Water Footprint Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

Water Footprint Assessment has emerged as a new interdisciplinary field of research, focusing on the analysis of water use, scarcity, and pollution, in relation to production, consumption, and trade of water-intensive goods and services. It includes the analysis of how different techniques and practices, policy strategies, and governance mechanisms can contribute to increasing the sustainability, efficiency, and equitability of water footprints, and the study of how different players can contribute, from governments and companies to investors and civil society. The field typically analyses water use in relation to demand for food, energy and other needs and analyses how goals regarding sustainable water use can be translated into coherent agricultural, energy, tax, and trade policies. Regarding the estimation of the water footprints (water productivities) of crops, challenges include the understanding of geographic and temporal variations, assessing the uncertainties involved, and the assessment of water-footprint related problems and solutions.

This Special Issue is open to papers advancing the field or showing innovative applications. We welcome, for example, papers that analyze the effectiveness of water footprint reduction options or strategies; original water footprint studies focusing on specific geographic regions, products, sectors or businesses; papers on the sustainability, efficiency or equitability of water footprints; studies on international or inter-regional virtual water trade and inter-regional water dependencies; research related to monitoring or achieving the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); application of Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) in water-related risk assessments; studies that relate water footprints to water scarcity; papers that quantify uncertainties in Water Footprint Assessment and propose ways to reduce these; and papers that bring together different environmental footprints in coherent approaches.

Prof. Dr. Arjen Y. Hoekstra
Dr. Ashok K. Chapagain
Dr. Pieter R. van Oel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.