title: Life cycle assessment of urban wastewater systems: Quantifying the relative contribution of sewer systems.
abstract: This study aims to propose a holistic, life cycle assessment (LCA) of urban wastewater systems (UWS) based on a comprehensive inventory including detailed construction and operation of sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). For the first time, the inventory of sewers infrastructure construction includes piping materials and aggregates, manholes, connections, civil works and road rehabilitation. The operation stage comprises energy consumption in pumping stations together with air emissions of methane and hydrogen sulphide, and water emissions from sewer leaks. Using a real case study, this LCA aims to quantify the contributions of sewer systems to the total environmental impacts of the UWS. The results show that the construction of sewer infrastructures has an environmental impact (on half of the 18 studied impact categories) larger than both the construction and operation of the WWTP. This study highlights the importance of including the construction and operation of sewer systems in the environmental assessment of centralised versus decentralised options for UWS.
authors.affiliation: Irstea, Research Unit: Information & Technologies for Agro-processes, UMR ITAP Montpellier, France. Electronic address: eva.risch@irstea.fr.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Risch
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA, Scientific and Technological Park of the UdG, Girona, Spain. Electronic address: ogutierrez@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Oriol
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.affiliation: Irstea, Research Unit: Information & Technologies for Agro-processes, UMR ITAP Montpellier, France. Electronic address: philippe.roux@irstea.fr.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roux
authors.affiliation: Irstea, Research Unit: Freshwater Systems, Ecology and Pollution, UR MALY Lyon, France. Electronic address: catherine.boutin@irstea.fr.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boutin
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute for Water Research, ICRA, Scientific and Technological Park of the UdG, Girona, Spain. Electronic address: lcorominas@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Corominas
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry; D002947:Cities; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005602:France; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide; D008697:Methane; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D006862:Hydrogen Sulfide; D008697:Methane; D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Construction; Inventory; LCA; Methane; Sulphide; Wastewater treatment