Driving forces and variation in water footprint before and after the COVID-19 lockdown in Fujian Province of China.

The COVID-19 outbreak has injured the global industrial supply chain, especially China as the world's largest manufacturing base. Since 2020, China has implemented a rigorous lockdown policy, which has sternly damaged sectoral trade in export-oriented coastal areas. Fujian Province, which mainly processes imported materials, has a more profound influence. Although the COVID-19 lockdown has had some detrimental consequences on the world economy, it also had some favorable benefits on the global ecology. Previous studies have shown that the lockdown has altered the physical water quantity and quality, but the lack of total, virtual, and physical water research that combines water quantity and water quality simultaneously to pinpoint the subject and responsibility of water resources consumption and pollution. This research quantified the physical, virtual, and total water consumption and water pollution among 30 sectors in Fujian Province based on the theory of water footprint and the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment model. SDA model was then used to investigate the socioeconomic elements that underpin variations in the water footprint. The results show that after the lockdown, the physical water quantity and the physical grey WF in Fujian Province decreased by 2.6 Gm3 (-6.7%) and 0.4 Gm3 (-1.3%) respectively. The virtual water quantity decreased by 2.3 Gm3 (-4.5%), whereas the virtual grey WF rose by 1.5 Gm3 (4.3%). The total water quantity dropped by 3.3 Gm3 (-4.9%), while the grey WF increased by 1.2 Gm3 (2.5%), i.e. the COVID-19 lockdown decreases physical water quantity and improves local water quality. More than 50% of the water comes from virtual water trade outside the province (virtual water is highly dependent on external), and around 60% of the grey WF comes from physical sewage in the province. The COVID-19 lockdown reduced water outsourcing across the province (paid nonlocally decrease) but increased pollution outsourcing (paid nonlocally increase). And gross capital formation's contribution to the growth in water footprint will continue to rise. As a result, this study suggested that Fujian should take advantage of sectoral trade network to enhance the transaction of green water-intensive intermediate products, reduce the physical water consumption of blue water-intensive sectors, and reduce the external dependence on water consumption. Achieving the shared responsibility of upstream and downstream water consumption and reducing the external dependence on water in water-rich regions is crucial to solving the world's water problems. This research provides empirical evidence for the long-term effects of COVID-19 lockdown on the physical and virtual water environment.

Identifying the key factors to China's unsustainable external circulation through the accounting of the flow of embodied energy and virtual water

In 2020, China launched the Dual Circulation Strategy to tackle difficult international trade situations and COVID-19. To examine the environmental pressure induced by China's domestic and international trade from the perspective of dual circulation, this study quantifies the flows of embodied energy and virtual water in China's domestic and international trade and analyzes the driving factors to the net outflow, using the multi-regional input-output model and spatial structural decomposition method. The main findings of this study are: (1) Domestic trade of China alleviated the pressures of both energy and water shortage through the flow of embodied energy from Northern to Southern and Eastern regions and the flow of virtual water from Southern to Northern regions. In contrast, international trade yet increased China's environmental burden and tends to be unsustainable. (2) Production structure effect was the key factor to the net outflow of embodied energy (contribution degree: 58%) and virtual water (contribution degree: 46%) to major economies. For China, the export scale effect and export structure effect played an important role in increasing the net outflow of China's embodied energy, with contribution degrees of 17% and 23%, respectively, while the export structure effect and water efficiency effect reduced the net outflow of virtual water, with contribution degrees of −23% and −19%, respectively. Multidimensional Policies, including industrial structure transition, renewable energy deployment, resource efficiencies improvement, trade pattern upgrade, and regional free trade promotion, are suggested for implementing the Dual Circulation Strategy, considering environmental sustainability and industrial competition advantages. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Impacts of international trade on global inequality of energy and water use.

We are not on track to meet the SDGs by 2030 despite considerable efforts. Sino-US trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic raise the tide of trade protection that may also go against SDGs. To explore how international trade affects SDGs, this study quantifies the impacts of international trade on global energy and water inequality by constructing resource-Gini-coefficients in terms of reserve, production, and consumption. We find that international trade alleviates global inequality in energy use, in which direct energy trade reduces the inequality significantly while nonenergy commodity trade aggravates it slightly. However, international trade has a pretty minor impact on improving global water inequality. The developing economies suffer a large amount of embodied energy and water outflows. For example, BRICS exported 712.3 Mtoe of embodied energy and 130.5 billion m3 of virtual water to the rest of the world, exceeding the sum of energy/water use in Germany and France. The developed economies, especially the USA and EU, outsource energy- and water-intensive commodities to reduce domestic energy shortage and water stress, roughly corresponding to India's energy use and two times of water use of South Africa.

VNWTS: A Virtual Water Chlorination Process for Cybersecurity Analysis of Industrial Control Systems

The rapid development of technology during the last decades has led to the integration of the network capabilities in the devices that are essential in the operation of Industrial Control Systems (ICS). Consequently, the attack surface of these assets has increased, putting at risk the nations that depend heavily on them for their continuity and functions. ICS physical and virtual testbeds are ideal platforms that can be used for cybersecurity research. Compared to physical testbeds, virtual testbeds are less expensive, safer to maintain, and more accessible, especially when access to research labs is restricted due to unforeseen circumstances such as COVID 19. Therefore, in this article, we propose VNWTS, a virtual water chlorination process for ICS cybersecurity analysis. VNWTS is composed of virtual components commonly found in physical ICS implementations. In addition, we implemented a set of attacks targeting the memory of the S7-1500 PLC and other VNWTS components such as level sensors, temperature sensors, and pumps. The results obtained from the experimentation phase show that the structure, configuration, and implementation of the VNWTS testbed can be used in ICS cybersecurity research. © 2021 IEEE.

Driving factors of virtual water in international grain trade: A study for belt and road countries

Water resources are distributed in the form of virtual water through international trade, which influences the water supply and consumption of each country. Therefore, it is of significance to study the driving factors of grain virtual water trade to alleviate water stress and guarantee food security. In this paper, the virtual water volume of grain crops traded between China and countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) from 2000 to 2019 was calculated, and a gravity model using panel data was applied to explore the effect of natural and socioeconomic factors on virtual water trade. The virtual water export from B&R countries to China obviously increased in the twenty years and the contributions of various crops to virtual water were more balanced. The regression results indicate that GDP and exchange rate were positively correlated with virtual water inflow, while per capital water resources, arable land, geographic distance, and population were negative factors that hindered virtual water import. The most powerful driving force for grain virtual water trade is water endowment. GDP is an important driver on importing virtual water for countries without water shortage, and a large number of local water resources will not obviously inhibit the driving force of economic strength. By comparing the contribution of factors to virtual water in the past ten years, it can be found that the contribution rate of distance decreased due to the development of transportation industry which reduced the transportation cost of exporting products. The contribution rate of GDP and exchange rate increased, because economic globalization has promoted the effect of economic factors on grain trade. Therefore, the trade structure of agricultural products should be modified based on the characteristics of virtual water flow. For countries without high economic level but water shortage, export crops with high water consumption be reasonably controlled. [Display omitted] • A gravity model was applied to explore the effect of natural and socioeconomic factors on virtual water trade. • The most powerful driving force is water endowment, which were negative factor that hindered virtual water inflow. • Economic strength is an important driver on importing virtual water for countries without water shortage. • The contribution rate of distance decreased due to the development of transportation industry and economic globalization. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Agricultural Water Management is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)