Abstract
Abstract. The water footprint is a consumption-based indicator of water use, referring to the total volume of freshwater used directly and indirectly by a nation or a company, or in the provision of a product or service. Despite widespread enthusiasm for the development and use of water footprints, some concerns have been raised about the concept and its usefulness. A variety of methodologies have been developed for water footprinting which differ with respect to how they deal with different forms of water use. The result is water footprint estimates which vary dramatically, often creating confusion. Despite these methodological qualms, the concept has had notable success in raising awareness about water use in agricultural and industrial supply chains, by providing a previously unavailable and (seemingly) simple numerical indicator of water use. Nevertheless, and even though a range of uses have already been suggested for water footprinting, its policy value remains unclear. Unlike the carbon footprint which provides a universal measure of human impact on the atmosphere's limited absorptive capacity, the water footprint in its conventional form solely quantifies a single production input without any accounting of the impacts of use, which vary spatially and temporally. Following an extensive review of the literature related to water footprints, this paper critically examines the present uses of the concept, focusing on its current strengths, shortcomings and promising research avenues to advance it.
Highlights
Modern human societies use vast amounts of water, with increasing competition for scarce water resources impacting heavily on present and future human welfare and the state of our natural environment
This review firstly considers the importance of methodological differences such as the overall approach to water footprinting, stand-alone or embedded in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), choice of spatiotemporal scale of analysis, along with their repercussions on the validity and credibility of water footprint results
Other authors maintain that LCA and conventional water footprints are useful for different purposes (Jefferies et al, 2012)
Summary
Modern human societies use vast amounts of water, with increasing competition for scarce water resources impacting heavily on present and future human welfare and the state of our natural environment. It has been calculated that the Netherlands, for example, has an average water footprint of approximately 37.5 Gm3 year−1 (or 2300 m3 year−1 capita−1), of which 33.2 Gm3 year−1 (corresponding to 89 % of the total) is imported into the country in the form of “virtual water” (van Oel et al, 2009) This indicates that the Netherlands is a net virtual water importer. Despite the growing enthusiasm for the development and use of water footprints, several researchers have raised significant concerns with respect to the concept and its usefulness, both as a policy tool, as it does not provide sufficient information on the opportunity cost of water, and as an indicator of sustainability and environmental impact (Wichelns, 2011a, 2010b; Gawel and Bernsen, 2011b, a; Perry, 2014). The review concludes with an appraisal of the current strengths of recent studies and possible present and future options available to researchers, policy-makers, corporations and consumers
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