Application of the water footprint concept in the assessment of water scarcity and water stress in the agricultural sector in Hormozgan Province

Introduction
Water is a basic element for human stability and social economic activities. However, water scarcity is one of the biggest problems facing many societies around the world. Today, many regions of the world are affected by water shortages. Population growth in the future has caused a greater demand for food, which has a direct impact on water consumption in the agricultural sector. Hormozgan province is in the south of Iran and has an arid and extra-arid climate, and the problem of lack of water resources is an important and undeniable fact. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the changes in the agricultural water footprint and the lack of water resources for providing an optimized cultivation model to reduce the water footprint and preserve water resources. Based on this, the main goals of this research are: (1) Estimation of water footprint components of the agricultural section, (2) Calculation of water scarcity indicators including water stress, agricultural water stress, and Blue Water Scarcity (BWS), (3) Estimation of water poverty and (4) Calculation of self-sufficiency and water dependence indicators during from 2008 to 2019.
 
Materials and Methods
In this study, agricultural water footprint components, including green, blue, and gray water footprints were estimated based on the method described by Hoekstra et al (2007) in Hormozgan Province. Also, regional agricultural water shortage in this research is measured using the water stress index, agricultural water stress, water shortage, water poverty, self-sufficiency index, and water dependency, which is the known method for assessing water scarcity. The ratio of the use of water resources (water consumption) to the number of available water resources.
Hormozgan province has an area of about 68000 km², which is the eighth province of the country. In terms of climate condition, this province is located in the hot and dry region of Iran and its climate is influenced by desert and semi-desert climate. The average annual temperature of this area is about 27˚c. The average rainfall in Hormozgan province is 188 mm. Information related to cultivated area, production per unit area, yield, planting and harvesting dates, growth cycle length, fertilizer consumption for the studied agricultural products was prepared from the Agricultural Jihad Organization and the information related to water resources such as available water resources, total water consumption, water consumption in the agricultural sector in two sectors, surface and underground water of the province for the statistical period of 2017 to 2018 was prepared from the Regional Water Company of Hormozgan province. Also, information related to the population and per capita consumption of each product has been collected from the Program and Budget Organization.
 
Results and Discussion
The total volume of the water footprint of Hormozgan province is 1698.02 MCM, of which 1484.64 MCM (79.19 %) is blue water, 75.51 MCM (6.65 %) is green water, and 137.86 MCM (14.16 %) is related to gray water. The average water resources available during the studied period is 2583.70 MCM, of which 1584.55 MCM is related to blue water resources and 999.15 MCM to green water resources. The comparison of water stress, agricultural water stress, and blue water scarcity indices in crop productions showed that the average WSI is 0.91 and its value is always higher than 0.85 during the study period, which shows that Hormozgan province facing severe and extreme water stress. The average AWSI and BWS during the studied period are 1.38 and 1.19. These indicators highlight the fact that Hormozgan Province is facing a critical level in terms of water shortage the agricultural production systems. The average water poverty in agricultural section is 4919.59 MCM. In the following, regarding the indicators of water dependency (39.21 %) and water self-sufficiency (60.79 %), despite the severe water shortage in Hormozgan Province, it has a high level of water self-sufficiency in the production of agricultural products. It is necessary to develop crops that have less water footprint by modifying the cultivation pattern.
 
Conclusion
Bluewater resources are the main water resources available in the agricultural sector in Hormozgan Province. This issue can be a reason for the high-water self-sufficiency index compared to the water dependency index. On the other hand, AWSI is higher than WSI, which indicates high water stress in the agricultural sector. Since the share of the blue footprint is more than other components of the water footprint, BWS is more than WSI. As a result, the water resources of this province are not rich and this province has high water poverty. However, the AWSI can reveal the situation of agricultural water shortages in arid agricultural areas more clearly. Strategies for agricultural development and water use formulation in the Iranian South-producing areas should be made based on the areas' AWSI performance. Moreover, it should be noted that the intensification of water resources in certain areas is caused by producing agricultural products for other regions due to the mismatch of agricultural production and population. This phenomenon has not been quantified or analyzed in this paper but needs to be studied in the future.