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 is<br />called "virtual water". In Iran with low average annual precipitation also lack of<br />available water resources, concept of the virtual water and its trade is used as a<br />strategy for optimal operation of water resources in many fields such as water<br />scarcity, drought and so on. This concept, also, could hold some interesting new<br />opportunities for the field of sustainable consumption. Recently, in Iran, net virtual<br />water import reached to (15-20)*109 m3 per year and is one out of the top ten virtual<br />importing countries. In this research, after virtual water applicable concepts<br />expressing, virtual water content in some of the agricultural products in the world<br />have been compared with products existence in Iran. Additionally, we selected<br />some strategic agricultural products, which export and import to the country, and<br />used an algorithm called "Genetic Algorithm", to optimize virtual water usage and<br />trade according to demands, agricultural situation, production cost and<br />environmental condition. Results showed which products how could help optimal<br />water resources operation and effect of virtual water usage in economic growth.