The countries in the Mediterranean basin increasingly specialized in Mediterranean agricultural products for exports throughout the twentieth century. In this context, the main objective of this paper is to quantify and discuss on the impacts that this growing Mediterranean exports specialization generated on water resources over the last century. To that aim, we focus on the water embodied in Mediterranean exports, the trends followed by dams' construction and the area equipped for irrigation as well as on the evolution of blue water stress.

Our findings point at an intense expansion of Mediterranean virtual water exports between 1910 and 2010 that went along with the construction of water infrastructure. It enabled water-intensive crops to be grown in arid regions, but also, exacerbated blue water stress. We also find important regional divergences, highlighting the role of Spain as a super exporter of Mediterranean crops. Finally, we observe that the trends and patterns of trade flows and the subsequent pressures on water resources are highly conditioned by political, economic and technological developments.

在整个20世纪，地中海流域的国家越来越多地专门从事地中海农产品的出口。在这种情况下，本文的主要目的是量化和讨论上个世纪不断增长的地中海出口专业化对水资源产生的影响。为此，我们将重点放在地中海出口中体现的水，大坝建设和装备灌溉区域的趋势以及蓝色水压力的演变。

我们的研究结果表明，随着水基础设施的建设，地中海虚拟水出口在1910年至2010年之间急剧增加。它使干旱地区能够种植耗水量大的农作物，而且加剧了蓝色水的胁迫。我们还发现重要的地区差异，突出了西班牙作为地中海作物超级出口国的作用。最后，我们观察到贸易流的趋势和模式以及随后对水资源的压力在很大程度上受到政治，经济和技术发展的制约。