Environmental and economic performance of a water distribution system through a lens of life cycle thinking: A case study of the City of Kelowna

ABSTRACT

Water distribution systems (WDSs) are designed to supply water to consumers. Previously, the performance of WDSs was assessed based on the hydraulics, i.e., delivering water with sufficent quantity and good quality under the desired pressure. However, the recent sustainability paradigm has been widely recognized in engineering projects, leading water stakeholders to evaluate WDSs’ performance not only in terms of hydraulics but also considering the environmental and economic impacts. This research proposes an approach to evaluating the sustainability of WDSs at the design stage by applying a life cycle thinking approach. The proposed approach was demonstrated by selecting  a small WDS located in the City of Kelowna, Canada as a case study. Twelve alternative designs were created by varying WDS design variables such as pipe diameters, pipe materials, etc. The selected design scenario has 2.5% less CO₂ emissions and 12.6% lower cost compared to the baseline design. The developed approach can be applied to WDS having different characteristics to identify conditions, design parameters, and infrastructure components having less environmental and economic impacts.

KEYWORDS:

• Life cycle energy analysis
• life cycle cost analysis
• water distribution system
• hydraulic design
• sustainability

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, BUITEMS, and School of Engineering - University of British Columbia (Okanagan) for supporting this research. The authors would also like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments that greatly contributed to improving the final version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shah N. Khan

Shah Nawaz Khan is a lecturer at the Balochistan University of Information Technology Engineering and Management Sciences. He completed his Bachelor's from BUET Khuzdar, Pakistan in Civil Engineering, and MASc. from the University of British Columbia (Okanagan), Canada. His area of interest is urban water infrastructure management including sustainable development of water and wastewater conveyance and treatment systems.

Haroon R. Mian

Haroon R. Mian received his BSc in Environmental Engineering from The University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan in 2012, and his MSc from the same institute in 2015. Haroon is currently a doctoral student of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. His research interests include water quality modeling and management, source water protection, water distribution, and treatment systems, risk assessment, and decision making for environmental systems.

Kasun Hewage

Dr. Kasun Hewage is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan with multidisciplinary project experiences in Canada and internationally. He has been leading several collaborative industrial projects in life cycle management of built assets, green construction, and smart energy options. Dr. Hewage has widely published his research innovations and findings in highly reputed technical journals and conference proceedings. Before joining UBC in 2008, Professor Hewage worked as a business management cost specialist in Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and he has worked as a civil engineer on hydropower and infrastructure development projects.

Rehan Sadiq

Dr. Rehan Sadiq is a Professor of Civil Engineering and currently holds an Executive Associate Dean’s position in the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Dr. Sadiq is also a leading researcher in the areas of asset management of water supply systems, environmental risk analysis, and lifecycle assessment of the built environment. He is an author of more than 500 peer reviewed journal and conference articles, book chapters, and technical reports. He has served and chaired numerous Canadian and international scientific committees and conferences. Before joining the University of British Columbia in January 2009, he worked in the Urban Infrastructure Programof NRC Canada.