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Making Asset Investment Decisions for Wastewater Systems That Include Sustainability |
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| Authors: | Richard Ashley David Blackwood David Butler Paul Jowitt John Davies Heidi Smith Daniel Gilmour Crina Oltean-Dumbrava |
| Affiliation: | 1Professor, Pennine Water Group, Dept. of Civil and Structural Engineering, Univ. of Sheffield, Mappin St., Sheffield S1 3JD, U.K. 2Senior Lecturer, Urban Water Technology Centre, Univ. of Abertay Dundee, Bell St., Dundee DD1 1HG, U.K. (corresponding author). E-mail: d.blackwood@abertay.ac.uk 3Professor, Centre for Water Systems, Univ. of Exeter, North Park Rd., Exeter EX4 4QF, U.K. 4Professor, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh EH14 4AS, U.K. 5Head of Civil Engineering, School of Science and the Environment, Coventry Univ., Coventry CV1 5FB, U.K. 6Environment Officer, Environment Unit, Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Huddersfield HD1 1JY, U.K. 7Research Officer, Urban Water Technology Centre, Univ. of Abertay Dundee, Bell St., Dundee DD1 1HG, U.K. 8Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Design and Technology, Univ. of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, U.K. |
| Abstract: | Effective integrated water management is a key component of the World Water Vision and the way in which aspirations for water equity may be realized. Part of the vision includes the promotion of sustainability of water systems and full accountability for their interaction with other urban systems. One major problem is that “sustainability” remains an elusive concept, although those involved with the provision of urban wastewater systems now recognize that decisions involving asset investment should use the “triple bottom line” approach to society, the economy, and the environment. The Sustainable Water Industry Asset Resource Decisions project has devised a flexible and adaptable framework of decision support processes that can be used to include the principles of sustainability more effectively. Decision mapping conducted at the outset of the project has shown that only a narrow range of criteria currently influence the outcome of asset investment decisions. This paper addresses the concepts of sustainability assessment and presents two case studies that illustrate how multicriteria decision support systems can enhance the assessment of the relative sustainability of a range of options when decisions are being made about wastewater asset investment. |
| Keywords: | Reactors Phosphorus Municipal wastes Simulation Nitrogen Wastewater management |