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Assessing the Environmental Impact of Water Consumption by Energy Crops Grown in Spain
Author(s) -
Núñez Montserrat,
Pfister Stephan,
Antón Assumpció,
Muñoz Pere,
Hellweg Stefanie,
Koehler Annette,
Rieradevall Joan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2011.00449.x
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , environmental science , environmental impact assessment , water use , agriculture , energy consumption , water scarcity , scarcity , water resources , consumption (sociology) , water resource management , environmental protection , geography , agronomy , ecology , economics , production (economics) , macroeconomics , archaeology , microeconomics , biology , social science , sociology
Summary The environmental impact of the water consumption of four typical crop rotations grown in Spain, including energy crops, was analyzed and compared against Spanish agricultural and natural reference situations. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was used for the assessment of the potential environmental impact of blue water (withdrawal from water bodies) and green water (uptake of soil moisture) consumption. The latter has so far been disregarded in LCA. To account for green water, two approaches have been applied: the first accounts for the difference in green water demand of the crops and a reference situation. The second is a green water scarcity index, which measures the fraction of the soil‐water plant consumption to the available green water. Our results show that, if the aim is to minimize the environmental impacts of water consumption, the energy crop rotations assessed in this study were most suitable in basins in the northeast of Spain. In contrast, the energy crops grown in basins in the southeast of Spain were associated with the greatest environmental impacts. Further research into the integration of quantitative green water assessment in LCA is crucial in studies of systems with a high dependence on green water resources.