Water stress in Mexico under two water footprint approaches2420

Abstract

Water scarcity occurs when demand exceeds the supply of fresh water in a given area (FAO, 2013). The water footprint is a tool that aims to assess the potential impacts related to water use, providing information regarding scarcity, availability, ecotoxicity, eutrophication and acidification. The concept of footprint involves the measurement of the total amount of environmental impacts produced directly or indirectly by products or processes at all stages of their life cycle.

When the water footprint oriented to the water stress index, it is possible to integrate the total volume of the liquid used, the environmental impacts caused in the elaboration of a product or a process and, in this way, provide information for the establishment of measures to mitigate or eliminate the footprint, tending to optimize the use of water resources.

This research reviews the criteria and procedures of the AWARE (Boulay et al., 2017) and WSI (Pfister et al., 2009) indicators for the assessment of scarcity water footprint, considering national data of the hydrological regions that make up the Mexican territory on an annual scale.

The comparative analysis of the AWARE and WSI indicators, has been the first step for the evaluation of the impacts caused by the use of water in the water resources in Mexico. The two indicators were evaluated at the regional level with national data, showing coincidences in the areas with the greatest water stress, but with limitations on the conception of the sources and definition of use. The understanding of the concepts used in both indicators is adapted to those established in Mexico, as variables that can influence the results of both indicators.