Ashok K. Chapagain – författare

People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but significantly more for producing things such as food, paper and cotton clothes. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. Indirect use refers to the 'virtual water' embedded in tradable goods and commodities, such as cereals, sugar or cotton. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. This book offers a complete and up-to-date overview of the global standard on water footprint assessment as developed by the Water Footprint Network. More specifically it: provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction.

Globalization of Water is a first-of-its-kind review of the critical relationship between globalization and sustainable water management. It explores the impact of international trade on local water depletion and pollution and identifies “water dependent” nations. Examines the critical link between water management and international trade, considering how local water depletion and pollution are often closely tied to the structure of the global economyOffers a consumer-based indicator of each nation’s water use: the water footprintQuestions whether trade can enhance global water use efficiency, or whether it simply shifts the environmental burden to a distant locationHighlights the hidden link between national consumption and the use of water resources across the globe, identifying the threats facing ‘water dependent’ countries worldwideProvides a state-of-the-art review and in-depth data source for a new field of knowledge