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Updated: May 23, 2026

Watershed Planning within a Quantitative Scenario Analysis Framework
Published on: July 24, 2016
A critical review on sustainability assessment of recycled water schemes
Zhuo Chen1, Huu Hao Ngo, Wenshan Guo
1School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia.
Abstract:
Recycled water provides a viable opportunity to supplement water supplies as well as alleviate environmental loads. To further expand current schemes and explore new recycled water end uses, this study reviews several environmental assessment tools, including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) in terms of their types, characteristics and weaknesses in evaluating the sustainability of recycled water schemes. Due to the limitations in individual models, the integrated approaches are recommended in most cases, of which the outputs could be further combined with additional economic and social assessments in multi-criteria decision making framework. The study also proposes several management strategies in improving the environmental scores. The discussion and suggestions could help decision makers in making a sound judgement as well as recognising the challenges and tasks in the future.
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