Abstract
Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) is a quickly growing research field. This Special Issue contains a selection of papers advancing the field or showing innovative applications. The first seven papers are geographic WFA studies, from an urban to a continental scale; the next five papers have a global scope; the final five papers focus on water sustainability from the business point of view. The collection of papers shows that the historical picture of a town relying on its hinterland for its supply of water and food is no longer true: the water footprint of urban consumers is global. It has become clear that wise water governance is no longer the exclusive domain of government, even though water is and will remain a public resource with government in a primary role. With most water being used for producing our food and other consumer goods, and with product supply chains becoming increasingly complex and global, there is a growing awareness that consumers, companies and investors also have a key role. The interest in sustainable water use grows quickly, in both civil society and business communities, but the poor state of transparency of companies regarding their direct and indirect water use implies that there is still a long way to go before we can expect that companies effectively contribute to making water footprints more sustainable at a relevant scale.
Highlights
The scientific field of Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) is rapidly progressing, evidenced by the exponential growth in the number of articles in this field
In order to study the environmental sustainability of water use in a river basin, the water footprint (WF) needs to be considered in the context of the maximum sustainable WF, which depends on the available water resources in the basin
The maximum sustainable blue WF in a river basin refers to the volume of renewable freshwater that is maximally available over time within a year for consumptive uses, given available runoff, storage possibilities and environmental flow requirements
Summary
The scientific field of Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) is rapidly progressing, evidenced by the exponential growth in the number of articles in this field. The WF of consumption by people within a certain area consists of an internal WF—the freshwater consumption and pollution within the area—and an external WF—the freshwater consumption and pollution elsewhere for making products imported by and consumed within the area considered In this way, the WF concept is closely linked to the concept of virtual water trade. Equity of water use can be studied by comparing the WFs across communities and by comparing the WF of different people to fair shares given the limited availability. This Special Issue is a collection of papers advancing the WFA field or showing innovative applications. In this editorial we position the papers in the on-going development of the field and draw some general conclusions
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