title: Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade.
abstract: Recent hydrological modelling and Earth observations have located and quantified alarming rates of groundwater depletion worldwide. This depletion is primarily due to water withdrawals for irrigation, but its connection with the main driver of irrigation, global food consumption, has not yet been explored. Here we show that approximately eleven per cent of non-renewable groundwater use for irrigation is embedded in international food trade, of which two-thirds are exported by Pakistan, the USA and India alone. Our quantification of groundwater depletion embedded in the world's food trade is based on a combination of global, crop-specific estimates of non-renewable groundwater abstraction and international food trade data. A vast majority of the world's population lives in countries sourcing nearly all their staple crop imports from partners who deplete groundwater to produce these crops, highlighting risks for global food and water security. Some countries, such as the USA, Mexico, Iran and China, are particularly exposed to these risks because they both produce and import food irrigated from rapidly depleting aquifers. Our results could help to improve the sustainability of global food production and groundwater resource management by identifying priority regions and agricultural products at risk as well as the end consumers of these products.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dalin
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria.|Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.|NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.|Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yoshihide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna, Alpen-Adria Universitaet Klagenfurt, Wien, Graz, Schottenfeldgasse 29, 1070 Vienna, Austria.|Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kastner
authors.affiliation: Columbia University, Center for Climate Systems Research, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.|NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.|Center for Climate and Life, Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Puma
mesh_terms: D057914:Agricultural Irrigation / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D000069599:Crop Production / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D060587:Groundwater / Q000032:analysis*; D007194:India; D038622:Internationality; D007492:Iran; D008800:Mexico; D010154:Pakistan; D014481:United States; D014881:Water Supply / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*