Life Cycle Talks: How can water footprint support a sustainable future?

Welcome to Life Cycle Talks! A series of talks presenting the research front to keep you up to date with the science and application of the life cycle perspective. Our next guest is Martyn Futter, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Martyn will talk about some of the challenges in communicating and using water-related information to inform individual and societal decision making.

Presenter

Martyn Futter is a hydrologist who’s work focuses on how scientific information can influence societal decision making. He is interested in how approached such as “Footprints” and LCA are used as a means of communicating scientific information to industrial and individual decision makers. In his presentation, he will focus on the water footprint and highlight some of the challenges inherent in simplifying the complexity of the water cycle so as to provide information which is comprehensible but not misleading.

Publications

Title: The WULCA consensus characterization model for water scarcity footprints: assessing impacts of water consumption based on available water remaining (AWARE), 2018.
Authors: Boulay, A.M., Bare, J., Benini, L., Berger, M., Lathuillière, M.J., Manzardo, A., Margni, M., Motoshita, M., Núñez, M., Pastor, A.V. and Ridoutt, B.
Journal: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 23, pp.368-378.

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Title: A comparative appraisal of classical and holistic water scarcity indicators, 2022.
Authors: Hussain, Z., Wang, Z., Wang, J., Yang, H., Arfan, M., Hassan, D., Wang, W., Azam, M.I. and Faisal, M.
Journal: Water Resources Management, 36(3), pp.931-950.

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Title: Is the water footprint an appropriate tool for forestry and forest products: the fennoscandian case, 2014.
Authors: Launiainen, S., Futter, M.N., Ellison, D., Clarke, N., Finér, L., Högbom, L., Laurén, A. and Ring, E.
Journal: Ambio, 43, pp.244-256.

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Title: What is a footprint? A conceptual analysis of environmental footprint indicators, 2021.
Authors: Matuštík, J. and Kočí, V.
Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production, 285, p.124833.

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