Abstract
Water footprinting is becoming a popular way of understanding the total water input to consumer products along its life cycle. Nevertheless, when the water footprint is defined only in terms of volume it can conceal important impacts on the environment caused by the use of water. When the water footprint is assessed with a life cycle approach and normalised with the water stress index, it is possible to integrate to a water footprint accounting, both the environmental impacts caused by the use of water and the water scarcity caused by the process that is being evaluated. The proposed methodology was applied to the growth of irrigated wheat in Mexico. Results show not only the volume of water used, but also the impact on ecotoxicity and depletion of the resource that agricultural activity causes in México. Results are also compared with the water footprint of wheat in México assessed with different methodologies.
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Farell, C., Turpin, S., Suppen, N. (2011). Assessment of the Water Footprint of Wheat in Mexico. In: Finkbeiner, M. (eds) Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1899-9_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1899-9_16
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