Blogs
India:Ecological and Water footprints
Ecological footprint
Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demand on and supply of nature.
On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures the ecological assets that a given population requires to produce the natural resources it consumes (including plant-based food and fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure) and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions.
The Ecological Footprint tracks the use of six categories of productive surface areas: cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land.
On the supply side, a city, state or nation’s biocapacity represents the productivity of its ecological assets (including cropland, grazing land, forest land, fishing grounds, and built-up land). These areas, especially if left unharvested, can also absorb much of the waste we generate, especially our carbon emissions.
This is India's ecological footprint vs biocapacity chart till 2013.
As we can see India, in its way to becoming a superpower has a huge eco footprint compared to its biocapacity. It is in a huge ecological deficit compared to the rest of the world.
Even though I write all this, my I own personal overshoot day is May 3 and if everyone lived like me we would need 3 Earths.
Water Footprint
Everything we use, wear, buy, sell and eat takes water to make.
The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company. The water footprint can also tell us how much water is being consumed by a particular country – or globally – in a specific river basin or from an aquifer.
What is a water footprint
Everything we use, wear, buy, sell and eat takes water to make.
The water footprint measures the amount of water used to produce each of the goods and services we use. It can be measured for a single process, such as growing rice, for a product, such as a pair of jeans, for the fuel we put in our car, or for an entire multi-national company. The water footprint can also tell us how much water is being consumed by a particular country – or globally – in a specific river basin or from an aquifer.
The water footprint is a measure of humanity’s appropriation of fresh water in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.
The water footprint allows us to answer a broad range of questions for companies, governments and individuals. For example:
- where is the water dependence in my company’s operations or supply chain?
- how well are regulations protecting our water resources?
- how secure are our food or energy supplies?
- can I do something to reduce my own water footprint and help us manage water for both people and nature?
Depending on the question you are asking, the water footprint can be measured in cubic metres per tonne of production, per hectare of cropland, per unit of currency and in other functional units. The water footprint helps us understand for what purposes our limited freshwater resources are being consumed and polluted. The impact it has depends on where the water is taken from and when. If it comes from a place where water is already scarce, the consequences can be significant and require action.
The Three Water Footprints
The water footprint has three components: green, blue and grey. Together, these components provide a comprehensive picture of water use by delineating the source of water consumed, either as rainfall/soil moisture or surface/groundwater, and the volume of fresh water required for assimilation of pollutants.
Green water footprint is water from precipitation that is stored in the root zone of the soil and evaporated, transpired or incorporated by plants. It is particularly relevant for agricultural, horticultural and forestry products.
Blue water footprint is water that has been sourced from surface or groundwater resources and is either evaporated, incorporated into a product or taken from one body of water and returned to another, or returned at a different time. Irrigated agriculture, industry and domestic water use can each have a blue water footprint.
Grey water footprint is the amount of fresh water required to assimilate pollutants to meet specific water quality standards. The grey water footprint considers point-source pollution discharged to a freshwater resource directly through a pipe or indirectly through runoff or leaching from the soil, impervious surfaces, or other diffuse sources.
My own personal water footprint is 538 m³ per year.
