Water Footprinting in the Urban Water Sector

This project explained the water footprint concept, investigated the applicability of water footprinting tools to the urban water sector and how they combine with or complement other sustainability related tools, determined if there is a role for the sector in further development and application of the tools, and identified research priorities and actions from the current challenges, issues, and knowledge gaps. The greatest challenges to applying Water Footprint methods in the urban water sector were found to be terminology, gaps in the methodology, limited data availability, uncertainty regarding the value to the sector, and lack of information regarding which method to select for a particular purpose. Priority research areas are predominantly associated with advancing methodological aspects including water quality, water transfers between river basins, data assumptions, and timescales. Published in 2012. Research partner: GWRC.