Sustainable urban water resources management considering life-cycle environmental impacts of water utilization under uncertainty

Yanpeng Cai, Wencong Yue, Linyu Xu, Zhifeng Yang and Qiangqiang Rong

Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2016, vol. 108, issue C, 21-40

Abstract: To improve applicability of life cycle assessment (LCA) in supporting direct and robust decision-making, an integrated approach was developed through incorporating operational research and uncertainty analysis methods within a general LCA framework. The methodology can (a) help comprehensive evaluation of environmental impacts at multiple product-service levels, (b) facilitate the reflections of multiple LCA associated uncertainties and transfer them into consequential decision-making process, and (c) identify desired water allocation schemes for minimizing life-cycle environmental impacts. This represented an improvement upon conventional LCA method, as well as water resources allocation. The developed method was then verified in a water-stressed city (i.e., the City of Dalian), northeastern China. The application indicated that the proposed method was effective in generating desired water supply schemes under uncertainties, reflecting the associated life-cycle environmental impacts, and strengthening capabilities of both LCA and operational research methods. The results also indicated that the top three contributors for life-cycle environmental impacts would be districts of Pulandian and Zhuanghe, and Municipal zone of the city.

Keywords: Water resources management; Fuzzy sets; Two-stage programming; Life cycle analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:recore:v:108:y:2016:i:c:p:21-40

DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.01.008

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