6. Conclusion
With social progress and development, the acquisition and transportation of water requires an increasing amount of energy. These processes will inevitably result in a certain amount of carbon emissions. Thus, it can be expected that increasing energy consumption in water resource engineering projects will result in increasing carbon emissions. Carbon footprints can provide a useful tool to evaluate the carbon emissions associated with different types of projects and production processes. Although carbon footprint methods still need to be standardized, they show great promise for identifying ways to reduce carbon emissions in an objective manner and minimizing the potential environmental impacts of water resource developments.