Arjen Hoekstra

Arjen Hoekstra
Arjen Hoekstra, 2013
Born	(1967-06-28)28 June 1967
Died	18 November 2019(2019-11-18)(aged 52)
Citizenship	Dutch
Occupation	Academic
Known for	Water footprint

Arjen Hoekstra(June 28, 1967 - November 18, 2019) was a professor at theUniversity of Twentewho pioneered the concept of thewater footprint- a way of measuring the extent of water consumption.His work drew attention to the hidden water use associated with a range of activities, and continues to have a profound effect both on scholarship and on environmental policy and activism.He strongly supportedopen sourcescience, and all his articles were published under aCreative Commons License.

Education

Hoekstra earned an MSc degree inCivil Engineeringand a PhD in Policy Analysis fromDelft University of Technology.

Career

At the University of Twente, Arjen Hoekstra was Professor of Water Management and Chair of the Department of Multidisciplinary Water Management. He worked on a variety ofinterdisciplinary researchprojects, and advised a range of organisations about water consumption, these included governments,UNESCO,theWorld Bank,andCompassion in World Farming. As a professor, Hoekstra taught subjects such as:sustainable development,hydrology,natural resource valuation, environmental systems, and policy analysis.Throughout his career, Hoekstra's work gained international media attention and he was consistently referred to as an expert on the topic of water resource issues.

Water footprint

The water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation toconsumptionby people.The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume offresh waterused to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business. Water use is measured in water volume consumed (evaporated) and/or polluted per unit of time. A water footprint can becalculatedfor any well-defined group ofconsumers(e.g., an individual, family, village, city, province, state or nation) orproducers(e.g., a public organization, private enterprise or economic sector), for a singleprocess(such as growing rice) or for anyproductorservice.

Traditionally, water use has been approached from the production side, by quantifying the following three columns of water use: water withdrawals in theagricultural,industrial,anddomesticsector. While this does provide valuable data, it is a limited way of looking at water use in aglobalisedworld, in which products are not always consumed in their country of origin. International trade of agricultural and industrial products in effect creates a global flow ofvirtual water,orembodied water(akin to the concept ofembodied energy).

In 2002, the water footprint concept was introduced in order to have a consumption-basedindicatorof water use, that could provide useful information in addition to the traditional production-sector-based indicators of water use. It is analogous to theecological footprintconcept introduced in the 1990s. The water footprint is a geographically explicit indicator, not only showing volumes of water use and pollution, but also the locations.Thus, it gives a grasp on how economic choices and processes influence the availability of adequate water resources and other ecological realities across the globe (and vice versa).

Death

Hoekstra died unexpectedly in November, 2019. The cause of the death was unknown and expired when he was riding his bike back to his house. He is survived by a wife and children.

Awards

• Hoekstra was awarded an honorary doctorate by theGheorghe Asachi Technical UniversityofIaşiinRomania.(2012)

Selected publications

• Hoekstra, Arjen.The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society(Routledge, 2013, 2020),
• Hoekstra, Arjen.The Water Footprint Assessment Manual(Earthscan, 2011)
• Hoekstra, Arjen.Globalization of Water(Wiley-Blackwell, 2008).