Water Footprint Sustainability as a Tool to Address Climate Change in the Wine Sector: A Methodological Approach Applied to a Portuguese Case Study

Autor: Artur Saraiva, Pedro Presumido, José Silvestre, Manuel Feliciano, Gonçalo Rodrigues, Pedro Oliveira e Silva, Miguel Damásio, António Ribeiro, Sofia Ramôa, Luís Ferreira, Artur Gonçalves, Albertina Ferreira, Anabela Grifo, Ana Paulo, António Castro Ribeiro, Adelaide Oliveira, Igor Dias, Helena Mira, Anabela Amaral, Henrique Mamede, Margarida Oliveira
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Atmosphere, Vol 11, Iss 9, p 934 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2073-4433
DOI: 10.3390/atmos11090934
Popis: In the Mediterranean region, climate change is likely to generate an increase in water demand and the deterioration of its quality. The adoption of precision viticulture and the best available techniques aiming at sustainable production, minimizing the impact on natural resources and reducing production costs, has therefore been a goal of winegrowers. In this work, the water footprint (WFP) in the wine sector was evaluated, from the vineyard to the bottle, through the implementation of a methodology based on field experiments and life cycle assessment (LCA) on two Portuguese case studies. Regarding direct water footprint, it ranged from 366 to 899 L/FU (0.75 L bottle), with green water being the most significant component, representing more than 50% of the overall water footprint. The approach used in the current study revealed that although more than 97.5% of the water footprint is associated with vineyard, the winery stage is responsible for more than 75% of the global warming potential indicator. A linear correlation between the carbon footprint and the indirect blue water footprint was also observed for both case studies. Climate change is expected to cause an earlier and prolonged water stress period, resulting in an increase of about 40% to 82% of blue WFP.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals