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Life Cycle based Assessment Tools for Water Consumption and Management

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Use and Scarcity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 14628

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Interests: water footprint; life cycle assessment; resource efficiency and availability; life cycle sustainability assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8569, Japan
Interests: life cycle assessment; planetary boundaries; sustainable natural resource use; environmental footprinting; global supply chain analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Environmental Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany
Interests: life cycle assessment; water footprint
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Considering global water stress in many regions around the globe, the analysis and management of freshwater consumption and pollution along the supply chains of products and organizations has gained increasing intention. Therefore, this Special Issue intends to provide an overview of recent methodological developments and case studies covering the broad range of water footprint approaches. This includes traditional volumetric water footprints, ISO 14046 based impact oriented approaches, as well as recent developments in the field of the Product Environmental Footprint and Organizational Life Cycle Assessment. Furthermore, papers are welcome that address the recent efforts of database providers to satisfy the increasing inventory demands of modern water footprint methods concerning spatially and temporally explicit water flows. Next to identifying hotspots in global supply chains by means of water footprinting, concrete local actions are needed to mitigate water stress. Therefore, this Special Issue also invites papers addressing the management and stewardship of water at the basin level.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner
Dr. Masaharu Motoshita
Dr. Markus Berger
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • water footprint
  • life cycle assessment
  • ISO 14046
  • case studies
  • inventory database
  • water stewardship

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

0 pages, 2159 KiB  
Article
RETRACTED: Evaluation of Water Resource Security Based on an MIV-BP Model in a Karst Area
by Liying Liu, Dongjie Guan and Qingwei Yang
Water 2018, 10(6), 786; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10060786 - 14 Jun 2018
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4018 | Retraction
Abstract
Evaluation of water resource security deserves particular attention in water resource planning and management. A typical karst area in Guizhou Province, China, was used as the research area in this paper. First, based on data from Guizhou Province for the past 10 years, [...] Read more.
Evaluation of water resource security deserves particular attention in water resource planning and management. A typical karst area in Guizhou Province, China, was used as the research area in this paper. First, based on data from Guizhou Province for the past 10 years, the mean impact value–back propagation (MIV-BP) model was used to analyze the factors influencing water resource security in the karst area. Second, 18 indices involving five aspects, water environment subsystem, social subsystem, economic subsystem, ecological subsystem, and human subsystem, were selected to establish an evaluation index of water resource security. Finally, a BP artificial neural network model was constructed to evaluate the water resource security of Guizhou Province from 2005 to 2014. The results show that water resource security in Guizhou, which was at a moderate warning level from 2005 to 2009 and a critical safety level from 2010 to 2014, has generally improved. Groundwater supply ratio, industrial water utilization rate, water use efficiency, per capita grain production, and water yield modulus were the obstacles to water resource security. Driving factors were comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, qualifying rate of industrial wastewater, above moderate rocky desertification area ratio, water requirement per unit gross domestic product (GDP), and degree of development and utilization of groundwater. Our results provide useful suggestions on the management of water resource security in Guizhou Province and a valuable reference for water resource research. Full article
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13 pages, 900 KiB  
Article
Uncertainty Analysis of the Water Scarcity Footprint Based on the AWARE Model Considering Temporal Variations
by Jong Seok Lee, Min Hyeok Lee, Yoon-Young Chun and Kun Mo Lee
Water 2018, 10(3), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10030341 - 19 Mar 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4858
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to compare the degree of uncertainty of the water scarcity footprint using the Monte Carlo statistical method and block bootstrap method. Using the hydrological data of a water drainage basin in Korea, characterization factors based on the [...] Read more.
The purpose of this paper is to compare the degree of uncertainty of the water scarcity footprint using the Monte Carlo statistical method and block bootstrap method. Using the hydrological data of a water drainage basin in Korea, characterization factors based on the available water remaining (AWARE) model were obtained. The uncertainties of the water scarcity footprint considering temporal variations in paddy rice production in Korea were estimated. The block bootstrap method gave five-times smaller percentage uncertainty values of the model output compared to that of the two different Monte Carlo statistical method scenarios. Incorrect estimation of the probability distribution of the AWARE characterization factor model is what causes the higher uncertainty in the water scarcity footprint value calculated by the Monte Carlo statistical method in this study. This is because AWARE characterization factor values partly follows discrete distribution with extreme value on one side. Therefore, this study suggests that the block bootstrap method is a better choice in analyzing uncertainty compared to the Monte Carlo statistical method when using the AWARE model to quantify the water scarcity footprint. Full article
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717 KiB  
Article
Potential Impact on Freshwater Resources from Agrofuel Feedstock Cultivation in Thailand: Implications of the Alternative Energy Development Plan 2015
by Pariyapat Nilsalab and Shabbir H. Gheewala
Water 2017, 9(12), 919; https://doi.org/10.3390/w9120919 - 26 Nov 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4381
Abstract
The impact of water use in areas with abundant freshwater resources should not be the same as areas with limited resources. This impact is quantified as water scarcity footprint. The monthly water stress index with reference to environmental water requirement is proposed as [...] Read more.
The impact of water use in areas with abundant freshwater resources should not be the same as areas with limited resources. This impact is quantified as water scarcity footprint. The monthly water stress index with reference to environmental water requirement is proposed as a characterization factor. The biofuel policies of Thailand—cassava and sugarcane for bioethanol, and oil palm for biodiesel—were selected for the assessment based on land expansion and displacement scenarios. Cultivation was found to be the most water intensive phase in producing both biodiesel and bioethanol. Thus, the proposed index was applied for assessing and selecting areas having low values of the water scarcity footprint. The results showed low values for expanding oil palm plantations on abandoned land and displacing plantation areas with low yields of maize and pineapple with sugarcane and cassava. Additionally, shifting the crop calendar could be considered to reduce the stress situation such as the central region can avoid the water scarcity footprint by 38% from shifting sugarcane cultivation. Consequently mitigating this potential impact and threats to the ecosystem based on specific circumstances and context would be achieved through applying the proposed index in water resource and land suitability planning. Full article
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