An Environmental Analysis of the Effect of Energy Saving, Production and Recovery Measures on Water Supply Systems under Scarcity Conditions

Abstract

Water is one of the primary resources provided for maintaining quality of life and social status in urban areas. As potable water is considered to be a primary need, water service has usually been managed without examining the economic and environmental sustainability of supply processes. Currently, due to increases in energy costs and the growth of environment preservation policies, reducing water leakage, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) production have become primary objectives in reducing the environmental footprint of water service. The present paper suggests the implementation of some performance indicators that show the interdependence of water loss, energy consumption and GHG emission. These indicators are used to compare a few possible mitigation scenarios involving water loss reduction and increasing the system's energy efficiency. The proposed indicators were applied to a complex urban water supply system serving the city of Palermo (Italy).

LCA Methodology for the Quantification of the Carbon Footprint of the Integrated Urban Water System

“…• Water is collected by three water subsystems (Figure 2): the Scillato system collects water from sources on the eastern side of the region; the Gabriele system collects water from sources in the southern mountains; and the Jato system collects water from sources on the western side of the region [19].…”

“…Water is collected by three water subsystems ( Figure 2): the Scillato system collects water from sources on the eastern side of the region; the Gabriele system collects water from sources in the southern mountains; and the Jato system collects water from sources on the western side of the region [19]. The Scillato system is the most complex, with three springs, 19 wells, two treatment plants (connected to three reservoirs), and six in-line pumping stations; it is also older than the other two supply systems, thus justifying the highest level of water losses.…”

Decision Support Tool for energy-efficient, sustainable and integrated urban stormwater management

“…Firstly, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the acquisition, distribution and treatment of drinking water are assessed based on international data (IDA, 2012;Singh, 2011;WEF, 2010) and hydraulic equations to estimate pumping energy requirements. This computation of energy consumptions and emissions includes water losses due to leakages in the network, since they play a relevant role in water supply systems (Puleo et al, 2015). Secondly, rainwater reuse volume is estimated with a monthly water balance based on local rainfall data and water demands.…”

Assessment of energy performance and GHG emissions for the urban water cycle toward sustainability

“…The recent research studies related to the sanitation stage of the urban water cycle addressed the analysis of wastewater infrastructure for total energy and GHG emissions considering the water-energy-carbon nexus (Singh & Kansal 2018), carbon neutrality of wastewater treatment systems for energy, nutrient and water recovery (Mo & Zhang 2012), comparison of different wastewater and sludge treatment technologies and disposal alternatives for the lowest CF (Chai et al 2015), analysis of energy consumption in WWTPs to evaluate water, CF and energy footprints (EF), and gray water footprint reduction (Gu et al 2016), application of a new methodological approach to determine direct and indirect emissions from WWTPs according to the guidelines of ISO 14064-1 (Marinelli et al 2021) and CF estimation of municipal water and wastewater services by embodied energy associated with topographic characteristics, efficiency of water and wastewater treatment systems and pumps (Bakhshi & Demonsabert 2012). In the case of the water supply stage, the relevant research studies focused on the evaluation of alternatives for the water supply infrastructure system by integrated CF and cost-benefit analysis (Qi & Chang 2012), analysis of the water cycle by LCA considering the impacts of water treatment and desalination plants, water losses in the water works, electrical consumptions and network maintenance (Del Borghi et al 2013), implementation of performance indicators to compare impacts of energy-saving, energy production and water losses reduction on water supply (Puleo et al 2015), evaluation of water cycle for hot spots of carbon emissions and pumping efficiency (Lin & Kang 2019) and comparison of current and future alternative water reclamation and resource recovery scenarios (Lahmouri et al 2019).…”