Water productivity and water footprint: misguided concepts or useful tools in water management and policy?

Abstract

Water productivity (WP) and water footprint (WFP) are popular concepts in research and discourses on water management. Yet there are concerns about their theoretical validity and practical value. This paper shows that the water production function, the concept with a sound theoretical foundation, is the basis for WP. Total WFP is the reciprocal of WP. The practical value of WP and WFP depends on the context of water use and stress. Maximizing WP, not a panacea to all water problems, mainly suits arid rainfed areas. In other regions, economic and marginal WP for increasing overall production should take precedence in water management and policy decisions

Water Footprint of Industrial Tomato Cultivations in the Pinios River Basin: Soil Properties Interactions

“…Nowadays, the focus at field level is to decrease the field consumptive water footprint [5], increasing thus the water productivity [23,24].…”

Green, blue and greay water footpring reduction in irrigated crop production

“…The ET versus Y plots made based on our model experiment results (Figures 2a,2b and 2c) are comparable with the production function in earlier studies (Amarasinghe and Smakhtin, 2014;Wichelns, 2015). Amarasinghe and Smakhtin (2014) derived the production function from observed data under various agro-ecological conditions, water availability constraints and management practices.…”

“…Amarasinghe and Smakhtin (2014) derived the production function from observed data under various agro-ecological conditions, water availability constraints and management practices.…”

“…At field level, the focus is to decrease the field evapotranspiration (ET) over the growing period per unit of yield (Y), a ratio that is called the consumptive water footprint (WF) . Decreasing this ratio ET/Y is the same as increasing the inverse (Y/ET), which is called the water productivity (WP) (Amarasinghe and Smakhtin, 2014;Molden et al, 2010). The soil moisture status in the root zone regulates plant growth and influences ET.…”

Water for Energy: Inconsistent Assessment Standards and Inability to Judge Properly

“…Increased energy demand, in addition to growing food demand, make water resources more scarce. The shortage of water normally encourages interbasin water transfers [52], more aggressive use of groundwater resources [53][54][55][56], and increased desalination and wastewater reuse [12••]. These energy-intensive water management approaches would further increase the water need of energy.…”