WFP;Sustainabilityandwater-footprintSWF.pdf

FOR FURTHER STUDY AND RESEARCH

1. Sustainability & Water Footprint
Shelly Bogra
Post Doc Fellow (2018-2020)
IDP in Climate Studies
IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India

2. Outline
Background: Sustainability – a global challenge
Water provisioning: An ecological good/ecosystem
service, tied to planetary workings
The concept of water footprint: Definition, need and
use
The methodologies
Application: Assessment in Indian context

3. Background: Sustainability – a global
challenge
Current world population of 7.2 billion* (expected to be 9-
10 billion by 2050) need materials (food, water, fiber, water-
drinking & sanitation, transportation, energy, buildings, etc.)
for survival
Consumption needs resources (land, water, coal, oil etc.)
Resource extraction, use & disposal - causing
environmental degradation (polluted water bodies, toxic air-
levels, degrading soil fertility, forest & biodiversity losses etc.)
exceeding earth’s provisional capacity (hydrological
recharge capacity, biogeochemical cycles(C, N, P) –
planetary boundaries (Summarized Next)
* UN-estimates

4. Human society
(Anthropogenic-
systems/ Consumption –
food, water, energy)
●Environment
(Ecosystems)
●Good & services
(MEA,2005)
●Wastes
For food - land,
groundwater,
environmental-
flows - Use
For food – land use-land change (LULC) -de-forestation, Intensive
cropping - depletion of groundwater, environmental-flows,
eutro-phication
Impacts – footprints: Carbon, Nitrogen, Water, Land, etc.
Domestic waste,
plastics,
transportation-
Pollution- water-
bodies, land-fills,
NOx, SOx
-Emissions
*Ecosystems And Human Well-Being -
https://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.356.aspx.pdf
SUSTAINABILITY: Ecosystems & Human-Society

5. A safe operating space for humanity.
Johan Rockström, et al. 2009. NATURE
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7263/full/461472a.html
The PB framework
proposed nine
critical boundaries
that define the safe
operating space for
humanity w.r.t. the
Earth System (ES).
These boundaries
are associated with
critical biophysical
subsystems or
processes that
regulate ES
functioning. 
PB framework

6. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet
Will Steffen et al.2015. SCIENCE
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/1259855
Three key PB’s
that might push
the Earth system
into a new state :
•climate change
•stratospheric
ozone depletion
•ocean
acidification
Climate change
and biosphere
integrity—are
recognized as
“core” PBs, since
they may
exclusively lead to
new state
PB framework

7. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) Report*,
2005:
Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from
ecosystems. Services include
Provisioning: food, water, timber, and fiber;
Regulating: affecting climate, floods, disease, wastes, and
water quality;
Cultural: recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and
Supporting: soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient
cycling
*Ecosystems And Human Well-Being -
https://www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.356.aspx.pdf

8. Water: An ecological good and service
Direct & indirect services:
●Provisioning service water -food, water,
timber, and fiber
●Regulating: hydrological cycle -affecting
climate, Climate change-water
availability--->>floods, and water quality;
●Cultural: recreational, aesthetic, and
spiritual benefits -benefits from water-
bodies- lakes, oceans, rivers

9. Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade
Carole Dalin et. al. NATURE 2017
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21403.pdf
Alarming rates of
groundwater depletion
worldwide - primarily
due to water
withdrawals for
irrigation
Approximately eleven per
cent of non-renewable
groundwater use for
irrigation is embedded in
international food trade,
of which two-thirds are
exported by Pakistan, the
USA and India alone.
FOOD-WATER
nexus
Water- An
anthropogenic need

10. The water consumption of energy production: an international comparison
E S Spang et al 2014
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105002
 Water consumption of
energy production for
over 150 countries,
approximately 52 billion
cubic meters of fresh
water is consumed
annually for global
energy production.
***Both the quality of
the data and global
reporting standards
should be improved to
track this important
variable at the global
scale
ENERGY-WATER nexus Water- An
anthropogenic need

11. Water Footprint
Definition – Footprint** of anthropogenic activities in terms
of water, it includes both quantitative and qualitative impacts 
Need – to ensure water security for both Ecosystem
Functioning (EF) (including environmental flow requirements
of rivers and others) and for human needs, while staying
within the safe operating zone (PB)
Use – to measure the impact of anthropocene on water-
ecosystems

** Embodied water in goods- original concept, 1994-1997, by Prof. Tony Alan,
in relation to water embodied in trade

13. Methods
Two prominent approaches:
Water-footprint network –A.Y. Hoekstra
Water accounting in LCA framework
First one started with agricultural products, since major
consumption of water happens in agriculture. Second
approach explicitly follows systemic approach of LCA -
discussed next

14. ISO14046 framework:Water Footprint

Modular approach based on system thinking
following LCA framework (ISO14040)
capable of capturing water impacts in terms of withdrawal,
use, consumption, pollution at spatial and temporal scale,
while making a distinction between renewable and non-
renew-ability of resource (rainfall vs aquifer water)
- i.e. comprehensive water impacts of activities in present
and future dimensions

15. India's case

16. Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in India
Matthew Rodell, Isabella Velicogna, James S Famiglietti
2009/8,Nature,460 (7258),999
Groundwater depletion at a
mean rate of 4.0±1.0 cm yr-1
equivalent 
height of water (17.7±4.5 km 3
yr-1) over the Indian states of
Rajasthan, Punjab and 
Haryana (including Delhi).
Using terrestrial water storage-
change observations from the
NASA Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment satellites
and simulated soil-water
variations from a data-
integrating hydrological
modelling system
WATER impact-
Footprint

17. WATER & INDIA
INDIA'S WATER ISSUES
Increasing population- rising
consumption of food, water
and energy - All systems
related to water
Change in Land Use- forest-
water-carbon-expected
variability and decrease in
future rainfall
Rising waste & pollution-
including water bodies
Increasing dependence on
blue-water sources (ground &
surface water bodies-lakes
rivers etc.) Example-Punjab,
Haryana
WATER SCARCITY IN NUMBERS
Per person water-availability (2010)-
1588 m
3
Falkenmark index -1000-1700 m
3
-A
water stress nation
Yang's index of food and water
security- 5000 m
3
Consequences for
growing population -less
water for food, water-
supply and the economy

18. Need for water-footprint assessment of India

Measure India's water footprint (WF), to assess direct &
indirect dependence on water-type of resource (blue (ground
& surface) versus green (rainfall)) and water-quantity
Application of environmentally extended input-output
models - To develop a water extended input-output model of
India
To estimate both, direct & indirect water-withdrawal
Tool & type of assessment made

19. Environmentally extended input-output models
●Ecological/environmental-economic assessment of
products/processes used, consumed by society in a geography
●Expanded system boundary encompassing comprehensive effects
across complete spatial scale, which is an issue in LCA assessments
●Thus, captures linkages of embodied ecosystem resources entering
the human-environment system to reflect the consumption of
society, i.e., links input with output

20. SOURCE: Input-Output Analysis Foundations & Extensions. Ronald E. Miller & Peter D. Blair
Indust
ry\com
modity
Sector
1
Sector
2
Final
dema
nd (F)
Throu
ghput
(X)
Sector
1
Z
11
Z
12
F
1
X
1
Sector
2
Z
21
Z
22
F
2
X
2
Value-
Added
V
1
V
2
Throu
ghput(
X)
X
1
X
2
Demand-pull model – Leontief
(1931,1971,1972)
X
1
= Z
11
+

Z
12
+F
1
X
1
= Z
11
+

Z
21
+V
1
Supply-push model – Ghosh (1958)
X
2
= Z
21
+

Z
12
+F
2
X
2
= Z
12
+

Z
22
+V
2
Input-Output Matrix/Table
Nobel Laureate Prof. Wassily Leontief

21. SOURCE: Input-Output Analysis Foundations & Extensions. Ronald E. Miller & Peter D. Blair

23. Results

30. References for WF assessment
http://waterfootprint.org
http://www.wulca-waterlca.org/footprinting.html
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:14046:ed-1:v1:en
https://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/starting-life-cycle-thinking/life-
cycle-approaches/water-footprint/

31. THE END
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS ????
SHELLY BOGRA
POST DOC FELLOW
IDP IN CLIMATE STUDIES
IIT BOMBAY,MUMBAI, INDIA