Life cycle assessment, a decision-making tool in wastewater treatment facilities

Abstract

Wastewater reuse, along with wastewater treatment facilities are endowed with a number of risks that may inflect some serious damage to man and his environment. Decision construct and decision making of wastewater issues are of prime importance for sound use of wastewater and treatment processes. Equally important is the sound economical attributes wastewater treatment and wastewater alternative methods and construction should manifest. Measures of common use in this respect are mostly dominated by environmental impact assessment, risk assessment, and cost benefit analysis. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the newly emerging techniques with wide application in the field of wastewater reuse and wastewater treatment facilities. © 2007 Springer.