Title: Water footprint assessment of some Italian wines: a territorial perspective

Authors: Pier Paolo Miglietta; Federica De Leo; Stefania Massari

Addresses: Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy ' Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy ' Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

Abstract: The main intent of this paper is to examine the potential typical wine production specialisation in some Italian geographical areas regarding virtual water consumption. The second purpose is to analyse and evaluate the water footprint data of two DOC wines from in vineyards in the North and South and Islands of Italy with the intent of showing that typical wines have a lower water footprint. The principle reason behind this can be found in the fact that the main component of virtual water tied to DOC or DOCG wine production is green water, as irrigation and fertilisation are banned for these categories of wine production. Moreover, growing good crops in the traditional areas of cultivation lets these typical wines be made in an even more sustainable way, in spite the fact that the yield of litres per hectares are limited to precise levels.

Keywords: virtual water consumption; water footprint; Italian wines; sustainability; Italy; territorial perspective; DOC; vineyards; yields; geographical areas; wine production; green water; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEPDM.2015.074747

International Journal of Environmental Policy and Decision Making, 2015 Vol.1 No.4, pp.320 - 331

Received: 28 Jul 2015
Accepted: 15 Nov 2015
Published online: 16 Feb 2016 *

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