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

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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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Haniye Safarpour & Massoud Tabesh & Seyyed Ahmadreza Shahangian & Mohsen Hajibabaei & Robert Sitzenfrei, 2022. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Wastewater Systems under Applying Water Demand Management Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7736-:d:847278
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas L. Saaty & Luis G. Vargas, 2012. "The Seven Pillars of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Models, Methods, Concepts & Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, edition 2, chapter 0, pages 23-40, Springer.
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    3. Matthias Finkbeiner & Erwin M. Schau & Annekatrin Lehmann & Marzia Traverso, 2010. "Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 2(10), pages 1-14, October.
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    6. Thomas L. Saaty & Luis G. Vargas, 2012. "Models, Methods, Concepts & Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-4614-3597-6, March.
    7. Shyama Ratnasiri & Clevo Wilson & Wasantha Athukorala & Maria A. Garcia-Valiñas & Benno Torgler & Robert Gifford, 2018. "Effectiveness of two pricing structures on urban water use and conservation: a quasi-experimental investigation," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 20(3), pages 547-560, July.
    8. Haniye Safarpour & Massoud Tabesh & Seyyed Ahmadreza Shahangian, 2022. "Environmental Assessment of a Wastewater System under Water demand management policies," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(6), pages 2061-2077, April.
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    2. Nasiri, Amir Reza & Shahangian, Seyyed Ahmadreza & Kerachian, Reza & Zobeidi, Tahereh, 2024. "Exploring socio-psychological factors affecting farmers' intention to choose a low-water-demand cropping pattern for water resources conservation: Application of the health belief model," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    3. Zhangjun Liu & Jingwen Zhang & Tianfu Wen & Jingqing Cheng, 2022. "Uncertainty Quantification of Rainfall-runoff Simulations Using the Copula-based Bayesian Processor: Impacts of Seasonality, Copula Selection and Correlation Coefficient," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(13), pages 4981-4993, October.

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