Physical water accounts for the Netherlands

In this study project, granted by Eurostat, Statistics Netherlands have tried to compile the SEEA - Physical Water Flow Accounts with Physical Supply and Use tables (PSUT) for water and the physical water asset accounts (resources)/water balance sheet for 2014 for the Netherlands. Methods and data collections are developed to compile the SEEA Water PSUT and Water Resource Asset tables at the national scale. Further we managed to compile basic regionalized water balances, for which the most important quantifications could be made. In this exercise, use is made of data stemming from remote sensing.

The different water types play an important role in economic activity. To reduce the burden on the (water) environment, the abstraction from water resources either scarce or not or less scarce, and the water used by economic activities, including households, and return flows are monitored. The water accounting tables compiled and discussed, show the use and reliance on the water resources in the inland water system. Industries can use the different water resources more efficiently, for example via recycling of water.

The Physical water flow accounts (PWFA) compiled in this study and which follow the SEEA-Water Accounts format, are based upon the water statistics and additional sources and consists of both physical supply and use tables (PSUT) and water asset tables (resources). In this physical SUT, ‘water’ is categorised into various types of water in the conceptual division of main flows in supply and use, namely:

A. water volumes extracted from the environment (water abstracted from the environment by economic entities)

B. physical water flows within the economy including monetary transactions

C. water return flows from the economy to the environment

In the project, for reporting year 2014, the water PSUT and Water Asset Account (Resources) is compiled. In compiling the Water Asset Accounts, the assessment of actual evapotranspiration and precipitation was done for the country and for the River basins districts. This assessment is based upon spatial and temporal explicit remote sensing data, obtained externally.


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