Water Footprint of Cities: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

Willa Paterson, Richard Rushforth, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Megan Konar, Ikechukwu C. Ahams, Jorge Gironás, Ana Mijic and Alfonso Mejia
Additional contact information
Willa Paterson: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA
Richard Rushforth: Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Benjamin L. Ruddell: Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Megan Konar: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 205 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Ikechukwu C. Ahams: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA
Jorge Gironás: Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Ana Mijic: Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, UK
Alfonso Mejia: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, State College, PA 16802, USA

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 7, 1-30

Abstract: Cities are hotspots of commodity consumption, with implications for both local and systemic water resources. Water flows “virtually” into and out of cities through the extensive cross-boundary exchange of goods and services. Both virtual and real water flows are affected by water supply investments and urban planning decisions, which influence residential, commercial, and industrial development. This form of water “teleconnection” is being increasingly recognized as an important aspect of water decision-making. The role of trade and virtual water flows as an alternative to expanding a city’s “real” water supply is rarely acknowledged, with an emphasis placed instead on monotonic expansion of engineering potable water supplies. We perform a literature review of water footprint studies to evaluate the potential and importance of taking virtual flows into account in urban planning and policy. We compare and contrast current methods to assess virtual water flows. We also identify and discuss priorities for future research in urban water footprint analysis.

Keywords: water footprint; virtual water; urban metabolism; cities; life cycle assessment; environmentally extended input–output; embedded resource accounting; water scarcity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/7/8461/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/7/8461/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:7:p:8461-8490:d:51882

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().