Water Footprinting in the Urban Water Sector

Water Footprinting provides a different approach to understanding the role of water than traditional water resources planning and management. Water Footprinting tools can be applied in the Urban Water Sector to investigate:

• The amount of fresh water that must be withdrawn from the environment to deliver a specified volume of water to a customer;
• The amount of fresh water consumed (i.e. no longer available for other purposes) when delivering urban water services; or
• The impact (from a water resource perspective) that the delivery of urban water services has on the environment.

The approaches consider both Direct and Indirect Fresh Water Flows.

This project developed an understanding of the Water Footprinting concept; investigated the applicability of Water Footprinting tools to the Urban Water Sector and how they combine with or complement other sustainability related tools, and determined further development and application of the tools.