A critique on the water-scarcity weighted water footprint in LCA

The water footprint (WF) has been developed within the water resources research community as a volumetric measure of freshwater appropriation. The concept is used to assess water use along supply chains, sustainability of water use within river basins, efficiency of water use, equitability of water allocation and dependency on water in the supply chain. With the purpose of integrating the WF in life cycle assessment of products, LCA scholars have proposed to weight the original volumetric WF by the water scarcity in the catchment where the WF is located, thus obtaining a water-scarcity weighted WF that reflects the potential local environmental impact of water consumption. This paper provides an elaborate critique on this proposal. The main points are: (1) counting litres of water use differently based on the level of local water scarcity obscures the actual debate about water scarcity, which is about allocating water resources to competing uses and depletion at a global scale; (2) the neglect of green water consumption ignores the fact that green water is scarce as well; (3) since water scarcity in a catchment increases with growing overall water consumption in the catchment, multiplication of the consumptive water use of a specific process or activity with water scarcity implies that the resultant weighted WF of a process or activity will be affected by the WFs of other processes or activities, which cannot be the purpose of an environmental performance indicator; (4) the LCA treatment of the WF is inconsistent with how other environmental footprints are defined; and (5) the Water Stress Index, the most cited water scarcity metric in the LCA community, lacks meaningful physical interpretation. It is proposed to incorporate the topic of freshwater scarcity in LCA as a “natural resource depletion” category, considering depletion from a global perspective. Since global freshwater demand is growing while global freshwater availability is limited, it is key to measure the comparative claim of different products on the globe's limited accessible and usable freshwater flows.     

三江平原粮食作物生产水足迹时空特征及影响因素

水足迹是评价人类活动对水资源开采和水环境污染程度的重要方法,对农作物生长过程的绿水足迹、蓝水足迹和灰水足迹进行量化和分析,可以为农业用水综合评价和用水管理提供指导。以三江平原为研究区域量化粮食作物生产水足迹的时空特征,揭示粮食生产对区域水资源的占用情况,并分析水足迹的影响因素。结果表明:(1)三江平原粮食生产水足迹总量在2005-2018年间呈显著增加趋势,其中绿水足迹、蓝水足迹和灰水足迹在水足迹总量中的占比历年平均为28%、8%和64%;(2)粮食生产水足迹空间差异明显,在地市尺度,佳木斯市水足迹最高,占三江平原总量的47%,在县区尺度,富锦市、依兰县和桦南县是水足迹热点地区;(3)只考虑蓝水足迹,粮食生产给三江平原水资源造成轻度压力,而同时考虑蓝水和灰水足迹,粮食生产给三江平原水资源造成重度压力;各地市间水资源压力有较大差异,其中佳木斯市负担了该区域将近一半的粮食产量,水资源压力最高,鹤岗市则水资源压力最低;(4)降雨量、灌溉水利用效率、化肥施用量、粮食种植结构和作物单产水平等都会影响粮食作物生产水足迹,其中蓝水足迹响应种植结构的变化最敏感,灰水足迹响应化肥施用量的变化最敏感,而水足迹总量响应作物单产水平的变化最敏感。因此,建议减少化肥施用量、提高作物单产水平和优化作物种植结构纳入区域水资源可持续管理之中。     

北京市水足迹及农业用水结构变化特征

运用水足迹的理论和方法计算评价了1990—2005年北京市水足迹及水资源利用的可持续性,在此基础上进一步分析了北京市农业用水结构的变化特征。结果表明:(1)北京市水足迹从1990年的81.5亿m3上升至2005年的168.6亿m3,人均水足迹由750.1m3上升为1096.0m3;(2)北京市水资源匮乏度不断升高,1995年以来水资源自给率呈下降趋势,与之相对应的水资源依赖度越来越高;(3)农业部门用水量在本地用水量中的比例平均每年为55.1%,虚拟水净输入量在虚拟水净输入总量中的比例平均每年达到89.1%;(4)高耗水型作物产品生产用水比例升高加大了农业用水压力,动物产品生产用水量呈增加趋势,2001—2005年动物产品生产引入的虚拟水占到其虚拟水总量的81.3%。北京市水资源利用呈不可持续状态,通过农业系统内部结构的优化调整,实现农业部门水资源的高效利用是缓解北京市水资源紧缺问题的关键。     

A simple approach to assess water scarcity integrating water quantity and quality

Water scarcity has become widespread all over the world. Current methods for water scarcity assessment are mainly based on water quantity and seldom consider water quality. Here, we develop a simple approach for assessing water scarcity considering both water quantity and quality. In this approach, a new water scarcity index is used to describe the severity of water scarcity in the form of a water scarcity meter, which may help to communicate water scarcity to a wider audience. To illustrate the approach, we analyzed the historical trend of water scarcity for Beijing city in China during 1995–2009. The results show that Beijing made a huge progress in mitigating water scarcity, and that from 1999 to 2009 the blue and grey water scarcity index decreased by 59% and 62%, respectively. These achievements were made through great efforts of water-saving measures and wastewater treatment. Despite this progress, we demonstrate that Beijing is still characterized by serious water scarcity due to both water quantity and quality. The water scarcity index remained at a high value of 3.5 with a blue and grey water scarcity index of 1.2 and 2.3 in 2009 (exceeding the thresholds of 0.4 and 1, respectively). As a result of unsustainable water use and pollution, groundwater levels continue to decline, and water quality shows a continuously deteriorating trend. To curb this trend, future water policies should further decrease water withdrawal from local sources (in particular groundwater) within Beijing, and should limit the grey water footprint below the total amount of water resources.     

Food consumption and related water resources in Nordic cities

Many modern cities have strongly invested in the sustainability of their urban water management system. Nordic cities like Stockholm or Copenhagen are amongst pioneers in investments towards integrated urban water management. However, cities can never be fully self-sufficient due to their dependency on external (water) resources. In this paper, we quantify this water dependency with respect to food consumption in nine cities located in the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland), by means of the water footprint concept. Detailed urban water footprint assessments are scarce in the literature. By analysing national nutrition surveys, we find that urban food intake behaviour differs from national food intake behaviour. In large Nordic cities people eat generally less potatoes, milk products (without cheese), meat and animal fats and they drink less coffee than outside city borders. On the other hand, they generally eat more vegetables and vegetable oils and they drink more tea and alcoholic beverages. This leads consistently – for the six large Nordic cities Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Reykjavik – to slightly smaller food related urban water footprints (−2 to −6%) than national average values. We also analyse the water footprint for different diets based upon Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) for these cities. We assessed three healthy diet scenarios: 1) including meat (HEALTHY-MEAT), 2) pesco-vegetarian (HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG) and 3) vegetarian (HEALTHY-VEG). This shows that Nordic urban dwellers 1) eat too many animal products (red meat, milk and milk products) and sugar and drink too much alcohol and 2) they eat not enough vegetables, fruit and products from the group pulses, nuts and oilcrops. Their overall energy and protein intake is too high. A shift to a healthy diet with recommended energy and protein intake reduces the urban WF related to food consumption substantially. A shift to HEALTHY-MEAT results in a reduction of −9 to −24%, for HEALTHY-PESCO-VEG the reduction is −29 to −37%, for HEALTHY-VEG the reduction is −36 to −44%. In other words, Nordic urban dwellers can save a lot of water by shifting to a healthy diet.     

基于灰水足迹的中国城市水资源可持续利用综合评价

随着城市化的快速发展，中国城市水资源面临着水资源短缺与水环境恶化等挑战，因此加强城市水资源可持续利用对于中国可持续发展具有重要意义。基于灰水足迹核算对2016年中国地级市水资源可持续利用情况进行综合评价。研究结果表明：（1）中国城市灰水足迹水平差异大，平均值为23.40×10⁸ m³，主要集中在20.00×10⁸ m³以下。中国城市农业源灰水足迹比例占比主要在70%以上，工业源比例占比主要在20%以下，而生活源比例占比在40%以下；（2）全国灰水经济生产率在12.45-857.31元/m³范围内，地区差异明显。33%城市灰水足迹荷载系数均大于1，全国地级市灰水足迹荷载系数平均值为1.16，城市水资源利用已对水环境产生污染压力，用水不可持续；（3）城市水资源开发率与灰水足迹荷载系数呈一定程度的正相关关系，说明了城市发展对水资源利用的"量"和"质"的压力作用具有一定的协同关系；（4）水资源可持续利用程度呈现大型城市 > 特大型城市 > 超大型城市 > 中小型城市，城市发展一定程度上有助于水资源的可持续利用，但发展规模过大可能会造成用水高产而护水低效的现象。因地制宜的实行水资源循环经济发展模式以及适时纳入灰水足迹核算与管理体系，是当前城市化大背景下实现水资源可持续利用的重要途径。     

干旱区城郊种植业水足迹分析与适宜耕地规模测算——以乌鲁木齐市为例

水足迹方法能够完整、清晰地描述种植业的耗水特征。以干旱区绿洲城市乌鲁木齐市为例,运用水足迹模型分析种植业产品耗水特征,构建水足迹强度系数以探讨种植业耗水对本地水资源的影响度,进而从作物水足迹和水源类型角度建立绿洲耕地规模测度模型测算乌鲁木齐市适宜耕地规模,研究发现:①作物生长期水足迹受土壤水分胁迫和产量损减影响呈现差异化;②2005-2011年间,绿水强度系数波动剧烈,蓝水强度系数均值超出容量极限,作物生长期对蓝水资源依赖性较强,从而进一步加剧了蓝水资源的匮乏;③乌鲁木齐市合理耕地规模约为6万hm²,2005-2011年种植业实际耕地规模均处于超载状态,超载量变化呈现先降后升的特征,现状种植业发展模式对绿洲生态系统扰动不断加剧。     

Water footprint assessment for service sector: A case study of gaming industry in water scarce Macao

Although numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the water footprint of different economies at global, national and regional scales, the research on water footprint of individual economic sector, which is the elementary part of each economy, is still lacking. To fill the gap, this paper for the first time employs a hybrid method to evaluate the water footprint of gaming industry in water scarce Macao, based on the latest statistics and most exhaustive embodied water intensity databases. The results show that direct water use only accounts for extremely small fraction of the gaming industry's water footprint, indicating that the exchange of water embodied in product and service between different sectors is also a useful mean to satisfy individual sector's demand for water resources. As Macao's demand for water is growing, integrated plans including economic instruments and measures like reducing the scale of commission input and promoting efficiency would ease Macao's water pressure. Water footprint assessment in this study brings along new perspectives on gaming industry's water management and encourages wise use of goods, materials and services in a sustainable way.     

水足迹研究进展

水为生命之源,水资源的合理分配与科学管理是区域可持续发展与流域综合管理的核心环节;水足迹作为一种全面核算人类活动对水资源真实占用的综合指标,将人类消费终端与水资源利用密切关联,为维护流域水资源安全、提高区域水资源利用效率提供了重要的科学依据,已成为当前国际水资源管理的前沿研究领域。在明确水足迹及水资源生态足迹相关概念的基础上,对比分析了水足迹与生态足迹、水资源生态足迹模型的异同,明晰了过程、产品及区域等不同研究对象的水足迹核算方法,系统梳理了产品和区域水足迹评价、基于水足迹的区域水资源安全研究、区域水足迹可持续性分析等水足迹主要研究内容的近今进展,并展望了进一步的重点研究方向,即水足迹综合研究、水足迹评价不确定性分析、水足迹与物质流核算的关联研究,以及基于足迹整合的可持续发展多维测度等。     

基于投入产出方法的甘肃省水足迹及虚拟水贸易研究

随着社会化进程的加快,地处西北内陆的甘肃省正面临日益严峻的水资源短缺危机,社会经济发展受到一定程度的制约,水生态环境也呈现出恶化的趋势。水足迹是近年来提出的衡量人类活动对于水生态系统影响的指标,能够帮助决策者制定水资源管理及保护的政策,从而实现地区水资源的可持续利用。运用单区域投入产出方法计算并分析了甘肃省1997、2002和2007年第一产业、第二产业和第三产业部门的虚拟水强度、水足迹以及虚拟水贸易情况。结果显示:(1)甘肃省第一产业的虚拟水强度最高,但呈现出逐年下降的趋势,水足迹也因此有所下降;(2)虚拟水贸易方面,甘肃省以虚拟水净出口为主,尤其是第一产业,每年虚拟水净出口量约全省总水资源量的10%。建议甘肃省继续巩固已有的节水成果,调整产业结构,大力发展节水型产业和高新技术产业。同时建议适当调整贸易格局,合理控制虚拟水出口,以缓解当地水资源短缺危机,保障地区水安全与生态安全。     

基于水足迹理论的煤制油产业布局评价

煤制油是我国应对石油危机的重要途径之一,但其高耗水的特点使其备受争议。利用水足迹理论对全国五大煤炭基地2015年规划的煤制油产业进行了蓝水足迹和灰水足迹的测算,分析了煤制油产业对这些区域水资源的耗用情况及冲击程度。结果显示,神东、晋东和新疆伊犁3个基地的煤制油产业蓝水足迹超过了1亿t、灰水足迹超过了3亿t,其中神东地区作为最大的煤制油产地两项数值分别达到1.9亿t和4.1亿t与当地水资源总量对比,宁东地区煤制油耗水冲击最大,占当地水资源总量的28.2%;新疆伊犁地区比例最小,为0.36%。通过对这5个煤炭基地以区域为尺度的水足迹结构分析和评价比较,得出了两种煤制油工艺的水资源消耗差异,并且为煤制油产业在五大基地的合理布局给出了依据,与此同时为接下来煤制油产业的技术革新和流程优化也提出了相应的建议。     

天山北坡城市群生态承载力演变与生态敏感性分析

经济的快速发展及人类活动的不断加剧,造成了各种生态环境问题,对可持续发展构成了严重威胁。探讨城市群土地利用变化、生态承载力演变特征及生态敏感性分析,是推动城市群生态环境优化,提升城市群土地利用管理方式的重要理论依据。以天山北坡城市群为研究区,基于土地利用数据对天山北坡城市群2000—2020年土地利用变化进行分析,采用生态足迹模型对研究区的生态足迹及生态承载力进行推算,并结合植被覆盖度、坡度、人口密度、土地利用类型、高程5个生态敏感性因子,对天山北坡城市群进行多因子综合生态敏感性评价。结果表明：2000—2020年天山北坡城市群内建设用地和耕地转入量较大,分别增长107.79%和46.45%,林地和水域面积逐步减少,反映了天山北坡城市群在研究期内处于快速城镇化阶段,城市建成区的不断扩大对部分生态生产用地构成一定的威胁。在快速城镇化的背景下,天山北坡城市群人均生态足迹总体呈现上升的趋势,生物资源生态赤字问题仍然存在,能源为主的其他资源的生态盈余呈现缩小趋势。生态敏感性高值区域主要分布在天山北坡城市群各城市的周边地区,中度敏感地区环绕在敏感高值区周围,分别占研究区面积的11.21%和35....     

福建省灰水足迹时空变化及驱动因素

灰水足迹是稀释水污染物至达标需要的淡水体积,是评价水污染程度与水环境质量的重要方法,对灰水足迹进行核算与分析,可以促进福建省提高水环境质量,构建可持续的水生态环境。借鉴Hoekstra等提出的灰水足迹核算方法,对福建省及各地市2001-2017年的灰水足迹进行核算,对其时空变化特征进行评价并使用对数平均迪式指数分解法（Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index Method,LMDI）模型对灰水足迹变动的驱动因素进行分解。结果表明：a）总氮是决定灰水足迹总量的主要污染物,非点源污染是灰水足迹的最主要来源但占比由68.25%降至63.35%;b）福建省灰水足迹总量降低了9.58%,且各项指标都呈下降趋势,在空间上,灰水足迹总量及剩余灰水足迹东南多西北少,人均灰水足迹及灰水足迹强度东少西多;c）福建省灰水足迹变动的驱动因素中,经济因素是最大正向驱动因素,产生2932.96亿m³的贡献量,技术因素是最大负向驱动因素,产生-2630.31亿m³的贡献量。最后,针对福建省水污染问题提出建议：a）开展非点源污染防治专项;b）加快速度提高城镇生活污水处理水平;c）优化产业结构,提高灰水足迹效率;d）切实落实生态补偿制度,调动各市水环境保护积极性;e）加强环境监管力度,加大技术投入。     

城市水资源生态足迹核算模型及应用——以沈阳市为例

水资源生态足迹可以直接反映区域人类社会经济活动对水资源的压力.本研究在现有的生态足迹模型基础上,充分考虑城市自然生态系统对水资源的需求,建立了包括居民日常生活用水、生产运营用水、公共服务用水和生态需水4类帐户的城市水资源生态足迹核算模型,并结合沈阳市实际情况,确定了模型中的相关参数,对沈阳市水资源生态足迹和生态承载力进行分析.结果表明:2000-2009年,沈阳市人均水资源生态足迹总体呈下降态势,但各年度均为水生态赤字;2005年较2000年水资源生态足迹人均下降0.31 hm2,2006、2007年有小幅回升,2008、2009年趋于平稳,说明沈阳市水资源可持续利用状况有一定改善,但仍处于不可持续状态.     

Understanding the LCA and ISO water footprint: A response to Hoekstra (2016) “A critique on the water-scarcity weighted water footprint in LCA”

Water footprinting has emerged as an important approach to assess water use related effects from consumption of goods and services. Assessment methods are proposed by two different communities, the Water Footprint Network (WFN) and the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) community. The proposed methods are broadly similar and encompass both the computation of water use and its impacts, but differ in communication of a water footprint result. In this paper, we explain the role and goal of LCA and ISO-compatible water footprinting and resolve the six issues raised by Hoekstra (2016) in “A critique on the water-scarcity weighted water footprint in LCA”. By clarifying the concerns, we identify both the overlapping goals in the WFN and LCA water footprint assessments and discrepancies between them. The main differing perspective between the WFN and LCA-based approach seems to relate to the fact that LCA aims to account for environmental impacts, while the WFN aims to account for water productivity of global fresh water as a limited resource. We conclude that there is potential to use synergies in research for the two approaches and highlight the need for proper declaration of the methods applied.     

A county‐level estimation of renewable surface water and groundwater availability associated with potential large‐scale bioenergy feedstock production scenarios in the United States

This study examines fresh renewable water resources available for bioenergy feedstock production in the United States. The impacts of feedstock irrigation on surface and groundwater resources available to nonbioenergy sectors were quantified using a pair of water availability indexes: streamflow availability index and percolation flow availability index. The two metrics were applied to both historical (2008) and three possible future biomass production scenarios from the 2016 U.S. Billion‐Ton Report at the county level. For both historical and future scenarios, we found that the consumptive irrigation requirements for bioenergy feedstock account for <0.01% of annual streamflow in all but three counties in Nebraska. Results suggest that the irrigation demand of future biomass production could be supplied by annual renewable groundwater flow in about 94% of feedstock‐growing counties that use groundwater for irrigation, representing about 92% of production tonnage. Counties that require irrigation from nonrenewable groundwater resources are mostly located in the Northern Plains and Pacific regions. We also evaluated the sensitivity of crop water footprint estimation to soil moisture carryover by comparing blue water estimates from six different empirical and process‐based methods. Our findings suggest that accounting for preseason soil moisture is critical for representative blue water estimation, so that the irrigation water consumption is not overestimated. This is especially true in the Corn Belt region, where blue water estimates with and without preseason soil moisture would be about 1.9 versus 45.5 billion m³/year under the historical scenario. This difference is smaller in semiarid regions like the High Plains, but the blue water estimate can still triple if soil moisture is not considered. From the perspective of renewable surface water and groundwater resources, scaling feedstock production up in the High Plains and California will require careful planning integrated with water management strategies to improve water resource conservation.     

The problems of sustainable water use in the Mediterranean and research requirements for agriculture

This study addresses the sustainable use of water resources in the Mediterranean basin, particularly in the Southern and Eastern parts of the region, and the many problems generated by water scarcity and misuse. Water economy in the region is beset by two specific problems: high irrigation needs and changes in consumer demands (especially after population shifts from rural to urban areas and because of increasing tourism and industrialisation). The challenges presented by the water crisis are even greater because of growing populations and estimated future climatic changes in the region. The integrated management of limited water resources in the Southern and Eastern parts of the Mediterranean involves several areas of research. Those most directly related with agriculture concern improving water (and nutrient) use in agriculture through the management and breeding of irrigated and rain-fed crops. However, these fields of research address only one face of a multi-factorial equation that affects water sustainability in the region. Thus, other research fields include the design of comprehensive water policies and integrated planning, and technologies for advanced water treatment and re-use. Moreover, local problems and socio-economic aspects must be considered when addressing research issues.     

Managing water resources for crop production

Increasing crop production to meet the food requirements of the world''s growing population will put great pressure on global water resources. Given that the vast freshwater resources that are available in the world are far from fully exploited, globally there should be sufficient water for future agricultural requirements. However, there are large areas where low water supply and high human demand may lead to regional shortages of water for future food production. In these arid and semi-arid areas, where water is a major constraint on production, improving water resource management is crucial if Malthusian disasters are to be avoided. There is considerable scope for improvement, since in both dryland and irrigated agriculture only about one-third of the available water (as rainfall, surface, or groundwater) is used to grow useful plants. This paper illustrates a range of techniques that could lead to increased crop production by improving agricultural water use efficiency. This may be achieved by increasing the total amount of water available to plants or by increasing the efficiency with which that water is used to produce biomass. Although the crash from the Malthusian precipice may ultimately be inevitable if population growth is not addressed, the time taken to reach the edge of the precipice could be lengthened by more efficient use of existing water resources. <br>     

农产品水足迹研究进展

水是人类生产生活的重要资源,科学合理地评价人类活动对水资源的影响是实现水资源可持续利用的重要保障.水足迹概念的提出创新性地将人类活动消耗的水资源区分为绿水、蓝水和灰水,拓展了水资源可持续利用的评价思路.基于虚拟水(VW)的水足迹理论和基于生命周期(LCA)的水足迹理论将水质与水量的概念相结合,成为了农业水资源管理研究的热点内容.基于VW的水足迹理论主要包括绿水足迹、蓝水足迹和灰水足迹的计算,以及水环境可持续性评价,而基于LCA的水足迹理论体现了水资源的消耗和污染及其对环境造成的综合影响.本文详细介绍了这两种水足迹理论的计算方法与环境可持续评价的研究进展,对比分析两种水足迹理论在描述农产品生产用水及其环境影响方面的差异性,并对其研究前景进行了展望.     

我国水资源生态足迹分析与预测

生态足迹模型的提出为水资源可持续利用的定量评价提供了新思路.通过构建水资源生态足迹和水资源生态承载力的计算模型,对我国1949～2007年水资源的可持续利用状况作出了客观的评价,并运用ARIMA模型对我国水资源生态足迹变动趋势作出深入的研究.结果表明,1949～2007年,我国人均水资源生态承载力总体上呈下降态势,而人均水资源生态足迹则逐年上升,从而造成人均水资源生态赤字逐渐增大,我国水资源处于一种不安全状态.运用ARIMA(2,1,3)模型的预测结果表明,2008～2012年,我国人均水资源生态足迹将继续呈上升态势,水危机形势将日益严峻.在此基础上,针对我国水资源的可持续利用问题提出了一组政策建议.