Grey water footprint as an indicator for diffuse nitrogen pollution: The case of Navarra, Spain

Abstract

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Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade: The Birth and Growth of a New Research Field in Spain

“…Green and blue WF assessments were rapidly incorporated into Spanish studies [5,[21][22][23][24][25][26], while the grey WF assessment was incorporated later [14,15,27,28]. All of these studies were conducted at high spatial and temporal resolution and refined the methodology of previous studies to adapt the global approach to the Spanish context and particularities.…”

“…Most of the grey WF studies in Spain focus on the nitrogen-related grey WF [14,15,27,28,56], except for that of Martinez-Alcala et al [57], who concentrated on the pharmaceutical grey WF.…”

“…Pellicer-Martínez and Martínez-Paz [15] developed an accounting method in the Segura basin that differentiated between surface and groundwater grey WFs. Later, Aldaya et al [14] used the grey WF and water pollution level (WPL) indicators, based on a soil nitrogen balance approach to differentiate between surface and groundwater in order to better understand and quantify the pressure that nitrogen fertilization places on freshwater. This study showed that both the grey WF and WPL indicators could help improve the understanding of the relationship between human pressures and policies and the nitrogen impact on water.…”

“…Spanish WF studies are characterized by their detailed spatial dimensions-their local, provincial, and regional case study-based coverage-from year to year. They have refined the methodology of earlier studies [12,13], including a number of modifications to adapt the general approach to the Spanish context, including green and blue water estimation separately for rainfed and irrigated crops [5], and a grey WF detailed analysis differentiating between surface and groundwater bodies [14,15]. A significant innovation of these Spanish studies has been to emphasize the challenge of considering economic aspects and the inclusion of apparent water productivity analysis [5].…”

Influence of Agricultural Irrigation Activity on the Potential Risk of Groundwater Pollution: A Study with Drastic Method in a Semi-Arid Agricultural Region of China

“…For areas with multiple recharge sources, such as agricultural irrigation areas, the net recharge is mainly controlled by both the precipitation infiltration and the irrigation return water. The use of chemical fertilizers has increased significantly during the recent years, but the absorption rate of crops has been relatively low [30,31]. Consequently, fertilizers, pesticides, membrane pollutants, livestock, and poultry excrements are potential groundwater pollutants in agricultural areas.…”