Xie et al. (2025) Agricultural Water Sustainability Evaluation in Guangdong Province of China Through Perspective of Water Footprint

Identification

• Journal: Chinese Geographical Science
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-09-16
• Authors: Yufeng Xie, Song Song, Lifen Cheng
• DOI: 10.1007/s11769-025-1554-x

Research Groups

• School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

Short Summary

This study developed a multi-dimensional framework to evaluate agricultural water sustainability in Guangdong Province, China (2010-2020), revealing a 6.98% reduction in total agricultural water footprint and a 14.46% improvement in sustainability.

Objective

• To elucidate the spatiotemporal evolution of agricultural water sustainability in Guangdong Province, China, from 2010 to 2020, using a multi-dimensional indicator framework integrating agricultural water footprint (AWF) with social, economic, and ecological metrics.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Guangdong Province, China
• Temporal Scale: 2010 to 2020

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Multi-dimensional indicator framework integrating agricultural water footprint (AWF) with social, economic, and ecological metrics; Disaggregation of AWF into green (soil moisture), blue (surface/groundwater), and grey (pollution-related) components.
• Data sources: Agricultural activity data and water use metrics for Guangdong Province.

Main Results

• Total agricultural water footprint (AWF) decreased by 6.98% (from 19.35 km³ to 18.00 km³), accompanied by a 14.46% improvement in agricultural water sustainability.
• Green water dominated the AWF, accounting for 78.28%, while blue water contributed 19.29% and grey water 2.43%, with the latter two showing lower spatial variability.
• Within the crop system, rice accounted for nearly 60% of the AWF, vegetables around 20%, and peanuts, bananas, and oranges collectively contributed the remaining 20%.
• Western Guangdong exhibited a higher AWF per area, reaching 1.59 times the provincial average, influenced by climate and cropping systems. Eastern regions consumed disproportionately more blue water, approximately 1.76 times the provincial average, for irrigated crop production.

Contributions

• Developed a multi-dimensional indicator framework integrating agricultural water footprint (AWF) with social, economic, and ecological metrics for comprehensive sustainability evaluation.
• Disaggregated AWF into its green, blue, and grey components to identify dominant drivers of sustainability transitions in a specific regional context.
• Proposed context-specific policy interventions for optimizing AWF governance, enhancing blue water utilization efficiency in rice production, formulating rice-specific AWF benchmarks, and implementing strategic greywater management.

Funding

• National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42271311)
• Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Sciences (No. SKLEC-KF202204)

Citation

@article{Xie2025Agricultural,
  author = {Xie, Yufeng and Song, Song and Cheng, Lifen},
  title = {Agricultural Water Sustainability Evaluation in Guangdong Province of China Through Perspective of Water Footprint},
  journal = {Chinese Geographical Science},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1007/s11769-025-1554-x},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-025-1554-x}
}