Contribution of Water and Wastewater Infrastructures to Urban Energy Metabolism and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cities in India
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 5
Abstract
This is a first analysis of end-use energy intensity (EUEI) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in water and wastewater (W/WW) sectors in India, and it examines their contribution to community-wide energy use and GHG emissions in cities in India. EUEI and related GHG emissions for W/WW infrastructures in Indian cities were analyzed and compared with data for cities in the United States. Data gathered by ICLEI-South Asia, Government of India, and the University of Colorado Denver were used to conduct this analysis. W/WW infrastructures were found to contribute 3–16% of community-wide electricity use and GHG emissions for 16 cities in India; for another 23 cities, the proportion was less than 3%. EUEI for drinking water supply and wastewater treatment averaged and , respectively. EUEI for drinking water provision was more than double that for wastewater treatment, the reverse of typical cities in Colorado, likely a result of poorer source water quality in India. In general, although the sample size of Indian W/WW plants is small, EUEI in India appears to be much smaller than in the United States for both water and wastewater sectors based on this first review of quantitative data.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Grant (IGERT; NSF Grant #DGE-0654378) from the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF).
References
Alanis, L. F. G. (2009). “Measuring energy efficiency of water utilities.” Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blackburg, VA.
Allan, J. A. (1998). “Virtual water: A strategic resource.” Groundwater, 36(4), 545–546.
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. (2003). “Financial survey 2002.” American Metropolitan Sewage Association, Washington, DC.
Baker, L. A., Hope, D., Xu, Y., Edmonds, J., and Lauver, L. (2001). “Nitrogen balance for the central Arizona–Phoenix (CAP) ecosystem.” Ecosystems, 4(6), 582–602.
Cabrera, E. (2008). “Benchmarking in the water industry: A mature practice?” Water Util. Manage. Int., 3(2), 5–7.
Carlson, S. W., and Walburger, A. (2007). “Energy index development for benchmarking water and wastewater utilities.” AWWA Research Foundation, California Energy Commission, and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Denver, CO.
Hillman, T., and Ramaswami, A. (2010). “Greenhouse gas emission footprints and energy use benchmarks for eight U.S. cities.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 44(6), 1902–1910.
Huang, S.-L. (1998). “Urban ecosystems, energetic hierarchies, and ecological economics of Taipei metropolis.” J. Environ. Manage., 52(1), 39–51.
Hyderabad Municipal Water Supply, and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB). (2008). “Krishna water supply project.” Hyderabad, India, 〈http://www.hyderabadwater.gov.in/wwo/UI/ViewProjectDetails.aspx?ProjectId=307〉 (May 5, 2010).
ICLEI. (2009). “ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.” Bonn, Germany, 〈http://www.iclei.org/〉 (Apr. 1, 2012).
ICLEI. (2011). “Harmonized emissions analysis tool.” Bonn, Germany, 〈http://heat.iclei.org/heatplusv4/index.aspx〉 (Apr. 1, 2012).
ICLEI-South Asia. (2009). “Energy and carbon emissions profiles of 54 south Asian cities.” British High Commission, New Delhi, India.
Jenerette, G. D., Wu, W., Goldsmith, S., Marussich, W. A., and Roach, W. J. (2006). “Contrasting water footprints of cities in China and the United States.” Ecol. Econ., 57(3), 346–358.
Kennedy, C., et al. (2009). “Greenhouse gas emissions from global cities.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 43(19), 7297–7302.
Kennedy, C., Cuddihy, J., and Engel-Yan, J. (2007). “The changing metabolism of cities.” J. Ind. Ecol., 11(2), 43–59.
Klein, G., Krebs, M., Hall, V., O’Brien, T., and Blevins, B. B. (2005). “California’s water–energy relationship.” California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA.
Luck, M. A., Jenerette, G. D., Wu, J., and Grimm, N. B. (2001). “The urban funnel model and the spatially heterogeneous ecological footprint.” Ecosystems, 4(8), 782–796.
Mayors Climate Protection Center. (2007). “The United States conference of mayors climate protection agreement: List of participating mayors.” Washington DC, 〈http://www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/〉 (Feb. 5, 2013).
Ministry of Urban Development. (2010). “Improving service outcomes 2008–09.” Government of India, New Delhi, India.
Pitterle, M. T. (2008). “Evaluating and enhancing urban wastewater system sustainability.” Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO.
Rothausen, S. G. S. A., and Conway, D. (2011). “Greenhouse-gas emissions from energy use in the water sector.” Nat. Clim. Change, 1(4), 210–219.
Sauer, P., and Kimber, A. (2003). “Energy consumption and costs to treat water and waste water in Iowa.” Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, Ankeny, IA.
Sharma, D., and Kansal, A. (2011). “Current condition of the Yamuna River: An overview of flow, pollution load, and human use.” Yamuna River: A confluence of waters, a crisis of need, Yale TERI Workshop, New Delhi, India.
Tare, V., and Nema, A. (n.d.). “UASB technology: Expectations and reality.” Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and Foundation for Greentech Environmental Systems, Kanpur and New Delhi, India.
U.S. Department of Energy. (2006). “Energy demands on water resources: Report to Congress on the interdependency of energy and water.” Washington, DC.
U.S. EPA. (2010). “Energy efficiency for water and wastewater utilities.” Washington, DC. 〈http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/sustain/energyefficiency.cfm〉 (Feb. 5, 2013).
U.S. EPA. (2011). “ENERGY STAR for wastewater plants and drinking water systems.” Washington, DC. 〈http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=water.wastewater_drinking_water〉 (Feb. 5, 2013).
Water Footprint Network. (2011). Water footprint and virtual water Enschede, The Netherlands, 〈http://www.waterfootprint.org/?page=files/home〉 (Feb. 5, 2013).
Wolman, A. (1965). “The metabolism of cities.” Sci. Am., 213(3), 179–190.
Yu, Y., Hubacek, K., Feng, K., and Guan, D. (2010). “Assessing regional and global water footprints for the UK.” Ecol. Econ., 69(5), 1140–1147.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 5 • May 2013
Pages: 738 - 745
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 13, 2012
Accepted: Sep 27, 2012
Published online: Oct 1, 2012
Published in print: May 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.