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: o Provides a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint assessment o Shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses o Contains detailed worked examples of how to calculate green, blue and grey water footprints o Describes how to assess the sustainability of the aggregated water footprint within a river basin or the water footprint of a specific product o Includes an extensive library of possible measures that can contribute to water footprint reduction

The Handbook of Water Economics is presented in three sections: theory, methods and applications, providing the latest information in the growing area of water economics and the environment, covering the theory and issues relating to resource management techniques, policy formulation, implementation and evaluation in the water sector. * Includes strong theory section which links to real world examples in the applications section * Provides an associated website which will include: formats for EXCEL spreadsheet application covered in the text; bibliography and links to related sites * Methods section includes coverage of methods of economic evaluation, use of economic instruments and cost-benefit analysis * Applications section includes case studies on: water availability; sewerage and waste water treatment; navigation; hydro-electric and multipurpose reservoirs; flooding; hydrometric data and coastal zone management Essential reading for those studying environmental economics modules in Departments of Environmental Management, Geography and Engineering, researchers in hydrology as well as professionals and policy makers in water companies, water authorities, NGO's and government agencies.