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The Water Footprint of Data Centers

Author

Listed:
  • Bora Ristic

    (Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 1NA, UK)

  • Kaveh Madani

    (Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 1NA, UK)

  • Zen Makuch

    (Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 1NA, UK)

Abstract

The internet and associated Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are diffusing at an astounding pace. As data centers (DCs) proliferate to accommodate this rising demand, their environmental impacts grow too. While the energy efficiency of DCs has been researched extensively, their water footprint (WF) has so far received little to no attention. This article conducts a preliminary WF accounting for cooling and energy consumption in DCs. The WF of DCs is estimated to be between 1047 and 151,061 m 3 /TJ. Outbound DC data traffic generates a WF of 1–205 liters per gigabyte (roughly equal to the WF of 1 kg of tomatos at the higher end). It is found that, typically, energy consumption constitues by far the greatest share of DC WF, but the level of uncertainty associated with the WF of different energy sources used by DCs makes a comprehensive assessment of DCs’ water use efficiency very challenging. Much better understanding of DC WF is urgently needed if a meaningful evaluation of this rapidly spreading service technology is to be gleaned and response measures are to be put into effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Bora Ristic & Kaveh Madani & Zen Makuch, 2015. "The Water Footprint of Data Centers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-25, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:8:p:11260-11284:d:54389
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saeed Hadian & Kaveh Madani, 2013. "The Water Demand of Energy: Implications for Sustainable Energy Policy Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(11), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Eric Masanet & Arman Shehabi & Jonathan Koomey, 2013. "Characteristics of low-carbon data centres," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(7), pages 627-630, July.
    3. Depoorter, Victor & Oró, Eduard & Salom, Jaume, 2015. "The location as an energy efficiency and renewable energy supply measure for data centres in Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 338-349.
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    Cited by:

    1. Arjen Y. Hoekstra & Ashok K. Chapagain & Guoping Zhang, 2015. "Water Footprints and Sustainable Water Allocation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, December.
    2. Jiang, Feng & Duan, Cuncun & Chen, Bin, 2025. "Facility-level energy-driven water footprint and scarcity implications of Chinese data centers: a bottom-up analysis and scenario-based projection," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 399(C).
    3. Etienne Romsom & Kathryn McPhail, 2020. "The energy transition in Asia: Country priorities, fuel types, and energy decisions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-48, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Ayyildiz, Ertugrul & Yildirim, Betul & Aydin, Nezir, 2025. "Location selection methodology for data center with renewable energy integration," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    5. Jing Ni & Bowen Jin & Bo Zhang & Xiaowei Wang, 2017. "Simulation of Thermal Distribution and Airflow for Efficient Energy Consumption in a Small Data Centers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Mohamed Sameer Hoosain & Babu Sena Paul & Susanna Kass & Seeram Ramakrishna, 2023. "Tools Towards the Sustainability and Circularity of Data Centers," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 173-197, March.

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