Policy Note: Invited Opinion Interview with Professor Tony Allan: 'Water Scarcity, Food Production, and Virtual Water' (Part 1)*

摘要

Professor Tony Allan is Emeritus Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), at the Department of Geography at King's College London, and founder of the SOAS-King's College Water Research Group. He continues to teach and research at King's. Professor Allan is a geographer by training. He has spent much of his career studying water policy issues especially in the Middle East. He is a pioneer in developing new concepts to understand and communicate how water issues link to agriculture, climate change, economics and politics. Professor Allan won the Stockholm Water Prize on 19 March 2008 for his innovative work in developing the concept of "virtual water", and he has made many other contributions to the water policy field. Whittington: I thought we should start with some terminology. Could you describe for us what you mean by "blue water" and "green water", "problemsheds" and "watersheds", "big water", "small water", "virtual water"?