Generally, the water resources of each country are consumed in three sectors: agriculture, industry, and drinking water. Water is one of the main elements for producing any product. The production and supply chain of a product to the consumer is a time and space process. This chain ranges from local to global, and in this process, water is consumed and ultimately polluted. The water footprint, as a quantitative measure, is used to show the amount of consumption of natural resources by humans. The process of eva‎luating the water footprint involves four steps: defining goals and scope, water footprint accounting, water footprint sustainability assessment, and policy-making and response formulation. Considering the water crisis in the country, especially in Isfahan province, and the drying up of the Zayandeh Roud basin in recent years, as well as the connection of various industries with the Zayandeh Roud basin, the main objective of this study is to estimate and compare the direct and indirect water footprints in different industries located in the Zayandeh Roud basin. Large industries such as Mobarakeh Steel, Esfahan Steel Company, the refinery, and the power plant were calculated and examined. The methodology of this research is such that after defining the intended goals and fields of study and the feasibility of obtaining the desired data, information was collected from selected industries. Then, two methods of total chain aggregation and sum of steps were used to calculate the water footprint in the studied industries, with the latter being the common and practical method. Using the water footprint equation, the amount of consumption and the direct and indirect water footprint per product in different sectors were calculated separately, and charts and figures were prepared using Excel software. The results of this study showed that the indirect water footprint consumption in the studied industries is equal to or more than the direct water consumption, and both are equally important. According to the eva‎luation of the obtained data and calculations performed, the direct water footprint consumption in the steel industry is 4.017 cubic meters per ton of steel, and the direct and indirect water footprint consumption in the Esfahan Steel Company is 5.17 cubic meters per ton of product per year. Also, the direct and indirect water footprint in the Islam Abad power plant is 1,198,320 cubic meters per terajoule or 4.31 liters per kilowatt-hour. Finally, it should be noted that this research faced many limitations and obstacles in data collection, making calculations and work processes difficult. Additionally, the responsibility for the accuracy of the calculated data and figures lies with the respective industries from which the information was obtained.

نوراله ميرغفاري

جهانگير عابدي كوپائي

محمد نعمتي ورنوسفادراني , علي لطفي