ABSTRACT
The socioeconomic disruption of COVID-19 has strong implications for water management. However, it remains unclear how water use related to urban and rural household consumption responded to the outbreak. Taking 15 provincial regions in China for a case study, we quantified the variations of consumption-based household water footprint induced by the first outbreak of the pandemic and tracked the responsive changes of interregional virtual water flows and control relationships. We found in many regions, the most drastic change occurred only a quarter after the major outbreak, when the average water footprint of urban and rural households decreased by 13% and 9%, respectively. This indicates the presence of a hysteretic effect of disruption to household expenditures. With the subsequent recovery of household consumption, the water footprints in many regions rebounded and even surpassed the historical values. Guangdong had a fast rebound in its net virtual water inflow related to urban households because of the fast recovery of its manufacturing and services activities. The pandemic-related water footprint dynamics suggest not only the necessity of timely managing supply chains to prevent shortage of water and water-intensive products, but also the importance of fostering consumption adjustments for conserving water in a post-pandemic era. © 2023 The Authors. Earth's Future published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.
ABSTRACT
A highly transmissible and pathogenic Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected human health and impacted negatively on the environment. In this review, we discuss the extent of the generation of COVID waste, and how its disposal can influence the environment. We have especially emphasized the COVID-related biomedical waste management. An attempt has also been made to identify several challenges encountered in India. Studies have indicated an altered water usage pattern, which increased megacities' water footprint in India. Enhanced domestic sewage discharge resulted in higher fecal coliform count in water bodies. Disposal of COVID biomedical waste (CBW) and personal protective equipment (PPE) resulted in a huge amount of single-use plastics (SUPs);which in turn cause the long-term risk of micro- and nano-plastic in the environment. This review also aims to put up the need for well-equipped infrastructure, efficient treatment facility, and public availability of CBW data in India to make effective policies and sustainable solutions for long-term goals. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
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.
ABSTRACT
Common problems when carrying out water footprint (WF) assessments are obtaining specific primary data, dealing with the complexity of its computation, and the availability of quality data. In a supply chain context, inconsistencies are even more exacerbated. In order to fill in this research gap, this study proposes and evaluates the content validity of a survey scale to assess WF management initiatives implemented by companies, with a focus on supply chains and the agriculture industry. In order to do so, a literature review was performed to identify candidate survey items whose content was later validated with experts in terms of their relevance, clarity, and essentiality to measure WF management. Content validity was assessed using several indices (items’ content validity index (I-CVI), Kappa’s coefficient, Aiken’ V coefficient, and content validity ratio (CVR)), which indicated high content validity for the selected items. This study provides a set of measurement survey items that can be used to evaluate WF management initiatives implemented in agri-food supply chains in future empirical studies.
ABSTRACT
In this study, it has been aimed to determine the difference between water footprint values of individuals with different socio-economical levels, living in various cities, before and during COVID-19 pandemic period. For this purpose, a questionnaire study has been made and data obtained because of questionnaire have been processes in a water footprint calculation module. Data obtained from questionnaires have also been evaluated statistically in SPSS application. According to the findings obtained, while average water footprint before COVID-19 pandemic has been calculated as 4178.42 L/day, average water footprint during COVID-19 pandemic period has been calculated as 4606.18 L/day. It was determined that the percentage of participants whose water footprint increased during the COVID-19 pandemic period at all education levels was higher than other participants. When the water footprint values of the participants with an income level of 7000 TL and above were compared with the water footprint values of other income groups, it was observed that the water footprint values of the participants with an income of 7000 TL and above increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. When the water footprint values of individuals according to age groups are examined, it has been determined that the water footprint values of individuals tend to increase in all age groups (except for the 51-60 age range) during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been seen that in the monthly clothing expenses and car washing numbers of participants, there was a tendency to decrease and that in their monthly kitchen expenditures there was a tendency to increase. Because of statistical evaluations, it was seen that there was a meaningful correlation between change in water footprint values and weekly shower numbers, weekly laundry washing numbers, and monthly kitchen expenses. Despite the increase in water consumption with many daily activities, it can be said that the average water footprint value did not increase much due to the decrease in clothing expenditures of the participants during the pandemic process, the change in car washing frequencies, and the fact that red meat consumption did not increase in general despite the increase in kitchen expenses.