“WATER PROFILE” AS IMPACT CATEGORY AND ELEMENT OF LIFE CYCLE IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Freshwater is the only abiotic natural resource which is “renewable and finite” at the same time. Nowadays water crisis is identified between the major potential risks in the world and important economic, environmental and social implications could occur as a consequence of “water scarcity”. Many efforts were addressed to define metrics for water use assessment, according to the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. This paper aims to make an overview of the main experiences in water use assessment and management carried out in recent years both at global and local scale, by highlighting the needs to harmonize indicators and impact assessment methods in order to assessing the “Water Profile” of a product, company, region or nation. The ISO standards [14046:2014] for Water Footprint calculation were analysed and with the beta version of Water Use Impact Assessment Method, UNEP/SETAC Water Working Group released in 2015 were compared. Differences in evaluating the environmental implication of the consumptive and degradative use of water were also underlined. Experiences in mapping of global and local water scarcity were examined, and specific software, performed in order to support decisions in water management, were also mentioned. The overview was ended with the analyses of the principal initiatives for sustainable water stewardship.