An exploration of developing approaches to water accounting

This chapter explores a 'toolkit' of developing approaches to water accounting, as utilized by both water consuming and water providing organisations. We question the function, utility and shortcomings of a range of available water accounting techniques. The chapter argues that while the diversity of available tools all have some shortcomings, each approach also offers differing utilities. Collectively, the toolkit offers significant potential to inform important questions for regional and global water management. We offer a range of suggestions for how both developers and users might further contribute to the development of this toolkit. We suggest that techniques to account for an organisation's water impacts deep into its supply chains are of particular importance yet remain underdeveloped and underutilised in practice. We argue that bold efforts to further engage with the many accounting approaches offered within the toolkit remain critical.