Correlation analysis of environmental treatment, sewage treatment and water supply efficiency in China

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of a New Sewage Treatment Plant in China Based on Infrastructure Construction and Operation Phases Emergy Analysis

“…Water 2020, 12, 484 8 of 23 (12) Unit emergy values (UEVs) explains the emergy value of one unit of mass, energy, service, or money. UEVs mentions the efficiency of the evaluated system [53].…”

“…The results illustrate that (1) the infrastructure construction process emergy (approximate 92.6%) is more critical than sewage treatment process emergy; (2) nonrenewable resource is the primary factor for the emergy analysis, followed by energy (23.5%) and purchased supply (7%); (3) cement, steel, and gravel have dominant impacts on the nonrenewable resource emergy; (4) the emergy sustainability index is 0.001101, which displays weak environmental sustainability; (5) the unit emergy value (UEV) of the new sewage treatment plant is 3.40 × 10 12 sej/m 3 ; (6) sensitivity analysis results of the hypothesis demonstrate that nonrenewable resources have significant fluctuations (6.903%) while, for the indicators, emergy sustainability index (ESI) (4.8072%) has the most significant impact; and (7) wastewater is a major contributor. In light of comprehensive discussions, two positive measures are proposed in order to ameliorate the environmental sustainability.Water 2020, 12, 484 2 of 23 between the environment in the sewage treatment industry using biological perspective analysis [5][6][7][8], lifecycle assessment (LCA) perspective [9], ecology models perspective [10], energy and economy performances [11], sewage treatment and water supply efficiency [12], chemical and physical angles [13,14], construction in the wastewater treatment plants [15], integrating wastewater treatment and incineration plants for energy-efficient study [16], sampling strategy for the sewage sludge survey [17], soil and the treatment of sewage treatment plant [18], and systematic assessment framework [19].However, these studies have the following drawbacks: (1) for the isolated angles analysis, only one or some perspectives are chosen to demonstrate the interaction between environmental issues and the sewage treatment industry, resulting in a few unilateral conclusions; (2) ignorance of natural resources assessment leads to a negative impact on sustainability in the sewage treatment industry; (3) undifferentiated contribution degrees from different resource types could cause deviation inaccuracy to some extent; (4) there is a lack of a unified platform to evaluate sustainability in the sewage treatment industry, for example, an integrated method assessment should comprise resources, energy, labor, and others; and (5) some studies are unable to consider multiple pollutant emissions simultaneously, such as exhaust gas, wastewater, and solid waste. It will have a harmful effect on sustainability in the sewage treatment industry.…”

“…Water 2020, 12, 484 2 of 23 between the environment in the sewage treatment industry using biological perspective analysis [5][6][7][8], lifecycle assessment (LCA) perspective [9], ecology models perspective [10], energy and economy performances [11], sewage treatment and water supply efficiency [12], chemical and physical angles [13,14], construction in the wastewater treatment plants [15], integrating wastewater treatment and incineration plants for energy-efficient study [16], sampling strategy for the sewage sludge survey [17], soil and the treatment of sewage treatment plant [18], and systematic assessment framework [19].…”

The gap of water supply—Demand and its driving factors: From water footprint view in Huaihe River Basin

“…China is the largest developing country in the world, even its total freshwater resources account for 6% of the global water resources. However, the water consumption per capital is 2200 m3, which is only one fourth of the world level [ 8 ]. This make China is one of the 13 countries with the poorest water resources per capital [ 9 , 10 ].…”

China's Agricultural Water-Use Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors under the Constraint of Pollution Emission

“…Many researches have been conducted on water-use efficiency in China. Deng et al [9]; Lu and Xu [10]; Yang et al [11] respectively adopted the SBM-DEA model and threestage DEA-Malmquist index model, and the CRS-SBM-DEA model to study the water-use efficiency in China and achieve some useful results, but there is the lack of sufficient research on the AWE. The research on China's AWE originated from Wang et al [12].…”