Environmental Impact Assessment of Water Demand Management Policies on the Urban Water System Using Life Cycle Approach

As the population and urbanization increase, policymakers consider urban water management more often; however, these policies can positively and negatively affect the urban water system. In recent years, following the increase in the water crisis in Isfahan province, pressure management has been applied to reduce access to water as a new water demand management policy in different cities of this province. The present study investigates the environmental effects of such policy in the new city of Baharestan (Isfahan province) during the 2018-2036 period, using a life cycle approach and different percentages of available water shortages. SimaPro software is used to conduct the life cycle assessment for processes such as network failure and energy consumption at the pumping station. The life cycle assessment is performed based on the conditions of the study area. The results show that significant part of the environmental effects in the water supply and distribution network is caused by network failures, which, compared to energy consumption, have many effects on most midpoint and endpoint environmental effects. So that the endpoint environmental effects of network failures are, on average, 2.2 times greater than that of pumping systems. The water distribution network and pumping system can minimize their environmental impact by implementing a pressure management policy. With pressure management, the endpoint environmental effects in both short-term and long-term scenarios are reduced by 14.7% and 20.2%, respectively.