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  • Education as a tool to reduce our water footprint
    Publication . Venckutė, Milda; Silva, Manuela Moreira da
    To sustain the global changes of the last decades, including the rapidly growing world population, water must be conserved and used efficiently, as a renewable but finite natural resource. In developed countries with high consumption patterns, it is crucial to reduce water footprint (WF) per capita. One of the key measures to achieve this goal is education, which aims to change human’s mentality and behaviour and foster the sense of responsibility for the use of water. In the present reality and in the perspective of future, it is very important to dedicate special attention to youth education. The final objective of this thesis is to contribute to reduction of young citizen’s WF by the means of educational tools: the questionnaire and the developed electronic application, adapted for a certain age group. The results of the study performed in Faro showed that the average WF of a student is 3223±830 L/day, and that the total indirect water is much higher than direct and it corresponds to 90 % of the total WF. Food accounts for the major part (84 %) of young person’s WF, and in the second place of indirect uses is clothing-related WF (6%). Among analysed food groups, meat has the largest contribution (40 %) to the total personal WF. In direct water uses, young girls consume on average 73 L/day more than young boys. For both genders, high direct water use (aprox. 264 L/day) is due in large part to long showers, revealing a need to improve the behaviour of young consumers. This work allowed to show that young people consume too much water, mainly through indirect uses, especially food and clothing. The educational quiz permitted to demonstrate students the volumes of water they actually consume in their daily routines and show that there are numerous ways to reduce personal WF. Finally, to induce young people’s interest in water management issues, an electronic application in a gamified approach about WF was created.
    2017-04-28Master thesis Restricted Show more