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| Submitter's Name |
Weiwei Mo |
| Session Name |
Poster Session: Optimal Use of Integrated Water Supplies 1 |
| Category |
Optimal use of integrated water supplies |
| Poster Number |
417 |
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| Author(s) |
Weiwei Mo, University of South Florida |
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Qiong Zhang,
University of South Florida |
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Water Embodied in US Economic Sectors and Water Efficiency Improvement |
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Introduction Water consumption is growing rapidly with the global and national population growth and economic development. As a result, water use and conservation has been hot topics for quite a long time. The previous researches either estimated total water consumption based on national scale, or assessed specific products in details using data intensive process analysis. Frequently, the indirect water consumption is simply neglected. However, considering water associated with materials, it is important to evaluate water consumption on a life cycle basis and assess the total water consumption for each economic sector. This can be challenging because it is hard to use traditional process analysis and evaluating each sector in detail. A more labor and time saving approach needs to be developed. The results should be able to depict a whole picture of the water consumption in US economy. The objective is to identify the sectors which are most embodied-water intensive and their water paths by developing an embodied water model. The results can be used by decision makers to set target sectors or paths for water conservation. Methodology Instead of assessing each economic sector in detail, input-output analysis provides interactions and monetary transaction among different sectors. Thus it is perfectly fit for developing the embodied water model. The US economic sectors are classified based on the North America Industrial Classification System. The water supply sectors will be identified. Using the US commodity-by-commodity direct coefficient matrix, both direct and total water intensity can be calculated for each sector. The total embodied water intensities of the water intensive sectors will be broken into different water paths. Expected Results The sectors with the highest total embodied water intensities and paths with highest water intensities will be identified. Possible ways for conserving water for these embodied water intensive sectors will be identified and described. |
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