The Geographic Agricultural Water Footprint Calculator (GAWFC) is a software tool that calculates green and blue water footprints of crops at geographic locations based on five georeferenced data inputs. It is based in the FAO Report 56 for calculation of crop Evapotranspiration and on the Water Footprint Assessment Manual developed by WFN. The structure of the input files enables the calculation of green and blue water footprints of multiple sites and of multiple crops. The tool can thus not only be used in sites but also for catchment and supply chain agricultural water footprint calculations.

September 2017

The Geographic Agricultural Water Footprint Calculator (GAWFC) is a software tool that calculates green and blue water footprints of crops at geographic locations based on five georeferenced data inputs. It is based in the FAO Report 56 for calculation of crop Evapotranspiration and on the Water Footprint Assessment Manual developed by WFN. The structure of the input files enables the calculation of green and blue water footprints of multiple sites and of multiple crops. The tool can thus not only be used in sites but also for catchment and supply chain agricultural water footprint calculations.

Example of the georeferenced GAWFC output of blue and green water footprints (m³/t) of banana farms in Dominican Republic

The first version of the code was developed by Dr. Mesfin Mekonnen with the support of the University of Twente in The Netherlands (and currently at University of Nebraska), in 2011. In 2016, after an agreement with Dr. Mekonnen, Derk Kuiper from Good Stuff International further developed the code and created the software tool GAWFC. Also, we at GSI have validated GAWFC against the FAO CROPWAT model.

GAWFC has been used so far in at least 10 different catchments and crops around the globe. With the automatization of the agricultural water footprint calculation, it is now possible to assess crop water use scenarios in an efficient and cost-effective way, which automatically increased the practical applications of the water footprint concept. Results have been used to produce robust farm water balances for the application of the AWS (Alliance for Water Stewardship) standard, to generate crop water use benchmarks for specific localities and crops, to assess scenarios on water productivity, and to assess an entire agricultural sector within a catchment with the aim of setting practical water targets. The field of applications is rapidly growing and the potential is huge.

We at GSI are organising how to make this software tool available to the public. Pls contact Derk Kuiper (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Erika Zarate (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you want to know more. You can find GAWFC's brochure here. 

Example project using GAWFC: Water Footprint Assessment for the entire banana sector in Dominican Republic