Risks in 'Industrial water depletion' in PSILCA

Question

Hi, I'm doing a social assessment for agriculture using PSILCA version, but my results for 'Industrial water depletion' seem weird. I'm comparing 1 dollar agricultural output in Belgium, Germany and Spain, and the characterization factors used represent a very high risk for Belgium and Germany, and a medium and low risk for Spain. Comparing to AWARE CFs, Belgium and Germany have no problem with water scarcity, unlike Spain, that has high CFs for agri, non-agri and default factors. I also checked the main source of the values, and they show different results from PSILCA indicator. So, what I would like to ask is, is there a different explanation for the impact category or the risks are wrong in the database?

Comments

Hello,

I am also currently looking at the indicator of Level of industrial water use. I found that the risk scales of Risk that industry accounts for a large share of water withdrawal and the risk scale of Risk of a high pressure on renewable water resources might be swapped. The explanations in the risk assessment for Risk that industry accounts for a large share of water withdrawal refer to extreme water stress that occurs when total withdrawal exceeds 40% of the total renewable water resources, which is also reflected in the risk scale y > 32.9 = very high risks. But it appears under "industrial water use, % of total withdrawal". From my understanding, this risk scale reflects on the industrial water use, % of total actual renewable water resources.

Can someone check if I am right and if the scales are only swapped in the documentation or also in the soca database?

Kind regards

Madeleine Pries

Answer 1

Sorry to bother about this.I'm writing a manuscript and this answer is really important on it.