Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Wastewater Systems under Applying Water Demand Management Policies

Haniye Safarpour, Massoud Tabesh, Seyyed Ahmadreza Shahangian, Mohsen Hajibabaei and Robert Sitzenfrei
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Haniye Safarpour: School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 14176-13131, Iran
Massoud Tabesh: School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 14176-13131, Iran
Seyyed Ahmadreza Shahangian: School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran 14176-13131, Iran
Mohsen Hajibabaei: Unit of Environmental Engineering, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Robert Sitzenfrei: Unit of Environmental Engineering, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Innsbruck, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: Sustainability assessment of urban water and wastewater infrastructures, especially when it comes to managing existing systems, is of paramount importance. Hence, this study presents a comprehensive approach to investigate the sustainability of a real wastewater system under different water demand management policies (WDMPs) in the operation and maintenance stage. In this regard, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is used through its three main pillars, which are (1) environment, (2) economy, and (3) society. Accordingly, (1) Environmental assessment is conducted using life cycle assessment (LCA) considering a thorough inventory dataset; (2) The economic assessment results are analyzed by the life cycle cost (LCC) method; and (3) Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) is conducted using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, in which three main stakeholders “public and local community”, “workers and employees”, and “treated wastewater and sludge consumers” are considered. Finally, to prioritize scenarios, the results of LCA, LCC, and SLCA for every scenario are aggregated to account for the sustainability score using the AHP. The results of applying the proposed method to a real case study show that scenarios leading to less reduction in wastewater production are more sustainable options as they represent better performance regarding economic and social aspects. The proposed framework provides a better insight into the integrated sustainability analysis of urban water infrastructures. In addition, it can be used as a guideline for exploring the effects of WDMPs on wastewater systems in different study areas.

Keywords: demand-side management; life cycle assessment (LCA); life cycle cost (LCC); social life cycle assessment (SLCA); sustainability; wastewater system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7736-:d:847278

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