Abstract
This paper documents a water:energy greenhouse gas (GHG) metric methodology for a decentralized non-potable water system that was developed as part of a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (DEng) research project by the first author. The project identified the need to investigate the challenges in changing the use of potable water to recycled water for landscape irrigation (LI) and for water features (WFs) at a medical facility case study (MFCS) in Abu Dhabi (AD) (the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The drivers for the research project were based on the need for AD to decrease desalinated potable water as well as reduce the environmental impact and operational costs associated with the processing and use of desalinated water. Thus, the aim of the research discussed and presented in this paper was to measure the impact of using recycled and onsite non-potable water sources at the MFCS to alleviate the use of desalinated potable water and reduce associated energy consumption, operational costs, and GHG emissions (latterly in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), for LI and WFs. The analysis of three case scenarios at the MFCS compared different approaches to alleviate energy use, costs, and GHG impacts for the use of recycled water in LI and WFs against a baseline. The findings led to a proposed sustainable water conservation and reuse (SWC) strategy, which helped save 50% desalinated potable water for LI use by soil improvement, building water system audits, and alternate non-potable water reuse. The recommendations for this paper are to develop a SWC strategy forming the basis for a water protocol by the competent authority for regional medical facilities including an assessment methodology for building decentralized non-potable water systems to measure their energy, GHG emissions and financial impact.
Highlights
A summary is given of the anticipated results at the medicalfacility facilitycase casestudy study (MFCS) if a full implementation of the methods discussed above is undertaken: water system energy impact, the environmental impact, and the financial impact calculation
The water consumption was revised according to the Energy Monitoring and Control System (EMCS) records for 2017 where an 8783 m3 /month average of condensate water and 4599 m3 /month average of desalinated makeup water were used for the water features (WFs) and the landscape irrigation (LI)
The case study presented is a medical facility in Abu Dhabi (AD) and the existing treated non-potable water system for LI and WF use has been discussed
Summary
The climate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is classified as Arid (B), Desert (W), and Hot. Arid (h) (Bwh) by Köppen and Geiger [1], which makes it a hot desert type climate. The mean yearly temperature, relative humidity (RH), and rainfall for Abu Dhabi (AD) is 27.6 Celsius (◦ C), 63%, and. 62.1 mm (mm), respectively [2]. Still in October 2019, 13 Arab countries were among the world’s 19 most water-scarce countries [3,4]. Water availability in eight Middle East countries is below. 200 m3 per year including the UAE [5] (see Figure 1). With such an arid climate, there is a
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