Assessing sectoral water stress states from the demand-side perspective through water footprint dimensions decomposition.

Due to its essentiality and scarcity, water is subject to stress from the supply and demand side. The SDG and many methods for assessing water stress (WS) are based on water supply, even though the total water supply is uncontrollable by humans in the short term. Conversely, from a water demand perspective, WS arises from the deliberate and manageable use of water to produce goods and services, with few methods proposing to evaluate WS. We propose a method to assess the sectoral demand-side water stress states (DWSS) to fill this gap. The method comprises a quantitative step followed by a qualitative analysis. Quantitatively, an environmentally extended input-output model integrated Brazilian water resource and economic data for 2010 and 2015, including the imported virtual water in the water footprint calculation. Three dimensions of water footprint (DWF) were calculated: consumptive use of water (CUWF), water consumption (CWF), and return to the environment (REWF). The variations in DWFs over time were used as criteria to define five DWSS ranging from weak to strong. Brazilian economy as a whole presented a moderately weak DWSS. Among economic sectors, the most frequent DWSS was moderately weak, with sixteen sectors. The Livestock and Forestry, fishing, and aquaculture sectors had a strong DWSS, while the Slaughter, meat, and dairy and Public administration sectors had weak DWSS. Despite its limitations, the demand-side analysis can complement the usual method from a supply perspective.