Assessing Urban Wastewater System Upgrades Using Integrated Modeling, Life Cycle Analysis, and Shadow Pricing

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Water Resource Management
• Life Cycle Assessment

Background:

• Urban wastewater systems (UWS) significantly impact river ecosystems.
• Eindhoven's UWS upgrade aims to mitigate dissolved oxygen depletion, ammonia peaks, combined sewer overflows, and nutrient loading in the Dommel River.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the environmental impacts of four proposed UWS upgrade measures.
• To compare these measures against a "do-nothing" scenario.
• To integrate life cycle analysis with economic shadow pricing for comprehensive assessment.

Main Methods:

• Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) applied to UWS upgrade measures.
• Integrated modeling of the UWS and receiving river section.
• Uncertainty analysis to validate impact estimations.
• Economic shadow pricing to weigh socio-economic importance of impacts.

Main Results:

• Deeper clarifiers identified as the most environmentally beneficial upgrade measure.
• Assessment included long-term global environmental impacts.
• Analysis revealed trade-offs between different environmental impacts, monetized for comparison.

Conclusions:

• The integration of LCA and shadow pricing offers a novel approach to UWS assessment.
• Deeper clarifiers present a favorable environmental upgrade strategy for the Eindhoven UWS.
• The study provides a framework for evaluating wastewater infrastructure investments considering environmental and socio-economic factors.