Water management technology for implementing a water culture for bus operators

Abstract

Transit operators' concerns regarding water resources are minimal. No standards or policies are available for managing water in washing operations, which are currently accomplished according to local practices. This paper presents a cost-benefit scenario assessment in which an innovative water-reclamation and harvesting technology for the bus sector is applied to washing operations within the European Commission's LIFEH2OBUS project. The theoretical approach (coherent with consolidated methodologies applied in transportation studies developed within past European research projects) is aimed at assessing the performance trends and impacts (associated with several evaluation categories, such as society, environment, operations, and energy) in various scenarios and via cost-benefit and sensitivity analyses. Furthermore, a performance threshold was designed to successfully implement the innovative technology outside the LIFEH2OBUS project. The scenario's results show a 92% reduction in water consumption after one year of implementation; that is, 21,528,000 L saved for a fleet of 500 buses. If this technology can be implemented in 50% of the European transit fleet in five years (342,143 buses), 14,731,309,008 L/year can be saved, along with a 29 GWh/year reduction in energy consumption and 74 ktCO2eq/year fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The research goal is to evidence water saving potential and pioneer a new field of study on water management, thereby launching a new “Water Culture” among bus operators.