Pollution and sustainability

Water and water footprint

 Resources and pollution
The Earth is surrounded by the atmosphere, a huge "shell"
full of air essential for life. In order to live, plants,
animals and humans need both internal resources to
the atmosphere, i.e. water, air, and soil, and external
resources, i.e. the Sun.

The word pollution indicates changes in the composition

of the atmosphere/water/soil due to the introduction
of toxic substances by humans. Pollution affects the
balance of ecosystems and leads to intense climate
change, endangering the survival of the entire planet.
 Water
About three quarters of the
earth's surface is
covered with water. The
greatest part of it (97%)
is contained in seas and
oceans, and is therefore
salty. The remaining 3%
is made up of fresh
water, both solid (ice)
and liquid.

Fresh water may be

enough for everyone,
but it is not so because
this precious resource is
not well distributed and
is often wasted.
 Water
• Water scarcity is now an increasing problem across the world and
needs innovative actions at regional, national and international
levels. Agricultural, livestock and energy sectors consume the large
part of the available freshwater and, considering the population
growth rate forecasts for the next decades and the effects of
climate changes, water availability could turn from a development
factor into a growth constraint
• During the last 65 years the world population has had a fourfold
increase, while the water consumption has increased six times.
“For years many argued that we must reduce oil consumption,
however few are concerned about water. Yet it is the resource of
the future, it is more precious than oil itself, because it is not
renewable, it is the source of the life” (Internazionale, 2015).
• One of the best way to safeguard the environmental sustainability is
to consider different aspects of the life cycle of a process or of a
product and its impact on the environment.
 Water
• The global use of water consumed by human activities is about the 50% of the total
availability, divided in the following areas and percentages: 70% by agricultural activities,
20% by the industrial sector, and 10% by the domestic activities, as demonstrated by FAO
2012.

• Sustainable development and, above all, sustainable production and consumption in the agri-
food sector have been key issues since the 2000s, stimulating the creation of many
international initiatives and strategies aimed at reducing environmental impacts deriving
from food production and consumption and at finding more sustainable ways of production.

• It is therefore important to have some tools to give spatial-temporal explicit information

regarding how water is appropriated for various human purposes. Water Footprint is one of
the possible tools available for the consideration of this type of primary resource
consumption, such as water.

• At global level, the fresh water availability per person is constantly decreasing and a further
reduction trend is inevitable considering the world population increase and consumption
levels, the growth of the emerging economies and the impact of ongoing climate change.

• Therefore it is important to consider the so called “Virtual water”, that is the quantity of
water consumed to produce food, mainly, and other industrial products. It is called “virtual”
because it is not visible to the final consumers of the product, although it was used for their
production throughout the supply chain (Report WWF, 2014).
 Water footprint
The concept of Water Footprint was introduced for
the first time by Arjen Hoekstra in 2002, defining
it as an indicator of freshwater use that takes into
account both direct and indirect water use. The
Water Footprint can be regarded as a
comprehensive indicator of freshwater resources
appropriation, next to the traditional and
restricted measure of water withdrawal. The
Water Footprint of a product is the volume of
freshwater used to produce the product,
measured over the full supply chain (Hoekstra et
al., 2011).
The colours of water

The tool of the WF, is applicable in various areas

of the life and of the development, from
transports to communications, from the
industrial productions to the agriculture,
considers the water use in three different
components: Green, Blue, and Grey.
Green Water Footprint

• The green Water Footprint is an indicator of the

human use of so-called “green water”.
• Green water refers to the precipitation on land
that does not run off or recharge the
groundwater but is stored in the soil or
temporarily stays on top of the soil or vegetation
(Hoekstra et al., 2011).
• It includes water lost through evapotranspiration
plus the quantity of water that is absorbed in
the biomass of the plant. The majority of
agricultural production worldwide is based on
consumption of green water (Badruzzaman,
2014).
Blue Water Footprint

The blue Water Footprint is an indicator of consumptive use of so-called “blue

water”, in other words, fresh surface water or groundwater. The term
‘consumptive water use’ refers to one of the following cases:

1. Water is incorporated into the product;

2. Water evapotranspirated that does not return to the same catchment
area, for example, it is returned to another catchment area or in the sea;
3. Water does not return in the same period, for example, it is withdrawn in a
scarce period and returned in a wet period (Hoekstra et al., 2011).

For example, when in agriculture we talk about irrigation, we have mainly to

consider the Blue Water Footprint accounting and evaluate its role and the
human impact on it.
Grey Water Footprint

The grey Water Footprint of a production process step is an indicator

of the degree of freshwater pollution that can be associated with
the production process step. It is defined as the volume of
freshwater that is required to assimilate the load of pollutants
based on natural background concentrations and existing water
quality standards. The grey Water Footprint can be defined also as
the amount of water that is required to dilute pollutants until they
become harmless.
The grey Water Footprint is calculated by dividing the pollutant load (L,
in mass/time) by the difference between the water quality standard
for that pollutant (the maximum acceptable concentration cmax, in
mass/volume) and its natural concentration in the receiving water
body (cnat, in mass/volume) (Hoekstra et al., 2011).

WFproc,grey = L / c max – c nat [volume/time]

The Water Footprint is nowadays object of an international regulation, the ISO
14046:2014 “Environmental management - Water Footprint - Principles, requirements
and guidelines”, came into force on the April 14th 2016.
If you want to deepen this topic and see how the Water footprint
can be applied to an agricultural sector you can read this
scientific article
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/1/8