Research duo maps worldwide water footprint with high spatial resolution
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 12:32
in Earth & Climate
(PhysOrg.com) -- Arjen Hoekstra and Mesfin Mekonnen from the University of Twente in the Netherlands have created a worldwide water footprint map at a higher spatial resolution than has been seen before; and as they describe in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, most (92%) of the water used by people the world over, goes to growing food. They also find that about a fifth of all water used goes towards products that are exported, creating, what they describe as a “virtual” water export business.