Improving data quality, applicability and transparency of national water accounts - A case study for Finland

Highlights • A procedure for the compilation of the highly disaggregated national water accounts, and a data quality framework is described. • Sectoral data coverages and sources of error are reported and discussed. • Water accounts for self-abstracted water and mains-water are reported for 195 industries of the Finnish economy. • The accounts are primarily based on actual water supply and use rate data. • Data are reported separately for mains water, groundwater, fresh surface water, brackish water, and cooling water.

This paper introduces a novel procedure for the compilation of highly disaggregated water accounts by using Finland as a case example. The procedure is based on combining the use of existing standard economic statistics and other registers and databases with a dataset on water supply and use collected in the present study. As an outcome, water supply and use accounts are presented for 195 industries in the Finnish economy in 2010. The water accounts presented are based primarily on actual water supply and use rates and distinguish between various raw water sources and uses: groundwater, fresh surface, brackish water self-abstracted for own use, and mains-water supply and use. Separate accounts for cooling water are presented. The paper covers flow accounts from the environment to the economy and within the economy excluding all return flows. Data coverage issues and potential sources of error are reported in detail and discussed together with the applicability of the procedure in other countries. Implications for the System of Economic-Environmental Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water) framework are assessed.