Italy’S Volumetric, Scarce and Social-Scarce Water Footprint : A Multiregional World Input-Output Analysis

This study estimates the pressure exerted by Italian consumption on domestic and foreign water resources, adopting the Multiregional Input Output (MRIO) approach and using the information of the most recent (year 2014) World Input-Output Database (WIOD). Disaggregated results are obtained at country/industry level, identifying geographical and sectoral hotspots. We compare the volumetric measure of the water footprint (WF) with its impact-based measure, the scarce water footprint (SWF), and propose the concept of scarce social water footprint (SoSWF) incorporating criteria of social goals fulfillment. We find that SWF represents 33.9% of volumetric WF, but the geographical breakdown reveals a relevant asymmetry between domestic and external water exploitation: while only 11.2% of domestic WF generated adverse impacts, SWF for imports amounted to 54.9% of the water resources used to produce imported goods. The Italian external SWF is highly concentrated, about 45% in manufacturing, agriculture and electricity, gas and water supply in China and India. About 43% of WF generated impacts on environmentally and socially scarce water resources, showing an even more evident asymmetriy between domestic and external footprints (12.8% vs. 71.1% of WF)