Your Water Footprint

An investigation of water usage which combines infographics with a narrative detailing the typical volume of water necessary for common applications, from creating fuel to flushing the toilet.

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it: o Provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment o Shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses o Contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints o Describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product o Includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction

This book highlights the concept of water footprint in different industrial sectors such as leather tanning, steel, agriculture, textile and wine. One of the very basic necessities of life which is soon going to be scarce is water, hence the environmental footprint assessments on any scale essentially includes water footprint which is being measured in various supply chains and across different product categories. According to ISO 14046, the water footprint assessment refers to the total freshwater volume consumed and polluted directly or indirectly across a product’s end-to-end supply chain. This book presents, for industry purposes, the focus on identification and quantification of water trade, the scarcity, and pollution involved in the production of goods and services.

1.1 General Framework In most arid and semi-arid countries, water resource management is an issue that is both important and controversial. Most water resources experts now acknowledge that water conflicts are not caused by physical scarcity but are mainly due to poor water management (Rosegrant et al. 2002; Benoit and Comeau 2005; Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture 2007; Garrido and Dinar 2010, among others). The scientific and technological advances of the past 50 years have led to new ways to solve many water-related conflicts, often with tools that seemed unthinkable a few decades ago (Llamas 2005; Lopez-Gunn and Llamas 2008). This study deals with the estimation and analysis of Spain’s water footprint, both from a hydrological and economic perspective. Its ultimate objective is to report on the allocative efficiency of water and economic resources. This analysis can provide a transparent and multidisciplinary framework for informing and optimising water policy decisions, contributing at the same time to the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC). It also responds to the current mandate of the Spanish Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, which recently issued instructions for drafting river basin management plans in compliance with the EU Water Framework Directive, with a deadline of end of year 2009 and then every 6 years (BOE 2008).

What sort of footprint are you leaving on the environment? Do you have a heavy footprint or a light footprint? Everything we do and everything we use has an impact on the environment. Heavy footprints harm the environment and use lots of natural resources. Light footprints harm the environment as little as possible and use fewer natural resources. Read the Environmental Footprints series to decide what type of footsteps you want to take in the future! In How Big Is Your Water Footprint? read about what makes up a travel footprint and the effect this has on the environment. Discover ways to reduce your travel footprint and live sustainably. Special Features Rethink! feature offer ways to lighten your footprints Case studies give real-life examples of heavy-footprint and light-footprint actions. Book jacket.

Using the water footprint concept, this impactful book aids our understanding of how we can reduce water consumption and pollution to sustainable levels. Since the publication of the first edition, the question of how to reduce our water footprint has become even more urgent. Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk and overconsumption of water is widespread. The water footprint, a concept founded by the author, is an indicator of direct and indirect freshwater use by a consumer or producer that can be used to analyze water usage along supply chains and assess the sustainability, efficiency and fairness of our water use. This new edition is fully revised and updated to reflect continued developments in this rapidly growing field of knowledge. New chapters are added covering the history of the water footprint concept; the environmental footprint of the human species versus planetary boundaries; and the human right to water as a foundation to equitable sharing. All other chapters are fully revised with new findings, applications and references, including major new research on energy, vegetarian diets and intelligent water allocation over competing demands. The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society is a key textbook for students of interdisciplinary water studies and those taking other related courses within the environmental sciences. It will also be of interest to those working in the governmental sector, environmental and consumer organizations, the business sector and UN institutions, where there is growing interest in the water footprint concept.

This book presents papers from an international conference, held in Bonn, Germany in February 2005, that dealt with integrated water resources management in industrialized and developing countries. The papers detail such emerging concepts as blue and green water, virtual water, the water footprints of nations, multi-agent modeling, linkages between water and biodiversity, and social learning and adaptive management.

This book uses case studies to highlight the environmental water footprints in the agricultural and livestock farming sector, and those of consumer products. Water conservation is a major element of every industry’s sustainability strategy.