Regional water footprint evaluation in China: A case of Liaoning Huijuan Dong a , Yong Geng a, ⁎, Joseph Sarkis b , Tsuyoshi Fujita c , Tomohiro Okadera c , Bing Xue a a Key Lab on Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China b Graduate School of Management, Clark University, USA c National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan HIGHLIGHTS ► Input–output analysis method was employed to evaluate regional water footprint. ► Mitigation policies for alleviating regional water shortage should consider both direct and indirect water consumption. ► Industrial structure optimization and trade structure changes are useful approaches to reduce regional water stress. ► Water efficiency can be improved through application of innovative water saving technologies. abstract article info Article history: Received 17 August 2012 Received in revised form 10 October 2012 Accepted 10 October 2012 Available online 22 November 2012 Keywords: Water footprint Input–output analysis Water management Trade balance Liaoning Water-related problems are currently second only to energy issues as threats to human society. North China is a region that is facing severe water scarcity problems. In order to provide appropriate water mitigation pol- icies a regional study is completed. Under this circumstance, Liaoning Province, a typical heavy industrial province in north China is chosen as a case study region. The input–output analysis method is employed in order to evaluate the water footprint both from production and consumption perspectives. The results show that the total water footprint of Liaoning in 2007 was 7.30 billion m 3 , a 84.6% of internal water foot- print and a 15.4% external water footprint. The water trade balance of Liaoning was 2.68 billion m 3 , indicat- ing that Liaoning was a net water export region, although water shortages are becoming a more serious concern. The “Agriculture” and “Food and beverage production” sectors are found to have the highest water footprint, water intensity, water exports, and water trade balance. Based upon Liaoning realities policy implications and suggestions are made, including industrial and trade structure adjustment, application of water efficient technology and management measures, and appropriate capacity-building efforts. The methodology and findings may be useful for investigation of water footprints throughout various regions of the world. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Issues related to water are listed by Nobel laureate Richard Smalley as second only to energy in serious problems that threaten humanity over the next 50 years (Mohanty, 2003; Smalley Institute, 2012). Water problems such as water scarcity, water pollution, water-related waste and water sanitation are only expected to become worse. In some poor Asian countries there is a severe scarcity of potable water. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2012) has shown that 1.1 billion people globally do not have access to clean water. The water crisis can be traced to at least two reasons, one is supply-based, the other is demand-based. First is the limited supply of fresh water available for human consumption. Only about 2.5% of the world's 1.39 billion km 3 of water is fresh water (Gleick and Palaniappan, 2010; Sivakumar, 2011). Not all of this fresh water can be used because it may be stored in glaciers, in permanent snow cover, or in deep groundwater that is practically inaccessible. Only 90,000 km 3 of fresh water, approximately 0.007% of the total water and 0.26% of the fresh water, is available for human consumption (Sivakumar, 2011). The second reason is demand-driven, which is due to the excessive consumption of water accompanying rapid economic development and population increase. Statistical data show that the global water con- sumption in the last century increased almost six-fold (Margaux, 2012), and the amount of per capita water use has decreased and will continue to decline (Sivakumar, 2011). In addition, water resource distribution is imbalanced. For example, while people living near the Great Lakes region of the US have excessive water resources, people in Saharan regions suffer greatly from water shortage. China is one of 13 countries in the world classified as lacking ade- quate water resources (Geng et al., 2010a). China's per capita water Science of the Total Environment 442 (2013) 215–224 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Circular Economy and Industrial Ecology Research Group, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenyang, Liaoning Province (110016), PR China. Tel.: +86 24 83970372; fax: +86 24 83970371. E-mail address: gengyong@iae.ac.cn (Y. Geng). 0048-9697/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.10.049 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv