Comparing the environmental impacts caused by construction and implementation of water distribution network pipes using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method

Abstract

The importance of water distribution networks in social health and their role in urban and rural public service has resulted in many studies on these networks performance. Most of the studies focused on hydraulic and qualitative aspects, while the environmental aspects are less considered. In this study, the environmental impacts of production, transportation and installation of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Ductile Iron (DI) and Fiber cement pipes were investigated. Furthermore, considering specific trench for each pipe, environmental impacts of different trenches were compared in installation phase. In this paper, SimaPro 8 was used to evaluate the life cycle of scenarios. The results indicated that DI and PVC pipes have respectively the highest and lowest environmental impacts in the whole process of production, transportation and installation. The results of this study could be considered as a guideline in designing and implementing water distribution networks with the lowest environmental effects. In this paper, a part of water distribution network of Tehran is chosen as the case study to estimate the reduction potential of environmental impacts.

Keywords

• water distribution network
• life cycle assessment
• pipes
• trenches
• environmental impacts