understanding how a circular economy (CE) can reduce environmental pressures from economic activities is crucial for policy and practice. Science provides a range of indicators to monitor and assess CE activities. However, common CE activities, such as recycling and eco‐design, are contested in terms of their contribution to environmental sustainability. This article assesses whether and to what extent current approaches to assess CE activities sufficiently capture environmental pressures to monitor progress toward environmental sustainability. Based on a material flow perspective, we show that most indicators do not capture environmental pressures related to the CE activities they address. Many focus on a single CE activity or process, which does not necessarily contribute to increased environmental sustainability overall. Based on these results, we suggest complementing CE management indicators with indicators capturing basic environmental pressures related to the respective CE activity. Given the conceptual linkage between CE activities, resource extraction, and waste flows, we suggest that a resource‐based footprint approach accounting for major environmental inputs and outputs is necessary—while not sufficient—to assess the environmental sustainability of CE activities. As footprint approaches can be used across scales, they could aid the challenging process of developing indicators for monitoring progress toward an environmentally sustainable CE at the European, national, and company levels.     

Co-construction of an assessment method of the environmental sustainability for cattle farms involved in a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese value chain,Cantal PDO

In France, numerous Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese value chains have revised their specifications to address environmental protection, particularly at the farm level. In this stage, it is nevertheless impossible to state whether the proposed modifications may ensure the sustainability of environmental protection as no environmental sustainability diagnostic has been conducted. The aim of this study is to construct an assessment method for the Cantal PDO farms.A multi-criteria assessment approach was implemented in the following 5 steps: definition of the framework of the study, determination of the principles and criteria, definition of the indicators, aggregation of all elements of the assessment, and finally, test of the assessment method on farms. Focus groups meetings were organised for the first four steps. The panel discussions were based on data obtained from both the literature and surveys of stakeholders operating in the value chain and within the territory.The obtained assessment method comprises 4 principles characterised by 33 indicators. The most important principle (45%), management of grassland resources, is a key economic and environmental point of the studied farms. It reflects the necessary intensive use of grass by the animals in the PDO farms. Few existing methods addressed this principle that required the design of several new indicators. The second principle, impact of agricultural practices (25%), is often included in environmental sustainability assessment methods The adopted indicators are, thus, drawn from existing methods and adapted to the context of the farms studied. The management of the farm buildings and the landscape principle (18%) is often considered in social sustainability. Its role in environmental sustainability can be explained by its strong link with the image of PDO products. Primarily drawn from the literature, the used indicators have been extended to make the assessment method as objective as possible. Finally, the management of local, energy and water resources principle has the lowest weighting (12%). This can be explained by the limited number of indicators.This assessment method was constructed for the Cantal PDO farms by considering their environment and particularities. In consequence, the stakeholders have taken ownership of it. It could be used by other ruminant systems based on grassland. The development of numerous indicators enhanced the pool of existing indicators. This assessment method was sensitive and allowed for the discrimination between farms.     

The Water Impact Index: a simplified single-indicator approach for water footprinting

Purpose

Along with climate change-related issues, improved water management is recognized as one of the major challenges to sustainability. However, there are still no commonly accepted methods for measuring sustainability of water uses, resulting in a recent proliferation of water footprint methodologies. The Water Impact Index presented in this paper aims to integrate the issues of volume, scarcity and quality into a single indicator to assess the reduction of available water for the environment induced by freshwater uses for human activities.

Methods

The Water Impact Index follows life cycle thinking principles. For each unit process, a volumetric water balance is performed; water flows crossing the boundaries between the techno-sphere and environment are multiplied by a water quality index and a water scarcity index. The methodology is illustrated on the current municipal wastewater management system of Milan (Italy). The Water Impact Index is combined with carbon footprint to introduce multi-impact thinking to decision makers. The Water Impact Index is further compared to results obtained using a set of three life cycle impact indicators related to water, from the ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodology.

Results and discussion

Onsite water use is the main contribution to the Water Impact Index for both wastewater management schemes. The release of better quality water is the main driver in favour of the scenario including a wastewater treatment plant, while the energy and chemicals consumed for the treatment increase the indirect water footprint and carbon footprint. Results obtained with the three midpoint indicators depict similar tendencies to the Water Impact Index.

Conclusions

This paper presents a simplified single-indicator approach for water footprinting, integrating volume, scarcity and quality issues, representing an initial step toward a better understanding and assessment of the environmental impacts of human activities on water resources. The wastewater treatment plant reduces the Water Impact Index of the wastewater management system. These results are consistent with the profile of the three midpoint indicators related to water from ReCiPe.     

生态足迹分析应用于区域可持续发展生态评估的缺陷

可持续发展的生态评估是当前国际生态经济学与可持续发展研究的前沿问题之一,生态足迹从生物生产的角度可以定量评估一个国家或地区发展的生态持续性程度,是近年来发展迅速的一种生物物理量衡量方法。尽管生态足迹分析具有指标指示意义明确、评估结果全球可比与模型方法简便、资料易获取、可操作性强等优点,但在理论方法上仍存在不足之处。综合国内外区域生态足迹分析的最新进展,生态足迹分析应用于区域可持续发展生态评估的理论缺陷主要表现为以下6点：①弱可持续性评价,难以完整反映系统的可持续性状态;②静态模型,缺乏预测功能;③长时间序列生态足迹研究的合理性有待商榷;④全球平均生产力的相对性,导致评估结果的非绝对性;⑤过于强调土地的数量,而忽略土地的质量;⑥假定各类生物生产性土地类型的空间互斥性,忽视兼业性。     

足迹家族:概念、类型、理论框架与整合模式

足迹研究是当前生态经济学和可持续发展领域的热点与前沿课题。探讨了足迹类指标的内涵,将其定义为一类评估人类资源消费和废弃物排放等活动环境影响的指标;介绍了生态足迹、碳足迹、水足迹、能源足迹、化学足迹、氮足迹和生物多样性足迹7类典型足迹指标的概念与研究进展;在此基础上提出了普适性的足迹家族概念,总结了足迹家族的选择性、开放性、系统性和不确定性特征,并根据足迹类指标的一般运算流程构建了足迹家族的理论框架;基于大量文献成果系统比较了生态足迹、碳足迹和水足迹3类关键足迹的特征差异,提出了在足迹家族层面增强指标兼容性的措施;通过逐一测试各关键足迹与27项环境问题的相关程度,从决策相关性的角度初步探索了该足迹家族的整合模式;展望了未来足迹(家族)研究的重点方向。     

基于灰水足迹的中国城市水资源可持续利用综合评价

随着城市化的快速发展,中国城市水资源面临着水资源短缺与水环境恶化等挑战,因此加强城市水资源可持续利用对于中国可持续发展具有重要意义。基于灰水足迹核算对2016年中国地级市水资源可持续利用情况进行综合评价。研究结果表明：（1）中国城市灰水足迹水平差异大,平均值为23.40×10⁸ m³,主要集中在20.00×10⁸ m³以下。中国城市农业源灰水足迹比例占比主要在70%以上,工业源比例占比主要在20%以下,而生活源比例占比在40%以下;（2）全国灰水经济生产率在12.45-857.31元/m³范围内,地区差异明显。33%城市灰水足迹荷载系数均大于1,全国地级市灰水足迹荷载系数平均值为1.16,城市水资源利用已对水环境产生污染压力,用水不可持续;（3）城市水资源开发率与灰水足迹荷载系数呈一定程度的正相关关系,说明了城市发展对水资源利用的"量"和"质"的压力作用具有一定的协同关系;（4）水资源可持续利用程度呈现大型城市 > 特大型城市 > 超大型城市 > 中小型城市,城市发展一定程度上有助于水资源的可持续利用,但发展规模过大可能会造成用水高产而护水低效的现象。因地制宜的实行水资源循环经济发展模式以及适时纳入灰水足迹核算与管理体系,是当前城市化大背景下实现水资源可持续利用的重要途径。     

Food consumption and related water resources in Nordic cities

Many modern cities have strongly invested in the sustainability of their urban water management system. Nordic cities like Stockholm or Copenhagen are amongst pioneers in investments towards integrated urban water management. However, cities can never be fully self-sufficient due to their dependency on external (water) resources. In this paper, we quantify this water dependency with respect to food consumption in nine cities located in the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland), by means of the water footprint concept. Detailed urban water footprint assessments are scarce in the literature. By analysing national nutrition surveys, we find that urban food intake behaviour differs from national food intake behaviour. In large Nordic cities people eat generally less potatoes, milk products (without cheese), meat and animal fats and they drink less coffee than outside city borders. On the other hand, they generally eat more vegetables and vegetable oils and they drink more tea and alcoholic beverages. This leads consistently – for the six large Nordic cities Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Reykjavik – to slightly smaller food related urban water footprints (−2 to −6%) than national average values. We also analyse the water footprint for different diets based upon Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) for these cities. We assessed three healthy diet scenarios: 1) including meat (HEALTHY-MEAT), 2) pesco-vegetarian (HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG) and 3) vegetarian (HEALTHY-VEG). This shows that Nordic urban dwellers 1) eat too many animal products (red meat, milk and milk products) and sugar and drink too much alcohol and 2) they eat not enough vegetables, fruit and products from the group pulses, nuts and oilcrops. Their overall energy and protein intake is too high. A shift to a healthy diet with recommended energy and protein intake reduces the urban WF related to food consumption substantially. A shift to HEALTHY-MEAT results in a reduction of −9 to −24%, for HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG the reduction is −29 to −37%, for HEALTHY-VEG the reduction is −36 to −44%. In other words, Nordic urban dwellers can save a lot of water by shifting to a healthy diet.     

Application of the componential method for ecological footprint calculation of a Chinese university campus

The componential method of ecological footprint is applied to estimate the ecological footprint of Northeastern University (NEU) in 2003. The components considered in this study include energy (coal, natural gas, and electricity) consumption, food consumption, waste disposal, water supply, transportation, and paper consumption. The ecological footprint of NEU was 24,787 ha, meaning that nearly 25,000 ha of ecologically productive lands were needed to support consumptions and wastes disposal. The largest component of ecological footprint was energy consumption, which took up 68% of the total footprint; the second and the third largest footprint components were food consumption and waste disposal. In a word, ecological footprint can serve as a practical and meaningful tool for comparing and monitoring the environmental impact of campuses.     

中国“水量”和“水质”生态足迹及可持续能力量化方法与实证研究

科学测度水资源和水环境可持续能力,对区域水资源管理具有重要意义。从“水量”和“水质”两个角度,对我国31个省域地区的“水量”及“水质“生态足迹、生态承载力和生态压力指数进行研究。结果表明：(1)2000—2020年,我国水资源生态压力指数均小于1,最高值为2011年的0.86,总体水量供给充足,可持续能力强;万元GDP水量生态足迹呈波动下降趋势,用水效率大幅度提升。(2)2000—2020年,我国水质可持续能力均较强,处于安全和较安全状态,水质生态盈余量约2亿hm²;人均水质承载力约为人均水质生态足迹的2倍,且万元GDP产生的污水量呈下降趋势。(3)人均水量生态足迹和万元GDP水量生态足迹的空间重心均位于甘肃省。水量及水质生态足迹高值区,均主要位于“胡焕庸线”西北部,而承载力高值区,主要位于青藏高原和我国南方地区。(4)我国水量可持续能力处于安全、临界状态和不安全的地区数,分别占55%、6%和39%;水质可持续能力处于安全、临界状态和不安全的地区数,分别占61%、3%和35%;水量及水质可持续能力较强和较弱的地区数之比,约为6∶4。研究揭示了我国水量及水质风险等级...     

The Ecological Footprint Intensity of National Economies

At least three perspectives—industrial ecology (IE), ecological modernization theory (EMT), and the “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC)—emphasize the potential for sustainability via refinements in production systems that dramatically reduce the environmental impacts of economic development. Can improvements in efficiency counterbalance environmental impacts stemming from the scale of production? To address this question we analyze cross‐national variation in the ecological footprint (EF) per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The EF is a widely recognized indicator of human pressure on the environment. The EF of a nation is the amount of land area that would be required to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes it generates. The most striking finding of our analyses is that there is limited variation across nations in EF per unit of GDP. This indicates limited plasticity in the levels of EF intensity or eco‐efficiency among nations, particularly among affluent nations. EF intensity is lowest (ecoefficiency is highest) in affluent nations, but the level of efficiency in these nations does not appear to be of sufficient magnitude to compensate for their large productive capacities. These results suggest that modernization and economic development will be insufficient, in themselves, to bring about the ecological sustainability of societies.     

基于改进生态足迹模型的可持续发展评价——以北疆为例

生态足迹评价体系,可以在一定程度上刻画区域社会经济发展对当地生态环境产生的影响,当前可持续发展研究的难点之一,便是如何更加真实的体现这种影响。立足于传统生态足迹模型,采用“一年一区一值”的参数方案计算区域当年均衡因子与产量因子,结合土地利用转移矩阵和建设用地流入量改进建设用地足迹算法,对北疆地区2005年、2010年、2015年、2018年生态足迹及生态承载力进行测度,并结合相关指数对研究区发展的可持续性进行评价。结果表明：(1)北疆生态足迹增涨3.5倍,且以能源增长为主导,生物生产性足迹贡献率大幅下降;人均生态足迹增长3.4倍,工业型城市生态足迹增长率及人均生态足迹增长率均高于其他类型城市。(2)研究区生态承载力呈现上升态势,除水域和草地外,其他地类承载力均呈上升态势,昌吉州与阿勒泰地区的总体承载力及人均承载力均呈下降态势。(3)北疆生态利用效率上涨1.32倍,各行政单元呈现农业及服务业型城市生态利用效率上升、工业型城市生态利用效率降低的态势,表明工业型城市生态足迹增速远高于经济增速。(4)各行政单元呈现生态赤字状态且不断加剧,总体及人均增速都呈现工业型>农业型>服务业型...     

Mechanisms for release of sediment-bound phosphate to water and the effects of agricultural land management on fluvial transport of particulate and dissolved phosphate

Sediment-bound phosphate includes organic and inorganic forms, but the inorganic fraction contains most of the P that can be released into water. The non-apatite inorganic P (NAIP) fraction of sediment-bound phosphate varies considerably with geochemistry and anthropogenic additions (fertilizer, livestock wastes, P adsorbed from municipal wastewater discharges). A small fraction of the NAIP is sufficiently labile to desorb into water, and this release can be described by dissolution or adsorption/ desorption mechanisms. Agricultural practices, such as phosphate fertility management and conservation tillage, which affect the levels of phosphate and sediment leaving the land, will determine the partition of sediment-bound P and dissolved P in water draining into lakes, with implications for the availability of that phosphate to phytoplankton.     

福建省灰水足迹时空变化及驱动因素

灰水足迹是稀释水污染物至达标需要的淡水体积,是评价水污染程度与水环境质量的重要方法,对灰水足迹进行核算与分析,可以促进福建省提高水环境质量,构建可持续的水生态环境。借鉴Hoekstra等提出的灰水足迹核算方法,对福建省及各地市2001-2017年的灰水足迹进行核算,对其时空变化特征进行评价并使用对数平均迪式指数分解法（Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index Method,LMDI）模型对灰水足迹变动的驱动因素进行分解。结果表明：a）总氮是决定灰水足迹总量的主要污染物,非点源污染是灰水足迹的最主要来源但占比由68.25%降至63.35%;b）福建省灰水足迹总量降低了9.58%,且各项指标都呈下降趋势,在空间上,灰水足迹总量及剩余灰水足迹东南多西北少,人均灰水足迹及灰水足迹强度东少西多;c）福建省灰水足迹变动的驱动因素中,经济因素是最大正向驱动因素,产生2932.96亿m³的贡献量,技术因素是最大负向驱动因素,产生-2630.31亿m³的贡献量。最后,针对福建省水污染问题提出建议：a）开展非点源污染防治专项;b）加快速度提高城镇生活污水处理水平;c）优化产业结构,提高灰水足迹效率;d）切实落实生态补偿制度,调动各市水环境保护积极性;e）加强环境监管力度,加大技术投入。     

基于ISO 14046的工业产品水足迹评价研究——以电缆为例

水足迹国际标准(ISO 14046)于2014年发布,基于生命周期评价(LCA)的思想,水足迹被定义为量化与水相关潜在环境影响的指标。在ISO14046的原则、要求和方法学框架基础上,介绍了工业产品水足迹的计算和评价方法,并以铜电缆和铝合金电缆为例进行研究,分别评价了两类电缆生命周期过程产生的与水相关环境影响。与水足迹网络(WFN)的方法侧重于计算生产产品所需要的水资源总量不同,ISO的方法更关注于产品全生命周期过程的环境影响评价。案例研究表明:铜电缆生命周期全过程耗水量与铝合金电缆相比少24.8%,水短缺足迹相比则少97.9%。这是因为铜电缆生产地江苏的水压力指数(WSI)小于铝合金电缆生产地河北的WSI。由此,在江苏地区生产电缆使用的水资源对当地水环境压力造成的影响远小于在河北地区生产电缆造成的影响。采用科学合理的水足迹评价方法,量化工业产品全生命周期带来的环境影响,能为我国实现工业布局的合理规划和水资源的可持续利用提供科学依据。