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As discussed earlier, bio‐based systems consume significant amount of water. Most metrics for assessing water use are based on quantity of water applied; however, sustainable evaluation of water use needs assessment of water quality as well. Water footprint is a methodology for the quantification of water use in a system and its related environmental impacts, usually from a life cycle perspective. Thus, it includes direct and indirect water use (Verones et al., 2015). Water use can be accounted in volume or cost in sustainability assessment. Some water and energy use indicators are presented in Table 3.4.

Several of the impact categories commonly used in life cycle assessment (LCA) affect water resources. Water quality assessment can be accounted by freshwater eutrophication and acidification, as well as eco‐toxicity and human health measures (Verones et al., 2015). Most analyses fail to account for water scarcity and local water use restrictions due to large quantities of water used in bio‐based systems, which can become a bottleneck for sustainable development of bio‐based systems in some freshwater basins (Martin et al., 2018).