Design Robustness of Local Water-Recycling Schemes

Abstract

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.