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Water footprints: Path to enlightenment, or false trail?
- Source :
- Agricultural Water Management. 134:119-125
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2014.
-
Abstract
- Virtual water and water footprints have gained recognition as indicators to guide action on issues related to water scarcity. I argue that water footprints are fundamentally different from carbon footprints, as local reductions in carbon emissions have global benefits, while global attempts to reduce water footprints will have neither necessary beneficial impacts in areas of local water scarcity, nor global impacts on atmospheric water content. In addition, water footprints have little or no meaning for purposes of setting policy regarding national water use or international trade. Furthermore, the calculation procedures adopted in most estimates of water footprints are flawed. Finally, I suggest that water footprints are incorrectly assessed on an absolute, rather than a relative basis. Water analysts are fortunate to have hydrology, a science with agreed procedures and standards, to use in describing the physical impacts of interventions in the hydrologic cycle. Generalised water footprints are neither accurate nor helpful indicators for gaining a better understanding of water resource management.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric water
business.industry
media_common.quotation_subject
Environmental resource management
Virtual water
Soil Science
Enlightenment
Water scarcity
Hydrology (agriculture)
Greenhouse gas
Environmental science
Water cycle
business
Agronomy and Crop Science
Water use
Earth-Surface Processes
Water Science and Technology
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 03783774
- Volume :
- 134
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Agricultural Water Management
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........48bd84588ca5a2c98f6015b56e799461