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Overview: ‘The Global Water Footprint of Humanity’ is a project that aims to visualize and make tangible the impact of human consumption on the natural water environment through a 900 pages book, a flash animation, maps and models. Everything I have designed has a format based on the geometry of the water molecule, where the bonding angle of the two hydrogens is 104,45 degrees. The water footprint concept is a practical tool to analyze how much water is used for producing our goods and services, showing how countries can externalize their water footprint in order to reduce the pressure on the domestic water resources, and how other countries can profit from their relative abundance of water by exporting water rich commodities. This project is based on research carried out by: the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and the University of Twente in the Netherlands. The data have been drawn from: Water footprints of nations (Chapagain, A.K. and Hoekstra, A.Y. 2004), Globalization of water: Sharing the planet’s freshwater resources (Hoekstra, A.Y. and Chapagain, A.K. 2008), www.waterfootprint.org.

The starting point of my statistical analysis was a long list of numbers and tables, but before plotting any data it was necessary to understand where those numbers came from. My background in engineering helped me to understand the figures, the formulas, and the mathematical structure of the subject.

‘People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such

as food, paper, cotton, clothes’ (Chapagain and Hoekstra). Virtual Water contained in a product is defined as the amount of water consumed in the production process of the product.

In my Water Footprint Encyclopedia an introduction illustrates several issues, from the water crisis to the concept of water footprint, through diagrams, drawings, symbols. Each country is then described through a visualization of its water footprint, the total and per capita value, and through a satellite image (Google Earth Professional) that tells a story about water, about beauty, about consumption, about human presence. We all need water in order to survive.

The Water Footprint of a country is the total volume of freshwater used to produce all the goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. Many goods consumed by the inhabitants of a country are produced in other countries, which means that it can happen that the real water demand of a population is much higher than the national water withdrawal. The reverse can be the case as well: national water withdrawals are substantial, but a large amount of the products are being exported for consumption elsewhere. The maps visualize the five Water Footprint components of 132 countries.

To produce one kilogram of rice we need about 3,400 litres of water, therefore the virtual water of this kilogram of rice is 3,400 litres. For beef, we need about 15,500 litres per kilo. With the trade of food, crops or any commodity, there is a virtual flow of water from producing and exporting countries to countries that consume and import those commodities. A water-scarce country can import products that require a lot of water for their production, rather than producing them domestically. By doing so, it allows real water savings, relieving the pressure on their water resources or making water available for other purposes.