The New Blue and Green Water Paradigm: Breaking New Ground for Water Resources Planning and Management
Year: 2006
Type: editorial
Abstract: Water for food and hunger alleviation Production of biomass for direct human use, e.g., as food and timber, is by far the largest freshwater consuming human activity on Earth. However, water policy and development concentrates on a fraction of the water for food challenge, namely irrigated agriculture that uses an estimated 25 % of the global water use in agriculture, and on industrial and domestic water supply, which correspond to less than 10 % of direct human water requirements (considering only water for food, domestic use and industry). The reason biomass production so strongly outclasses other water dependent processes, is that water is one key element involved in plant growth. Simultaneous with the photosynthesis process, when stomata in the foliage open to take in carbon dioxide, large amounts of water are being consumed as transpiration flow, and released as vapour from the plant canopy. Furthermore, this productive flow of vapour, is accompanied by non-productive evaporative losses of water (from soil, ponded water, and intercepted water from foliage surface). Together, vapour fluxes as evaporation and transpiration, here defined as green water flow, constitute the total consumptive water use in biomass production.
Authors: M. Falkenmark, J. Rockström
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2016479595