Water footprinting – A comparison of methods using New Zealand dairy farming as a case study

M.A. Zonderland-Thomassen and S.F. Ledgard

Agricultural Systems, 2012, vol. 110, issue C, 30-40

Abstract: A case study is presented to (1) assess the water footprint of New Zealand (NZ) dairy farming in two contrasting regions of Waikato (North Island, non-irrigated moderate rainfall) and Canterbury (South Island, irrigated low rainfall), (2) illustrate differences in water footprint methods and (3) evaluate the suitability of indicators derived from each water footprint method. The water footprint methods (1) water footprint following the Water Footprint Network (WF-WFN), (2) stress-weighted water footprint (WF-Ridoutt), following Ridoutt and Pfister (2010) and Ridoutt et al. (2010), (3) environmental impacts of freshwater consumption expressed in damage to resources (ΔR), damage to ecosystem quality (ΔEQ), and damage to human health (ΔHH) following Pfister et al. (2009), and (4) freshwater ecosystem impacts (FEIs) and freshwater depletion (FD) following Milà i Canals et al. (2009, 2010) were applied to two average dairy systems in the different regions.

Keywords: Water footprint; Freshwater use impacts; Water stress characterisation factors; New Zealand; Dairy farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:110:y:2012:i:c:p:30-40

DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2012.03.006

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