Dynamic life cycle assessment for water treatment implications

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Water Resource Management
• Sustainable Development

Background:

• Long-term tracking of urban water services is crucial for sustainable development goals.
• Existing life cycle assessment (LCA) methods lack temporal variation analysis for water treatment impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a dynamic life cycle assessment (DLCA) method incorporating temporal variation.
• To analyze the long-term environmental impacts of various water management strategies for urban water services.

Main Methods:

• Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and System Dynamics (SD) models to create a DLCA framework.
• Simulated long-term water demand across domestic, agricultural, livestock, and manufacturing sectors.
• Validated the model using data from a water treatment facility in the Kinmen Islands, Taiwan.

Main Results:

• Implementing imported and reclaimed water reduced groundwater reliance from 77% to 43%, enhancing urban water service resilience.
• Increased wastewater treatment efficiency by 3.7% can decrease environmental impacts.
• Reclaimed water technology and water savings offer greater impact reduction (19% and 13.7%) compared to desalination.
• Desalination presents higher political and energy-associated environmental risks.

Conclusions:

• The DLCA method effectively demonstrates temporal impact variations in urban water services.
• Policy-making for sustainable water management can benefit from insights into the long-term impacts of different strategies.
• Prioritizing reclaimed water and water-saving measures is environmentally advantageous over desalination.