Arjen Hoekstra (June 28, 1967 - November 18, 2019) was a professor at the
University of Twente
The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands.
The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. I ...
who pioneered the concept of the
water footprint
A water footprint shows the extent of water use in relation to consumption by people. The water footprint of an individual, community, or business is defined as the total volume of fresh water used to produce the goods and services consumed by t ...
- 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 supported
open source science, and all his articles were published under a
Creative Commons License
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
.
Education
Hoekstra earned an MSc degree in
Civil Engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
and a PhD in Policy Analysis from
Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...
.
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 of
interdisciplinary research
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
projects, and advised a range of organisations about water consumption, these included governments,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
, and
Compassion in World Farming
Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) is a campaigning and lobbying animal welfare organisation. It campaigns against the live export of animals, certain methods of livestock slaughter, and all systems of factory farming. It has received celebr ...
.
As a professor, Hoekstra taught subjects such as:
sustainable development,
hydrology
Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is call ...
, 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 to
consumption
Consumption may refer to:
*Resource consumption
*Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically
* Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms
* Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...
by people.
The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of
fresh water used 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 be
calculated
''Calculated'' is the only studio album by the American punk rock band Heavens to Betsy, released on March 21, 1994, by Kill Rock Stars. The album received positive reviews from critics.
Recording and release
''Calculated'' was recorded in Se ...
for any well-defined group of
consumer
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
s (e.g., an individual, family, village, city, province, state or nation) or
producers
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
(e.g., a public organization, private enterprise or economic sector), for a single
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
(such as growing rice) or for any
product
Product may refer to:
Business
* Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem.
* Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution
Mathematics
* Produ ...
or
service.
Traditionally, water use has been approached from the production side, by quantifying the following three columns of water use: water withdrawals in the
agricultural,
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
, and
domestic
Domestic may refer to:
In the home
* Anything relating to the human home or family
** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication
** A domestic appliance, or home appliance
** A domestic partnership
** Domestic science, sometimes c ...
sector. While this does provide valuable data, it is a limited way of looking at water use in a
globalised world, 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 of
virtual water
The virtual water trade (also known as embedded or embodied water) is the hidden flow of water in food or other commodities that are traded from one place to another. The virtual water trade is the idea that when goods and services are exchanged, s ...
, or ''embodied water'' (akin to the concept of
embodied energy
Embodied energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself. The concept can be useful in determining the effectiveness of energy-produ ...
).
In 2002, the water footprint concept was introduced in order to have a consumption-based
indicator
Indicator may refer to:
Biology
* Environmental indicator of environmental health (pressures, conditions and responses)
* Ecological indicator of ecosystem health (ecological processes)
* Health indicator, which is used to describe the health ...
of water use, that could provide useful information in addition to the traditional production-sector-based indicators of water use. It is analogous to the
ecological footprint concept 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 the
Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of
Iaşi in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
. (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).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoekstra, Arjen
1967 births
2019 deaths
21st-century Dutch engineers
University of Twente faculty
Dutch civil engineers