Issues of scale in the field of “Water Footprint”

Abstract

The implementation of the "water footprint" to the Spanish reality must be done from the awareness that until relatively recently, the dominant scientific thinking was reductionism, whose approach to be adequate detailed each of the components of a system knowledge and their fundamental laws, to understand globally. And, the interest in this indicator stems from the importance that charge concepts as "scarcity" and "pollution" of the water, as a direct and indirect consequence of human activity on water systems, both in Spain and Latin America; in order to improve management-from the supply and demand of water resources of the planet and reduce regional inequalities. Thus, in the present study an estimate of the "water footprint" of Spain and Latin America, as well as Network Spanish National Parks, both economic and environmental level is made, describing the water resources used, necessary for meet the demand for goods and services consumed, on the eve of the XXI century.