A Critical Approach on Using Total Water Footprint of Agricultural Products as a Potential Sustainable Development Indicator

• Published in: Tehnički vjesnik Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. 671 - 679
• Main Authors: Andrei, Jean Vasile, Gogonea, Rodica-Manuela, Zaharia, Marian, Patrascu, Aurelia, Balacescu, Aniela, Ladaru, Raluca Georgiana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slavonski Baod University of Osijek 01.04.2020; Josipa Jurja Strossmayer University of Osijek; Strojarski fakultet u Slavonskom Brodu; Fakultet elektrotehnike, računarstva i informacijskih tehnologija Osijek; Građevinski i arhitektonski fakultet Osijek; Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Slavonski Brod, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Osijek, Faculty of Civil Engineering in Osijek
• Subjects: Agricultural industry; Agricultural products; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Clustering; Consumer research; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; ecologic footprint; Environmental auditing; Estonia; Finland; Footprint analysis; France; Germany; Globalization; Greece; Hungary; Ireland; Latvia; Lithuania; Lorentz concentration curve; Malta; Methods; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Shannon Entropy; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sustainable development; Sweden; territorial distribution; United Kingdom; Water; Water consumption; water footprint; Water use; Cyprus; Portugal; Malta; Greece; Latvia; Austria; Netherlands; Sweden; Ireland; Poland; Slovakia; Slovenia; France; Bulgaria; Lithuania; Croatia; Romania; Hungary; United Kingdom; Spain; Czech Republic; Belgium; Finland; Denmark; Germany; Estonia
• ISSN: 1330-3651; 1848-6339
• DOI: 10.17559/TV-20180123175831

Measuring sustainable development represents a fundamental issue which requires a complex approach in identifying relevant indicators to capture the global transformations of the contemporary economic paradigm, within the context of increasing globalization and of the integration of markets and economies. The recent evolutions of the environmenta lanalysis enforced total water footprint as a highly popular and core environmental performance indicator.The paper presents a critical approach on using total water footprint of agricultural products as a potential sustainable development indicator from the EU perspective, by applying a specific research method on clustering and concentration. The results prove that total water footprint of the agricultural products is highly country-specific dependent. The uneven distribution shown by grouping of countries and types of agricultural products consumption confirm this argument.