Virtual water strategy and its application in optimal operation of water resources

Abstract

The water used in the production process of an agricultural or industrial product iscalled "virtual water". In Iran with low average annual precipitation also lack ofavailable water resources, concept of the virtual water and its trade is used as astrategy for optimal operation of water resources in many fields such as waterscarcity, drought and so on. This concept, also, could hold some interesting newopportunities for the field of sustainable consumption. Recently, in Iran, net virtualwater import reached to (15-20)*109 m3 per year and is one out of the top ten virtualimporting countries. In this research, after virtual water applicable conceptsexpressing, virtual water content in some of the agricultural products in the worldhave been compared with products existence in Iran. Additionally, we selectedsome strategic agricultural products, which export and import to the country, andused an algorithm called "Genetic Algorithm", to optimize virtual water usage andtrade according to demands, agricultural situation, production cost andenvironmental condition. Results showed which products how could help optimalwater resources operation and effect of virtual water usage in economic growth.

Keywords

• Virtual Water
• Water resources Management
• Virtual water trade
• Sustainable Development
• Genetic Algorithm