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OBSERVATORY
Calculating Water Use, Direct and Indirect
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: April 19, 2010
How much water do you use every day?
Your household water meter only tells
part of the story — what was directly
used for washing, cooking and other
tasks. But what about the water that
was used to grow the food you ate for
dinner? Or to manufacture the book
you bought or the gasoline your car
burned?
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have estimated
this kind of direct and indirect water use — not for
households, but for American industries. Their goal was to
create a tool for better assessing the impact on water use of
decisions made up and down the industrial supply chain,
just as one might assess cost or carbon footprint.
Chris Hendrickson, a professor of civil and environmental
engineering; Michael Blackhurst, a graduate student; and
Jordi Sels i Vidal, a visiting researcher, used water data
from the United States Geological Survey (from 2000) and
applied an economic model to estimate direct and indirect
use in paint manufacturing, fiber and yarn making, grain
farming and about 420 other industrial sectors, big and
small. Their findings are reported in Environmental Science
and Technology.
Most of the direct water use, they report, is accounted for by the broad categories of power
generation and agriculture. As for individual sectors, almost all use more water indirectly
than directly. For example, in cane sugar refining, relatively little water is used at the
mills. More than 95 percent is used indirectly, to grow the cane, generate electricity for the
mills and in other parts of the supply chain.
“If you’re doing a lifecycle assessment, you want to make sure you include upstream
activities that are water intensive,” Dr. Hendrickson said. “This tool should allow people to
understand the implications of water use.”
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A version of this article appeared in print on April 20, 2010, on page D3
of the New York edition.
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