TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hoff, Holger
A1  - Döll, Petra
A1  - Fader, Marianela
A1  - Gerten, Dieter
A1  - Hauser, Stefan
A1  - Siebert, Stefan
T1  - Water footprints of cities - indicators for sustainable consumption and production
T2  - Hydrology and earth system sciences discussions
N2  - Water footprints have been proposed as sustainability indicators, relating the consumption of goods like food to the amount of water necessary for their production and the impacts of that water use in the source regions. We have further developed the existing water footprint methodology by globally resolving virtual water flows and import and source regions at 5 arc minutes spatial resolution, and by assessing local impacts of export production. Applying this method to three exemplary cities, Berlin, Delhi and Lagos, we find major differences in amounts, composition, and origin of green and blue virtual water imports, due to differences in diets, trade integration and crop water productivities in the source regions. While almost all of Delhi's and Lagos' virtual water imports are of domestic origin, Berlin on average imports from more than 4000 km distance, in particular soy (livestock feed), coffee and cocoa. While 42% of Delhi's virtual water imports are blue water based, the fractions for Berlin and Lagos are 2% and 0.5%, respectively, roughly equal to local drinking water abstractions of these cities. Some of the external source regions of Berlin's virtual water imports appear to be critically water scarce and/or food insecure. However for deriving recommendations on sustainable consumption and trade, further analysis of context-specific costs and benefits associated with export production will be required.
Y1  - 2013
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/29877
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-298777
UR  - http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/10/2601/2013/hessd-10-2601-2013.html
SN  - 1812-2116
SN  - 1812-2108
N1  - © Author(s) 2013. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
VL  - 10
SP  - 2601
EP  - 2639
PB  - European Geophysical Soc.
CY  - Katlenburg-Lindau
ER  -