PMID- 34428662
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20211102
LR  - 20211102
IS  - 1879-1026 (Electronic)
IS  - 0048-9697 (Linking)
VI  - 801
DP  - 2021 Dec 20
TI  - Improving water scarcity footprint capabilities in arid regions through expansion 
      of characterization factor methods.
PG  - 149586
LID - S0048-9697(21)04661-1 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149586 [doi]
AB  - Water scarcity footprint (WSF) is a recent addition to life cycle assessment 
      methodology that has advanced the understanding of freshwater environmental 
      impact. The Available Water Remaining (AWARE) method is one approach that has 
      gained significant traction in WSF applications. While an effective method for 
      determining WSF, the methodology has limitations that constrain capabilities for 
      determining freshwater environmental impact in arid regions. The primary 
      limitation is the inability to compare regions when more water demand exists than 
      what is available which typically occurs in arid regions. This limitation reduces 
      resolution and therefore decision-making capabilities. This work proposes a novel 
      method for determining WSF in arid regions by capturing and quantifying scarcity 
      when water demand is greater than availability. The approach presented here, 
      called the demand to availability (DTA) method, is intended to be used for 
      small-scale, or subregion analyses in areas where truncation occurs using 
      standard AWARE methods. With the regional specificity, unique characterization 
      factors can be developed to enhance deterministic resolution and ultimately 
      improve decision-making abilities. The DTA methods are presented universally, 
      allowing for application and implementation to any region. A case study was 
      developed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the DTA method by analyzing 
      characterization factors (CFs) and alfalfa WSFs in the arid Southwestern United 
      States. Using the standard AWARE methods, this region originally truncated 38% of 
      counties resulting in zero resolution or decision-making abilities. Results of 
      the case study that used the proposed DTA method show an improved resolution in 
      100% of these counties, both within CF and alfalfa WSF. Although the proposed 
      method is an improvement for understanding WSFs in arid regions, limitations and 
      constraints still exist and are discussed.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Summers, Hailey M
AU  - Summers HM
AD  - Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
FAU - Quinn, Jason C
AU  - Quinn JC
AD  - Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA. 
      Electronic address: jason.quinn@colostate.edu.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210811
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Sci Total Environ
JT  - The Science of the total environment
JID - 0330500
RN  - 059QF0KO0R (Water)
SB  - IM
MH  - *Desert Climate
MH  - Fresh Water
MH  - Southwestern United States
MH  - Water
MH  - *Water Insecurity
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - AWARE
OT  - Arid regions
OT  - Characterization factors
OT  - Life cycle assessment
OT  - Water scarcity footprint
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2021/08/25 06:00
MHDA- 2021/11/03 06:00
CRDT- 2021/08/24 20:18
PHST- 2021/04/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/08/06 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2021/08/07 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/08/25 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/11/03 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/08/24 20:18 [entrez]
AID - S0048-9697(21)04661-1 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149586 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 20;801:149586. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149586. 
      Epub 2021 Aug 11.