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Life Cycle Impacts of a Commercial Rainwater Harvesting System and Sustainability
Citation:
Ghimire, S., JohnM Johnston, AND W. Ingwersen. Life Cycle Impacts of a Commercial Rainwater Harvesting System and Sustainability. 17th Annual American Ecological Engineering Society Meeting, Athens, GA, May 23 - 25, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the 17th Annual American Ecological Engineering Society Meeting in Athens, GA.
Description:
A sustainability paradigm is being recognized globally as a path forward for human prosperity and ecological health in the face of climate change and challenges of the water-energy-food nexus. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and related green infrastructure practices are receiving renewed interest due to potential benefits that include reduced environmental and human health impacts, reduced stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows, and economic viability. We present findings from two recent papers that utilized life cycle assessment (LCA) of a commercial RWH system compared with a municipal water supply system adapted to Washington, D.C., and a modified eco-efficiency framework and methodology for evaluating the sustainability of RWH design configurations. LCA of commercial RWH showed that the benchmark commercial RWH system outperformed municipal water supply in all categories except Ozone Depletion, and the sensitivity analysis revealed pump material and pumping energy to be key components for most categories with conditional impact tradeoffs. Our modified eco-efficiency framework included four economic, 11 environmental, and three social indicators, and we used six indicators to analyze RWH designs as decision management objectives. Subjectivity and sensitivity analysis were addressed by evaluating 10 weighting schemes and derived thresholds, revealing the least to most sustainable design options. Sustainability analysis tools included Data Envelopment Analysis, LCA, and life cycle cost assessment. Sustainability indicators vary by environmental, social, and economic requirements, and by the temporal and spatial scale of analysis. Future research is directed towards addressing the variation in sustainability indicators of RWH for crop irrigation at a river basin scale.
