Virtual Water Consumption Calculation and Analysis of Gansu Province in 2000

In this paper, we firstly introduce the concept of virtual water, discuss its role in managing water resources and its social, economic, and political implications. Virtual water strategy means countries or regions whose water is scarce achieve their water security and food security by importing water-intensive products from those whose water is abundant, which expands the solution of water resource scarcity to the political-economic system. The particular linkage of population, food, and trade has been the masterstroke of virtual water strategy research. Secondly, we present the methodology to assess the virtual water content in crop and livestock products, and take Gansu as a case to analyse the virtual water content in product and circulating field. Owing to lack of rigorous statistical data of trade among provinces, the above results are then combined with the index of consumption amount of product to get a picture of virtual water circulation in social-economic system of the province. The calculation results show that the total product-related and consumption-related virtual water amount is estimated to be 222.02×10 8 m 3 and 183.75×10 8 m 3 respectively. Thirdly, we discuss the political implications and potential applicability of virtual water associated with water security, economic benefit and consumption structure in Gansu, and examine the advantage and disadvantage of virtual water strategy. The results show that virtual water trade is an instrument to achieve water security and efficient water use. A linkage between consumption patterns and the impacts on water is made.