Assessment & Estimation of Water Footprint on Soybean and Chinese Cabbage by APEX Model

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The water footprint (WF) is an indicator of freshwater use that appears not only at direct water use of a consumer or producer, but also at the indirect water use. As an indicator of ‘water use’, the water footprint includes the green, blue, and grey WF, and differs from the classical measure of ‘water withdrawal’ because of green and grey WF. This study was conducted to assess and estimate the water footprint of the soybean and Chinese cabbage. METHODS AND RESULTS: APEX model with weather data, soil and water quality data from NAS (National Institute of Agricultural Sciences), and farming data from RDA (Rural Development Administration) was operated for analyzing the WF of the crops. As the result of comparing the yield estimated from APEX with the yield extracted from statistic data of each county, the coefficients of determination were 0.83 for soybean and 0.97 for Chinese cabbage and p-value was statistically significant. The WFs of the soybean and Chinese cabbage at production procedure were 1,985 L/Kg and 58 L/Kg, respectively. This difference may have originated from the cultivation duration. The WF ratios of soybean were 91.1% for green WF and 8.9% for grey WF, but the WF ratios of Chinese cabbage were 41.5% for green WF and 58.5% for grey WF. CONCLUSION: These results mean that the efficiency of water use for soybean is better than that for Chinese cabbage. The results could also be useful as an information to assess environmental impact of water use and agricultural farming on soybean and Chinese cabbage.