Metabolic Approach for Estimating the Environmental Loads Associated with Water Distribution Network of Rende: Life Cyle Assessment Application with Impact 2002+

Abstract

The management of a water network metabolism depends on the estimate of incoming and outgoing flows related to the life cycle of the products and processes involved. This type of analysis can be used, in an equivalent manner, to estimate the environmental loads associated with products and processes, providing a useful support to define the sustainability level of a water network. The Life Cycle Assessment, in these contexts, is often used in association with other methods for estimating metabolism. In this work the impact analysis of input and output flows of the Rende (Italy) water network is proposed, aimed at estimating the cost of its metabolism, in terms of global impact, referring to the materials making up its hydraulic elements.

Keywords

• metabolic model
• sustainable water management
• material/energy flows
• life cycle assessment
• metabolism cost.