Life cycle assessment of urban wastewater systems: Quantifying the relative contribution of sewer systems

This study aims to propose a holistic, life cycle assessment (LCA) of urban wastewater systems (UWS) based on a comprehensive inventory including detailed construction and operation of sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For the first time, the inventory of sewers infrastructure c...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Risch, Eva, Gutiérrez Garcia-Moreno, Oriol, Roux, Philippe, Boutin, Catherine, Corominas Tabares, Lluís
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Data de publicação:2015
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositório:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/12890
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/12890
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Clavegueram
Sewerage
Aigües residuals
Sewage
Medi ambient -- Anàlisi d'impacte
Environmental impact analysis
Descrição
Resumo:This study aims to propose a holistic, life cycle assessment (LCA) of urban wastewater systems (UWS) based on a comprehensive inventory including detailed construction and operation of sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For the first time, the inventory of sewers infrastructure construction includes piping materials and aggregates, manholes, connections, civil works and road rehabilitation. The operation stage comprises energy consumption in pumping stations together with air emissions of methane and hydrogen sulphide, and water emissions from sewer leaks. Using a real case study, this LCA aims to quantify the contributions of sewer systems to the total environmental impacts of the UWS. The results show that the construction of sewer infrastructures has an environmental impact (on half of the 18 studied impact categories) larger than both the construction and operation of the WWTP. This study highlights the importance of including the construction and operation of sewer systems in the environmental assessment of centralised versus decentralised options for UWS