Food Climate Research Network

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Water

In the list below, icons of PDFs, Word documents and report covers will, where available, link to the relevant report/information. Links within the text will also link to relevant webpages as well as to PDFs etc.

General

Added 22.07.08

waterfootprint.org

This website outlines the concept of the water footprint. The water footprint of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation. This website explains the concepts of the water footprint and of ‘virtual water’ (When there is a transfer of products or services from one place to another, there is little direct physical transfer of water … There is however a significant transfer of virtual water. By importing virtal water, water poor countries can relieve the pressure on their domestic water resources). There are also online water footprint calculators (for individuals and nations) and an extensive publication list.

Climate changing irrigation in UK in a global market

The published presentations from the UK Irrigation Association's March 2007 conference are available here. There is a great deal of information on how climate change could affect the irrigated crops sector and what mitigation and adaptation options are available.

Bottled water

Jungbluth N. (2006). Comparison of the Environmental Impact of Tap Water vs. Bottled Mineral Water, commissioned by the Swiss Gas and Water Association

This study traces the entire life cycle of water from water catchment/extraction to serving it up in a glass. Using a life cycle assessment approach, different variants are compared with one another, for example: carbonated versus non-carbonated and refrigerated versus unrefrigerated.

A direct comparison of drinking water from the tap with unrefrigerated bottled water shows that the environmental impact of tap water is less than one percent of that of bottled water. Even when refrigerated and carbonated, the environmental impact of tap water is approximately only one fourth of that of bottled water. Environmental impact is measured with respect to the following:

Energy use
Crude oil equivalent
Greenhouse gas emissions
Environmental impact points 97
Eco-indicator 99 H/A

The last two take account of impacts such as contaminants, resources and waste and weight them in accordance with pre-defined policy or other objectives.