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Water footprint concept and methodology for warranting sustainability in human-induced water use and governance

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Abstract

Water footprint is a popular concept in research and water resource management discourse, which can be used to improve the management and sustainability of global water resources. It offers a huge potential towards water resource and impact decoupling at various levels/scales. In this paper, we review scientific literature on the water footprint methodology with the aim of improving the understanding of the concept to various stakeholders, its applications, and significance to water use and management. We highlight the applications of the methodology and their significance. In addition, we outline the phases in water footprint assessment, the approaches used in water footprint accounting, the limitations of the methodology, usefulness, and some recent successful applications. We conclude that the water footprint methodology is a powerful policy tool that can be used worldwide to manage scarce freshwater resources and in promoting sustainability and governance in human-induced water use. More so, the concept has an important role to play in disengaging development with excessive water resource use and adverse environmental impact. Therefore, it is imperative to understand and apply the water footprint concept particularly by various stakeholders in the developing world to mitigate excessive physical and economic water resources’ scarcity.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science and Technology Program for Public Wellbeing in China (2012GS310302), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (Tongji University), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International. Authors are grateful to earlier comments and suggestions from anonymous reviewers and Editor of this journal that improved the quality of the manuscript. Special thanks to Marshall Makate for editing this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UN-Environment-Tongji Institute of Environmental Management for Sustainable Development, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Clifton Makate

  2. Key Laboratory of Yangtze Aquatic Environment (MOE), State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Rongchang Wang

  3. Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, Eastern Cape, South Africa

    Simbarashe Tatsvarei

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  1. Clifton Makate
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Correspondence to Clifton Makate.

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Makate, C., Wang, R. & Tatsvarei, S. Water footprint concept and methodology for warranting sustainability in human-induced water use and governance. Sustain. Water Resour. Manag. 4, 91–103 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-017-0143-2

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