Water Footprints Articles

Decentralized Water Reuse Can Help Preserve Sources of Fresh Water As the world population grows, so does the demand for food and the need to grow more crops. In many regions of the world, water has become a scarce resource, with supplies affected by climatic changes. Not only does water scarcity limit farmers’ ability to irrigate their crops, but overdrawing groundwater supplies ...

Aug. 31, 2017

By Fluence Corporation

Like numerous other cities, Beijing and Copenhagen are experiencing more frequent urban flooding due to increased impervious cover and climate change. Consequently, huge investments are foreseen to maintain resilience. Analyses of planning documents and interviews with key stakeholders reveal that in their climate resilience strategies both cities do employ alternative approaches based on ...

Jul. 17, 2017

By IWA Publishing

Providing a comprehensive insight, water footprint (WF) is widely used to analyze and address water-use issues. In this study, a hybrid of bottom-up and top-down methods is applied to calculate, from production and consumption perspectives, the WF for Xiamen city from 2001 to 2012. Results show that the average production WF of Xiamen was 881.75 Mm3/year and remained relatively stable during ...

Sep. 19, 2016

By IWA Publishing

Beijing has experienced rapid economic development and population growth during recent decades, aggravating water scarcity. In order to investigate the water consumption of Beijing, this paper quantitatively evaluates the water footprint (WF), the intensity of the water footprint (Iwf) and the external water dependency (WD) based on the top-down and bottom-up methods. We obtain the following ...

Feb. 26, 2016

By IWA Publishing

Beijing is experiencing a shortage of water resources. Its rapid development and dense population have caused an extreme demand for water. This study quantifies the water footprint of Beijing at the sectoral level using a modified input–output model and estimates the impacts of freshwater use by life cycle impact assessment. The results suggest that the main water source of Beijing industries ...

Jan. 13, 2015

By IWA Publishing

Quantitation of the green, blue and grey water footprints (WFs) of crop production can distinguish the water types and amount in crop production, as well as the degree of freshwater pollution. This paper calculates the WF of maize production and assesses the temporal variability and spatial distribution of WFs in different types of rainfall years over Jilin Province from 1998 to 2012. The ...

Dec. 14, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Scarcer water resources, stricter water regulations, decline in ore grade and increasing controversy on water use between local communities and mining operators have raised awareness of good water stewardship as being vital to running commercially viable mining operations. Water footprint assessment (WFA) is a holistic methodological framework that allows detailed quantification of direct and ...

Dec. 14, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Industrial production of apparel consumes large quantity of freshwater and discharges effluents that intensify the problem of freshwater shortage and water pollution. The industrial water footprint (IWF) of a piece of apparel includes the water footprint (WF) of the fabric, apparel accessories (e.g. zipper, fastener, sewing thread) and industrial production processes. The objective of this paper ...

Sep. 28, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Water is an essential natural resource that impacts all aspects of life: Clean and abundant supplies of water are vital for supporting the production of food, public health, industrial and energy development, and a healthy environment. Water is an integral part of energy extraction, production, and generation. It is used directly in hydroelectric power generation and is used extensively for ...

Jun. 15, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Energy policies are taken throughout the world to reduce fossil fuel emissions from transportation sources. Agriculturally based biofuels are currently the only alternatives to liquid fossil fuels. However, as biofuel production spreads, so too do its cascading impacts on environment and food security. This paper analyzes the impact of Mexican ethanol-sugarcane policy on water resources. The ...

Mar. 24, 2014

By IWA Publishing

This study quantifies the water footprint of consumption (WFcons) and production (WFprod) of Milan. The current WFcons amounts to 6,139 l/cap/d (a volume of 2.93 km3 annually), of which 52 l/cap/d (1%) is attributed to domestic water, 448 l/cap/d (7%) to the consumption of industrial products and 5,639 l/cap/d (92%) to the consumption of ...

Feb. 25, 2014

By IWA Publishing

Water footprint (WF) is a newly developed idea that indicates impacts of freshwater appropriation and wastewater discharge. The textile industry is one of the oldest, longest and most complicated industrial chains in the world's manufacturing industries. However, the textile industry is also water intensive. In this paper, we applied a bottom-up approach to estimate the direct blue water ...

Dec. 12, 2013

By IWA Publishing

Water footprint assessments were conducted for dehydrated onions and micro-irrigation systems (MIS), produced by Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. in Maharashtra, India. A key objective was to understand the differences in the water footprints between onions grown under drip and flood irrigation, both in terms of water usage and agricultural productivity. The team was also interested in the practical ...

Sep. 26, 2013

By LimnoTech Inc.

This paper analyses the Austrian water footprint of consumption (WFcons) for different diets: the current diet, a healthy diet (based upon the dietary recommendations issued by the German nutrition society, or DGE), a vegetarian diet and a combined diet between both latter diets. As in many western countries, the current Austrian diet consists of too many products from the groups sugar, crop ...

Jan. 10, 2013

By IWA Publishing

Project Results and Impacts: First oil production company to measure its product’s water footprint Supporting company brand image and reputation Increased awareness of water issues for different stakeholders CSE Solution  "Water Footprint" The Water Footprint of a product is the volume of freshwater used to produce the ...

Aug. 17, 2012

By Centre for Sustainability and Excellence

In recent years, attempts have been made to develop an integrated Footprint approach for the assessment of the environmental impacts of production and consumption. In this paper, we provide for the first time a definition of the “Footprint Family” as a suite of indicators to track human pressure on the planet and under different angles. This work has been developed under the 7th ...

Jun. 26, 2012

By IWA Publishing

This study quantifies and maps the water footprint (WF) of humanity at a high spatial resolution. It reports on consumptive use of rainwater (green WF) and ground and surface water (blue WF) and volumes of water polluted (gray WF). Water footprints are estimated per nation from both a production and consumption perspective. International virtual water flows are estimated based on trade in ...

Jun. 26, 2012

By IWA Publishing

The grey water footprint (GWF) is an indicator of aquatic pollution. We calculate past and future trends in GWFs related to anthropogenic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs into major rivers around the world. GWFs were calculated from past, current and future nutrient loads in river basins using the Global NEWS model. We present water pollution levels (WPLs), deduced from GWFs for more than ...

Jun. 26, 2012

By IWA Publishing

For a hardcopy of this article, printed in the Netherlands, an estimated 100 l of water have been used. Most of the water is required in the forestry stage, due to evapotranspiration (green and blue water). In addition, the water footprint during the industrial stage, as accounted for in this study, consists of evaporation from water obtained from ground water and surface water (blue water). In ...

Jun. 26, 2012

By IWA Publishing

An increasing demand for food together with a growing demand for energy crops result in an increasing demand for and competition over water. Sugar cane, sugar beet and maize are not only essential food crops, but also important feedstock for bio-ethanol. Crop growth requires water, a scarce resource. This study aims to assess the green, blue and grey water footprint (WF) of sweeteners and ...

Jun. 26, 2012

By IWA Publishing