Water accounting and vulnerability evaluation (WAVE): considering atmospheric evaporation recycling and the risk of freshwater depletion in water footprinting.

Aiming to enhance the analysis of water consumption and resulting consequences along the supply chain of products, the water accounting and vulnerability evaluation (WAVE) model is introduced. On the accounting level, atmospheric evaporation recycling within drainage basins is considered for the first time, which can reduce water consumption volumes by up to 32%. Rather than predicting impacts, WAVE analyzes the vulnerability of basins to freshwater depletion. Based on local blue water scarcity, the water depletion index (WDI) denotes the risk that water consumption can lead to depletion of freshwater resources. Water scarcity is determined by relating annual water consumption to availability in more than 11,000 basins. Additionally, WDI accounts for the presence of lakes and aquifers which have been neglected in water scarcity assessments so far. By setting WDI to the highest value in (semi)arid basins, absolute freshwater shortage is taken into account in addition to relative scarcity. This avoids mathematical artifacts of previous indicators which turn zero in deserts if consumption is zero. As illustrated in a case study of biofuels, WAVE can help to interpret volumetric water footprint figures and, thus, promotes a sustainable use of global freshwater resources.

[1]  P. Döll,et al.  A global hydrological model for deriving water availability indicators: model tuning and validation , 2003 .

[2]  Andrea Rinaldo,et al.  Water-controlled wealth of nations , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[3]  M. Finkbeiner,et al.  Water Footprinting: How to Address Water Use in Life Cycle Assessment? , 2010 .

[4]  Brian Richter,et al.  A PRESUMPTIVE STANDARD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FLOW PROTECTION , 2012 .

[5]  Winnie Gerbens-Leenes,et al.  Reply to Pfister and Hellweg: Water footprint accounting, impact assessment, and life-cycle assessment , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[6]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  The water footprint of coffee and tea consumption in the Netherlands , 2007 .

[7]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  The water footprint of cotton consumption: An assessment of the impact of worldwide consumption of cotton products on the water resources in the cotton producing countries , 2006 .

[8]  Jens Warsen,et al.  Water footprint of European cars: potential impacts of water consumption along automobile life cycles. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.

[9]  Andrea Rinaldo,et al.  Virtual water controlled demographic growth of nations , 2013 .

[10]  A. Boulay,et al.  Regional characterization of freshwater Use in LCA: modeling direct impacts on human health. , 2011, Environmental science & technology.

[11]  H. Savenije.  Water scarcity indicators; the deception of the numbers , 2000 .

[12]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  Global Monthly Water Scarcity: Blue Water Footprints versus Blue Water Availability , 2012, PloS one.

[13]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  The water footprint of humanity , 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[14]  M. Finkbeiner.  Carbon footprinting—opportunities and threats , 2009 .

[15]  J. Rockström,et al.  Future water availability for global food production: The potential of green water for increasing resilience to global change , 2009 .

[16]  Martina Flörke,et al.  Domestic and industrial water uses of the past 60 years as a mirror of socio-economic development: A global simulation study , 2013 .

[17]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crops products , 2011 .

[18]  P. Döll,et al.  High‐resolution mapping of the world's reservoirs and dams for sustainable river‐flow management , 2011 .

[19]  A. Hoekstra,et al.  Complementarities of water-focused life cycle assessment and water footprint assessment. , 2013, Environmental science & technology.

[20]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  Length and time scales of atmospheric moisture recycling , 2010 .

[21]  Markus Berger,et al.  Methodological Challenges in Volumetric and Impact‐Oriented Water Footprints , 2013 .

[22]  S. Pfister,et al.  Monthly characterization factors for water consumption and applica- tion to temporally explicit cereals inventory , 2012 .

[23]  Andrea Richts,et al.  WHYMAP and the Groundwater Resources Map of the World 1:25,000,000 , 2011 .

[24]  M. Flörke,et al.  Future long-term changes in global water resources driven by socio-economic and climatic changes , 2007 .

[25]  Manuele Margni,et al.  A framework for assessing off-stream freshwater use in LCA , 2010 .

[26]  S. Pfister,et al.  Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. , 2009, Environmental science & technology.

[27]  Arjen Ysbert Hoekstra,et al.  Reply to Ridoutt and Huang: From water footprint assessment to policy , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[28]  S. Pfister,et al.  The water “shoesize” vs. footprint of bioenergy , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[29]  P. Griggs.  Deforestation and sugar cane growing in Eastern Australia, 1860-1995 , 2007 .

[30]  Hubert H. G. Savenije,et al.  Origin and fate of atmospheric moisture over continents , 2010 .

[31]  Jing Huang,et al.  Environmental relevance—the key to understanding water footprints , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[32]  P. Döll,et al.  Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands , 2004 .