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Using case studies from five typical climatic locations, this study revealed that current quantification of water demand (WD) and water footprint (WF) of freshwater algae cultivation in raceway ponds suffer from uncertainty and variability in the methodologies and assumptions used. Of particular concern, the WF metric had an intrinsically poor geographical resolution and could be biased towards high-productivity arid locations because local levels of water stress are not accounted for. Applying current methodologies could therefore cause the selection of locations that are neither economically viable nor environmentally sustainable. An improved methodology should utilize more accurate evaporation models, determine realistic limits for the maximum hydraulic retention times and process water recycling ratios, and apply weighting to the WF to reflect localized water stress or use an alternative metric such as the equivalent years of rainfall required to support a productivity of 1 GJ m(-2). (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.