About the Water Footprint:

The Water Footprint Assessment is a methodology developed by the Water Footprint Network, with the aim of assessing water consumption and pollution, as well as the environmental, economic and social sustainability of those water usages. It can be applied to a process, a product, a consumer, a company, a group of consumers or within a geographically delineated area such as a catchment. We believe the water footprint assessment is a robust tool to understand water consumption and pollution in a catchment, and the logic behind current water allocation in the catchment. We are aware of the existing challenges in this specific water footprint application, such as data accessibility, uncertainties and lack of detailed guidance for a non-scientific public, among others. In spite of the current limitations, the state of the art is evolving rapidly, and the few available catchment case studies indicate that the water footprint assessment contributes with transparency in water consumption and pollution accounts and informs the decision-making process in light of water availability, in the catchment and globally. The information can be used as a starting point to guide dialogues in the catchment.