Water footprint

A water footprint is the amount of freshwater used by individuals, groups or companies to make goods or provide services. These goods and services may be needed around the entire world. A water footprint can be determined by math for any well-established group of users, or producers. It is measured by dividing the total amount of water used by the water that became polluted in the same area during the same amount of time. The water footprint of an organization is a good indicator for its water consumption and pollution. It does not show how other water sources are affected.

The water footprint concept was introduced in 2002 by A.Y. Hoekstra from the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education as an indicator of water use.

Related pages

• Carbon footprint

Other websites

• Water Footprint Network
• WWF-UK Archived 2010-04-12 at the Wayback Machine
• WWF-NL Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
• UNESCO-IHE Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
• WSOURCE Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine