Fresh water is a limited global resource. Water scarcity footprints (WSF) have been developed to guide the choices of consumers and supply chains to reduce unsustainable fresh water consumption. The Available WAter REmaining (AWARE) method, which is the only method to have gained global consensus, assigns WSF for a commodity or product relative to the scarcity of water in the catchment in which production occurs. This results in products from water-stressed catchments that have a higher WSF than a similar product, using a comparable amount of water, in water-abundant catchments. The characterisation of water stress is developed using the WaterGap global hydrological model. Here, we use the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) to highlight how WaterGap does not reflect the impacts that legislation and infrastructure have on the relative volumes of water available for agriculture and the relationship between when (and where) water enters a catchment and when it is used for agriculture. Given that these issues are not unique to the MDB, it is likely that the AWARE WSF misrepresents the water stress experienced in other regulated catchments around the world. We conclude that for a WSF to be a useful indicator to guide consumer and supply chain decisions in supporting sustainable water consumption, it needs to reflect responsible management, such as setting aside water for the environment, placing caps on extractions, and the ability to hold water or transport water well beyond when and where it enters a catchment. Ultimately, WSF should also include a mechanism to assess burden shifting, especially if consumer or supply chain decisions were to mean that production moved to another catchment.

淡水是一种有限的全球资源。已经制定了水资源短缺足迹 (WSF) 来指导消费者和供应链的选择，以减少不可持续的淡水消耗。可用水剩余量 (AWARE) 方法是唯一获得全球共识的方法，它为商品或产品分配 WSF，与生产所在流域的水资源稀缺程度相关。这导致来自缺水集水区的产品具有比类似产品更高的 WSF，使用可比数量的水，在水丰富的集水区。水资源压力的表征是使用 WaterGap 全球水文模型开发的。这里，我们使用墨累达令盆地 (MDB) 来强调 WaterGap 没有反映立法和基础设施对农业可用水的相对量的影响以及水进入集水区的时间（和地点）与使用时间之间的关系为农业。鉴于这些问题并非 MDB 独有，AWARE WSF 很可能歪曲了世界其他受监管流域所经历的水资源压力。我们得出的结论是，要使 WSF 成为指导消费者和供应链决策以支持可持续用水的有用指标，它需要反映负责任的管理，例如为环境留出水，设置提取上限以及保持水的能力水或运输水远远超出其进入集水区的时间和地点。最终，