Published in Scientific Papers. Series E. Land Reclamation, Earth Observation & Surveying, Environmental Engineering, Vol. VII
Written by Wolfram MAUSER, Tobias HANK, Tom JAKSZTAT, Elisabeth PROBST
Virtual Water Values (ViWA) is an interdisciplinary research project of geographers, remote sensing scientists, agroeconomists, computer scientists and landscape planners. It aims at supporting the implementation of water and food related SDGs by first developing a global, high resolution monitoring system for agricultural yields, water use efficiency and actual virtual water contents of agricultural products based on COPERNICUS Sentinel-2 time series. This data is used as input to GCE simulations of global agricultural trade and to identify global hot-spots of unsustainable (inefficient) water use and trade (both green and blue) by agriculture. Scenarios of trade incentives and regulations will be analyzed for their potentials and effectiveness to improve the sustainability of global agricultural water use. The Danube river basin is one regional case study of ViWA. Here the role of irrigation water use as well as upstream-downstream water conflicts is studied. First results of the continental and regional monitoring and simulations of actual yields, water use efficiencies and virtual water contents are shown and discussed.
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