Design robustness of local water-recycling schemes

E. Rozos, C. Makropoulos, and D. Butler, Design robustness of local water-recycling schemes, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management - ASCE, 136 (5), 531–538, doi:10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000067, 2010.



The implementation of local water recycling and reuse practices is considered as a possible approach to managing issues of water scarcity. The sustainable design and implementation of a water recycle/reuse scheme has to achieve an optimum compromise between costs (including energy) and benefits (potable water demand reduction). Another factor that should be taken into account is the influence of potential changes in climatic conditions to the scheme’s efficiency. These issues were assessed in this study using the urban water optioneering tool. Two water-recycling schemes, a rainwater harvesting and a combination of rainwater harvesting and local greywater recycling, were assessed. The trade-off between potable water demand reduction, capital/operational cost, and energy consumption of the two schemes was derived under three basic climatic conditions (oceanic, Mediterranean, and desert) using evolutionary optimization. Furthermore, the impact of changing climatic conditions on the suggested schemes was analyzed to assess the robustness of the proposed design choices to climatic changes. The results indicate that schemes that are efficient in their use of local greywater are less susceptible to changes in climatic conditions, while schemes based exclusively on rainwater harvesting are more susceptible to changes the more efficient they become.

Our works referenced by this work:

1. C. Makropoulos, E. Rozos, and D. Butler, Urban water modelling and the daily time step: issues for a realistic representation, 8th International Conference on Hydroinformatics 2009, Concepcion, Chile, Curran Associates, Inc., 57 Morehouse Lane Red Hook, NY 12571 USA, 2011.

Our works that reference this work:

1. E. Rozos, and C. Makropoulos, Assessing the combined benefits of water recycling technologies by modelling the total urban water cycle, Urban Water Journal, 9 (1), doi:10.1080/1573062X.2011.630096, February 2012.
2. E. Rozos, and C. Makropoulos, Source to tap urban water cycle modelling, Environmental Modelling and Software, 41, 139–150, doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.11.015, Elsevier, 1 March 2013.
3. E. Rozos, C. Makropoulos, and C. Maksimovic, Rethinking urban areas: an example of an integrated blue-green approach, Water Science and Technology: Water Supply, 13 (6), 1534–1542, doi:10.2166/ws.2013.140, 2013.
4. D. Bouziotas, E. Rozos, and C. Makropoulos, Water and the City: Exploring links between urban growth and water demand management., Journal of Hydroinformatics, 17 (2), doi:10.2166/hydro.2014.053, 2015.


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