Global Embodied Water Flows In Relation To Energy Trade And Its Effect On Water Resources Of Nations

Obviously, water extracting, delivering, and disposing processes require energy,and similarly, many processes such as, extracting and refining various fuel sourcesand producing electricity also need to consume water. This part water we called it‘water-energy nexus’, is still in an exploratory stage.As essential resources on the planet, the distribution of energy and water isuneven, which is clearly shown by ArcGIS. International trade of energy brings alongglobal flows of water. We integrated the research results of the United States, theMiddle East, China and other areas, included traditional oil, coal and traditional gas.Three types of electricity energy are considered: the conventional thermal electricity,the nuclear electricity, the hydroelectricity. The objectives are to quantify the volumesof energy-embodied water flows related to international energy trade between217countries from1992to2010. The energy flows gross are calculated by the differencesof production and consumption. It was found that the global volume of internationalenergy-embodied water flows between nations was4211Mm3/a in average over theperiod1992-2010, which accounted for50%of the water used for energy productionover the world.95.82%of the total volume of energy-related international embodiedwater flows is related to the oil trade. Gas and electricity cost3.99%and0.18%ofglobal energy-embodied water flows, respectively. Regions with significant large netembodied water imports are Asia, Europe, North America. Regions with substantialnet embodied water export are Middle East, Eurasia, Africa. The analysis associatedwith human development index shows that very high human development countriesbenefit a great deal of water resource from international energy flows.As the great international energy-embodied water flows, the water resourcesallocation ratio changed certainly, on the one hand, it brought the water crisis to somecountries, on the other hand, it released some countries’ water stress. The risk andcrisis evaluation index and benefit evaluation index are proposed here. According tothe states of embodied water flows and the scarcity of water resources, the countriescan be classified into six groups. The policymakers should consider the condition ofboth energy and water and the relationship between them in international energytrade.