Growing Blue Website Offers Various Interactive Educational Online Tools

August 30, 2012

Multimedia

Photo courtesy of Growing Blue.

Photo courtesy of Growing Blue. Click to see www.growingblue.com.

The website, Growing Blue, offers water-focused data through various online interactive tools. It was created to show how water is essential to economic and social growth and to healthy ecosystems.

One resource on the website is the Growing Blue™ Tool, which presents information on water availability and use around the world in an interactive map. The website also offers various fact sheets, case studies, news items, reports, graphic illustrations, and summaries on how different population growth scenarios affect water availability and the resulting effects on the economy, environment, and society.

The Water Impact Index Calculator is the newest tool on the site. It expands on volume-based water calculators by also taking into account water resource stress factors and water quality, according to a Growing Blue news release.

Users can input facility and water resource data, such as water withdrawal, water released, chemicals used, waste produced, and energy consumed, to generate a report indicating where the most significant effects on water use occurs, the news release says. When used with a cost analysis, the results can help determine what changes and upgrades would save the most water, reduce costs, and provide the highest return on investment, the news release says.

Developed by Growing Blue founding partner Veolia Water (Paris), the free calculator is designed to be used by those with an operational understanding of water and wastewater systems, and a familiarity with water chemistry and the energy‒water nexus, the news release says. The calculator is provided in hopes of fostering collaboration and dialogue about water and carbon measurement and sustainability, the release says.

The website is managed by representatives from Veolia Water, The Nature Conservancy (Arlington, Va.), Clean Water America Alliance (Washington, D.C.), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Geneva), the United Nations Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, The Earth Institute at Columbia University (New York), Global Water Intelligence (Oxford, England), and Cardno ENTRIX (Houston).

Jennifer Fulcher, WEF Highlights

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