Abstract:

The water footprint concept was introduced by Hoekstra in 2002 in order to have a consumptionbased indicator of water use that could provide useful information in addition to the traditional productionsectorbased indicators of water use.Since not all goods consumed in one particular country are produced in that country，the water footprint consists of two parts：use of domestic water resources and use of water outside the borders of the country.In order to give a complete picture of water use，the water footprint includes both the water withdrawn from surface and groundwater and the use of soil water (in agricultural production).The water footprint concept is closely linked to the virtual water concept.Virtual water is defined as tile volume of water required to produce a commodity or service.In this study，the water footprint concept，as a practical tool，was employed to analyze how consumption patterns may affect the water use.How a country can evaluate its internal water footprint in order to reduce the pressure on domestic water resources and how a country can profit from its relative abundance of water by exporting waterrich commodities，form two developing directions of water footprint concept.This paper thus introduced the conception and computation of water footprint analysis.Then the water footprint of Chongqing City in 2004 was calculated as a model.The water footprint of Chongqing City in 2004 is 37017×108 m3，1 177 m3 per capita available.The water selfsufficiency is 9861％ in this city，which is not very appreciate for Chongqing City because water is very scarce in this region.Factors affecting water footprint were analyzed，and the revelation and significance of water footprint in the water administration of Chongqing were discussed.The application prospect of water footprint for estimating water resource management was also analyzed at last.

Key words: water footprint, virtual water, process water, water resource administration, Chongqing City