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Abstract Irrigation is increasingly important to agricultural production and supply chains in the United States. In this study, we seek to understand how irrigation (blue) water footprints of production are spatially distributed and how they differ in drought versus non‐drought years. Similarly, we aim to understand the impact of drought on the irrigation virtually embedded in domestic supply chains and exports. To this end, we quantify the blue water footprints of agricultural products per unit mass produced (Virtual Water Content (VWC)) by surface, groundwater, and groundwater depletion sources, and then trace how this water is embedded in domestic agricultural commodity transfers and exports (Virtual Water Transfers (VWT)) for counties in a drought (2012) and non‐drought (2017) year. Overall, we find that total VWC values are larger in drought than non‐drought conditions across commodity groups, driven by surface water withdrawals. Conversely, VWT is larger in non‐drought than drought, driven by larger commodity mass fluxes during non‐drought. Our results highlight the importance of sustainably managing water resources so that they are available to mitigate the impact of future droughts on agricultural production and supply chains.
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Drought impacts to water footprints and virtual water transfers of the Central Valley of California: CA DROUGHT AND VIRTUAL WATER TRANSFERS
- Award ID(s):
- 1639529
- PAR ID:
- 10028656
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Water Resources Research
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 0043-1397
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 5756 to 5773
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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