Worst Option Research Articles

More Timber in Construction: Unanswered Questions and Future Challenges

The built environment is one of the greatest contributors to carbon emissions, climate change, and to the unsustainable pressure on the natural environment and its ecosystems. The use of more timber in construction is one possible response, and an authoritative contribution to this growing movement comes from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, which identifies a “substantial increase in the use of wood in the construction of buildings” as a top priority. However, a global encouragement of such a strategy raises some difficult questions. Given the urgency of effective solutions for low-carbon built environments, and the likely continued growth in demand for timber in construction, this article reviews its sustainability and identifies future challenges and unanswered questions. Existing evidence points indeed towards timber as the lower carbon option when modelled through life cycle assessment without having to draw on arguments around carbon storage. Issues however remain on the timing of carbon emissions, land allocation, and the environmental loads and benefits associated with the end-of-life options: analysis of environmental product declarations for engineered timber suggests that landfill might either be the best or the worst option from a climate change perspective, depending on assumptions.

Reducing the WCET and analysis time of systems with simple lockable instruction caches.

One of the key challenges in real-time systems is the analysis of the memory hierarchy. Many Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) analysis methods supporting an instruction cache are based on iterative or convergence algorithms, which are rather slow. Our goal in this paper is to reduce the WCET analysis time on systems with a simple lockable instruction cache, focusing on the Lock-MS method. First, we propose an algorithm to obtain a structure-based representation of the Control Flow Graph (CFG). It organizes the whole WCET problem as nested subproblems, which takes advantage of common branch-and-bound algorithms of Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solvers. Second, we add support for multiple locking points per task, each one with specific cache contents, instead of a given locked content for the whole task execution. Locking points are set heuristically before outer loops. Such simple heuristics adds no complexity, and reduces the WCET by taking profit of the temporal reuse found in loops. Since loops can be processed as isolated regions, the optimal contents to lock into cache for each region can be obtained, and the WCET analysis time is further reduced. With these two improvements, our WCET analysis is around 10 times faster than other approaches. Also, our results show that the WCET is reduced, and the hit ratio achieved for the lockable instruction cache is similar to that of a real execution with an LRU instruction cache. Finally, we analyze the WCET sensitivity to compiler optimization, showing for each benchmark the right choices and pointing out that O0 is always the worst option.

Environmental assessment of domestic water supply options for remote communities

Access to clean water is one of the targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, millions of people are still without basic water services, predominantly in rural areas in developing nations. Previous studies have investigated the environmental impacts of water provision, but they mostly focused on large-scale urban systems. This paper considers for the first time the life cycle environmental impacts of different water supply options applicable to remote communities in developing countries. Focusing on the Southeast Asia-Pacific (SEAP) context, a cradle-to-grave approach is followed to estimate the impacts of locally-sourced groundwater, surface water and desalinated seawater as well as externally-sourced bottled water. The results reveal that surface water is environmentally the most sustainable alternative. Locally desalinated water, powered by diesel electricity, has two orders of magnitude higher impacts than surface water. However, externally-sourced water in plastic bottles is the worst option with 4–155 times higher impacts than desalinated water and up to three orders of magnitude higher impacts than surface water. This is largely due to the impacts related to the production of bottles. Doubling their recycling would reduce the impacts by 7–23% but bottled water would still be environmentally the least sustainable option. Although water in single-use bottles currently provides only 3% of the water supply of a representative remote community in the SEAP region considered in this study, it accounts on average for more than 50% of the total impacts from water consumption. By 2030, population increase could lead to greater reliance of remote communities on bottled water and 60–73% higher impacts of water consumption per household. Relying solely on local surface, ground and water desalinated using solar power and avoiding bottled water would reduce the impacts by 33–99% relative to the current situation. This would also improve considerably water availability and security in remote communities. The findings of this study will be of interest to national and local governments developing future policies aimed at increasing access of remote communities to clean water.

Erratum for “Trade‐Offs in Cereal Rye Management Strategies Prior to Organically Managed Soybean”, by Crowley et al., Agron. J. 110:1492–1504

https://doi.org/10.2134/agronj2017.10.0605 A mistake was made in entering the dry weight of cereal rye when calculating the variable costs and return over variable costs of the Ryelage treatment. The mistake resulted in a large overestimate of both the costs and the profitability of the Ryelage system (see corrected Tables 3 and 4, below), and affects the results of the statistical analysis comparing the profitability of the treatments. Specifically, with the error corrected, the profitability of the Ryelage treatment was not significantly different from any other treatment in either 2015 or 2016. However, there was a noticeable trend towards higher profitability in the Ryelage system compared to the Roll-down system in 2016 (Tukey's test, P = 0.098). To correct the number presented in the text on page 1501, the return over variable costs in the Roll-down system was 43% (not 27%) of the return in the Ryelage system in 2016. These revised results affect our conclusion. The Ryelage treatment did not, as we stated in our conclusion, give considerable added profit to the farmer compared to the Roll-down treatment. Thus, in a wet year, such as 2015, the Roll-down system might be the best choice given that there was no difference in profitability between the four systems, and reduced labor and some soil health advantages were observed in the Roll-down system. However, in a dry year like 2016, the Roll-down system might be the worst option, given lower yield and profitability compared with the other systems. Overall, our revised results partially support our hypothesis that compared with the No-cover control, incorporating cereal rye into a rotation prior to soybean can improve soil health, maintain weed suppression and soybean yield, and/or improve profitability, but that these benefits vary depending on management strategy. No strategy improved profitability, and no one strategy provided all of the other benefits. The Roll-down treatment improved soil health and reduced labor, but weeds were more abundant and soybean yields and profitability were lower in the second year. The Plow-down and Ryelage treatments maintained weed suppression and soybean yield, but did not significantly improve soil health and required substantially more labor.

Towards a better environment - the municipal organic waste management in Brisbane: Environmental life cycle and cost perspective

Different options for treating organic fraction of municipal solid waste were assessed. Four composting scenarios were designed based on different scales (i.e. home vs centralised) and technologies (i.e. windrow vs in-vessel composting) in Brisbane. The environmental and economic performance were analysed and compared to the existing practice: landfilling, using life cycle assessment and life cycle costing analysis with the consideration of the costs of externalities and potential avoided costs. The treatment of 1 Mg of home organic waste was selected as one Functional Unit. The system boundaries start from waste collection to the use of the final product (i.e. compost). The compost was assumed to be applied on private gardens and tropical horticultural crops in home and centralised composting scenarios, respectively. Shared home composting bin in a small community (HC-II) presented the best overall performance from both environmental and economic perspectives, meanwhile, landfilling was found to be the worst option. The home composting scenarios require less energy which results in four times lower fossil depletion and human toxicity potential compared to centralised composting scenarios. However, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released through organic waste degradation, due to potential partial anaerobic conditions, were identified as the major environmental impact factor, followed by the compost bin manufacturing. In both centralised composting scenarios, the energy consumption was found as the main environmental impact factor, which accounted for more than 45% of the total GHG emissions, followed by the waste collection and transportation process. Regarding the economic performance, the HC-II scenario has the lowest life cycle cost ($22.93/FU). Monte Carlo Analysis was carried out to test the effect of overall uncertainties. Our result showed that the compost application rate had the highest sensitivity in home composting scenarios because the unused compost would need to be collected and sent to the landfill. Consequently, extra transportation emissions and life cycle cost will incur, thus, the benefits from compost application will also be reduced. However, the overall uncertainties did not affect the ranking of the centralised (windrow) composting scenario, which remained the best environmental performer. Meanwhile, HC-II option had the better economic performance that marginally over-weighed the environmental performance of the centralised windrow composting; hence result in the best overall performer. However, in order to encourage residents to participate, enabling policies and incentives may be required to influence the behaviour of the independent households to share a composting bin.

Environmental trade-offs of renewable jet fuels in Brazil: Beyond the carbon footprint

The use of renewable jet fuels (RJFs) is an option for meeting the greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction targets of the aviation sector. Therefore, most of the studies have focused on climate change indicators, but other environmental impacts have been disregarded. In this paper, an attributional life cycle assessment is performed for ten RJF pathways in Brazil, considering the environmental trade-offs between climate change and seven other categories, i.e., fossil depletion, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication, human and environmental toxicity, and air quality-related categories, such as particulate matter and photochemical oxidant formation. The scope includes sugarcane and soybean for first-generation (1G) pathways and residual materials (wood and sugarcane residues, beef tallow, and used cooking oil-UCO) for second-generation (2G) pathways. Three certified technologies to produce RJF are considered: hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), alcohol-to-jet (ATJ), and Fischer-Tropsch (FT). Assuming the residual feedstocks as wastes or by-products, the 2G pathways are evaluated by two different approaches, in which the biomass sourcing processes are either accounted for or not. Results show that 1G pathways lead to significant GHG reductions compared to fossil kerosene from 55% (soybean/HEFA) to 65% (sugarcane/ATJ). However, the sugarcane-based pathway generated three-fold higher values than fossil kerosene for terrestrial acidification and air quality impacts, and seven-fold for eutrophication. In turn, soybean/HEFA caused five-fold higher levels of human toxicity. For 2G pathways, when the residual feedstock is assumed to be waste, the potential GHG emission reduction is over 74% with no relevant trade-offs. On the other hand, if the residual feedstocks are assumed as valuable by-products, tallow/HEFA becomes the worst option and pathways from sugarcane residues, even providing a GHG reduction of 67% to 94%, are related to higher impacts than soybean/HEFA for terrestrial acidification and air quality. FT pathways represent the lowest impacts for all categories within both approaches, followed by UCO/HEFA.

Environmental sustainability of cooking fuels in remote communities: Life cycle and local impacts

Access to clean cooking fuels and technologies is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in developing countries, to minimise human health and environmental impacts. This paper assesses for the first time the environmental sustainability of household cooking, focusing on remote communities in developing countries in the Southeast Asia-Pacific (SEAP) region and considering both life cycle and local impacts. To guide rural development policies, the impacts of the following cooking fuels are considered: liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, wood, charcoal, crop residues, biogas and electricity. Both the present situation and three future (2030) scenarios are evaluated on 18 life cycle impacts, as well as on local environmental and health impacts caused by cooking. The results show that electricity is the worst option in 13 out of 18 life cycle categories since it is generated from diesel in off-grid communities. Biogas from manure is the best fuel with 16 lowest life cycle impacts. Biomass fuels can have lower life cycle impacts than fossil fuels but they have high combustion emissions which lead to higher local environmental and health impacts. Future scenarios with higher biomass utilisation have up to 47 times lower life cycle impacts than at present, but 4–23% higher local impacts. Health impacts related to fuel combustion are higher in Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar compared to the other SEAP countries due to regional background pollutant concentrations and health trends. A fuel mix with liquefied petroleum gas, biogas and renewable electricity offers considerable reductions in 13 life cycle impacts compared to the present situation, while also reducing local health impacts by 78–97%. A self-sufficient fuel mix with local biomass and renewable electricity would reduce 17 out of 18 life cycle impacts, but all local impacts, including on health, would be 11–28% higher than at present. The results from this study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop policies for clean cooking in remote communities and reduce both environmental and human health impacts.

Comparative study of measurement and verification (M&V) baseline models for quantifying energy savings in building renovations

Measurement and verification (M&V) is the process of quantifying energy savings originated by one or several energy conservation measures (ECM) in an existing building. The estimation of the savings consist of comparing actual energy consumption to the adjusted baseline model. This paper focuses on comparing three approaches for creating baseline models: linear, symbolic regression (SR) and extreme gradient boost (XGBoost); and discusses the advantages and drawbacks on each of them from a practitioner’s perspective. In this paper, these approaches are assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative assessment compares the type of model output, interpretability and calibration time. Linear model excels in all three criteria whereas the XGBoost is the worst option for model output and interpretability. SR model is the worst performing in terms of calibration time, but intermediate model for output and interpretability. Quantitative assessment is done through the quantification of prediction errors in 367 buildings after being calibrated with hourly data for a 12-month period. The XGBoost model has the highest prediction accuracy in terms of CVRMSE. The linear model performs significantly well in terms of NMBE. SR preforms well in terms of CVRMSE and has the best median NMBE overall remaining as the most accurate interpretable option. The results show different benefits and drawbacks of each approach and the implementation of SR model for this application is the main innovation of this paper.

Challenges in the International Business Market Through Fixed Currency Systems: A Study Based on Business Scenario in UAE

The contemporary global business scenario is significantly dynamic that incorporates modern financial and business potentials and possibilities making business avenues simultaneously flexible and fair. Until recent past sea was considered as worst option to reach nations for doing business. However, after realization of the concept that business can easily be spread beyond national boundaries, men started conquering lands for conducting business and to earn higher income and profit. Consequently, the business faced the challenge of meeting larger demands of goods and services across the nations, as a results business started dealings in number of possibilities such as exchange of facilities, barter system, gold/silver related commodities. Meanwhile, the disadvantage of doing business across borders in such a way was widely propagated. As a result nations and business were forced to use a unique and commonly accepted commodity as a medium of exchange, which should overcome the problems of barter system and gold rates system. This led to the birth of modern currency and further advancements in the form of financial instruments including paper currencies and bullion exchanges. Majority of the modern day business are guided by the profit, and doing business in international currency relatively increases the rate of profit. At the beginning nations started exploring number of possibilities of trade on the basis of fixed and floating exchange rate for capital gains. This modern type of multiple payment settlement system in business across borders has increased the attractiveness of international business; customers search for quality products at competitive prices. Consequently, companies and even economies have been considering international business as best alternative for earing higher profits while at the same time doing business with developed and stable economies. Trade among countries and regions needs unified currency, which has been made easy through introduction of fixed and floating exchange rate systems. Countries entering into international trade agreements either fix-up a common value for the currency in which regular trading happens with another nation or tie up with the currency of a develop economy. The fixed exchange rate system has enabled countries to make prior financial arrangements required for modern day businesses. Present study has been carried out to properly examine the currency arrangements in UAE against US Dollars and other GCC countries’ currencies. Hence the study has evaluated the expected benefits of fixed exchange rate system in case of UAE. In addition to that, prime factors that significantly affect the process of pegging UAE currency against major currencies such as USD, Euro, and Pound Sterling have also been examined.

An assessment of irrigated rice production energy efficiency and environmental footprint with in-field and off-field rice straw management practices

The research provided scientific evidences for improved rice straw management. Rice cultivation with in-field burning of rice straw is the worst option with the lowest energy efficiency and highest air pollution emission. This article comprises a comparative assessment of energy efficiency and the environmental footprint of rice production using four different rice straw management scenarios, namely, straw retained, straw burned, partial straw removal, and complete straw removal. Paddy yield, grain quality, and energy balance were assessed for two seasons while greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) were measured weekly starting from land preparation through to the cropping and fallow period. Despite the added energy requirements in straw collection and transport, the use of collected rice straw for mushroom production can increase the net energy obtained from rice production systems by 10–15% compared to burning straw in the field. Partial and complete removal of rice straw reduces GHGE by 30% and 40% compared to complete straw retention, respectively.

Goal congruency dominates reward value in accounting for behavioral and neural correlates of value-based decision-making

When choosing between options, whether menu items or career paths, we can evaluate how rewarding each one will be, or how congruent it is with our current choice goal (e.g., to point out the best option or the worst one.). Past decision-making research interpreted findings through the former lens, but in these experiments the most rewarding option was always most congruent with the task goal (choosing the best option). It is therefore unclear to what extent expected reward vs. goal congruency can account for choice value findings. To deconfound these two variables, we performed three behavioral studies and an fMRI study in which the task goal varied between identifying the best vs. the worst option. Contrary to prevailing accounts, we find that goal congruency dominates choice behavior and neural activity. We separately identify dissociable signals of expected reward. Our findings call for a reinterpretation of previous research on value-based choice.

It’s my choice: The effects of moral decision-making on narrative game engagement

In video games, complicated stories which can branch in multiple ways are possible, giving the player a great sense of control over the story. This study’s purpose was to determine how choice and morality interact to affect narrative engagement. For this, a 2 (choice vs. no choice) × 2 (moral vs. immoral) experiment was conducted utilizing a modified version of a Fallout: New Vegas to examine the role of moral choice. Results indicated that very few individuals preferred the bad option when given a choice, with most participants choosing good actions. Thus, the bad by choice condition was dropped, resulting in three conditions: good by choice, good by force and bad by force. Although there were no significant differences found between conditions on transportation or parasocial interaction, the study revealed significant differences for identification such that those who committed more moral actions identified less with the main character. Additionally, those who chose good actions felt more moral than those who were forced to commit good actions. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Methods for multicriterial selection of optimal routes in communication networks

Traditionally, the problems of routing in communication networks are solved based on the scalar approach, which takes into consideration only one quality indicator. However, information transmission in communication networks is characterized by a totality of quality indicators. That is why to obtain the optimal solution to the problems of routing in a communication network, it is necessary to use the multicriterial approach. This determines the relevance of solving the problem of routing in communication networks considering the totality of quality indicators, which characterize the quality of information transmission. To solve this problem, this study used the methods of multicriterial optimization. The methods for discrete selection of a subset of Pareto-optimal variants of routing taking into consideration the totality of quality indicators were proposed. In this case, unconditionally worse options for routing are excluded and potentially possible values of the totality of quality indicators are ensured. It also suggests a possibility of multipath routing organization, which provides uniform loading of all communication lines. The practical features of application of the selected methods of multicriterial optimization for choosing optimal routes in communication networks taking into consideration the totality of quality indicators were explored. The advantages and constraints of the multicriterial approach to solving the problem of routing in communication networks were shown. The research results are useful for professionals who are engaged in planning and designing optimal communication networks.

Influence of the fountain confiner in a conical spouted bed dryer

The drying of fine sand particles (below 1 mm) has been studied in a conical spouted bed fitted with a draft tube in order to ascertain the performance of a new internal device to confine the fountain. Accordingly, batch runs have been carried out using three types of draft tubes, with confiner and without it under ambient conditions. Their performances have been compared in order to ascertain the optimum configuration. The results evidence that the systems with the confiner perform much better than those without it. Thus, the drying time decreases considerably and the pressure drop and air flow rate decrease slightly when the confiner is used. The drying performance of the open-sided draft tube is superior to any other configuration, i.e., the drying time required with this tube is the shortest. Nonporous draft tubes are the worst option due to their poor gas-solid contact. Porous draft tubes have an intermediate performance.

Life cycle environmental impacts of inhalers

Abstract Pressurised metered-dose inhalers are a method of choice for delivering drugs into lungs for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease across the globe. HFC-134a and HFC-227ea propellants, which are currently used in these inhalers, have significant global warming potentials. To reduce the climate change impact of inhalers, several options are available to the industry, including alternative devices, such as dry powder inhalers and nebulisers. In addition, the manufacturers can reduce the propellant quantity per dose or use a different propellant with a lower global warming potential, such as HFC-152a. This study evaluates the life cycle environmental impacts of different types of inhaler and investigates possible scenarios to reduce their impacts. The environmental impacts are estimated through life cycle assessment, following the ReCiPe impact assessment method. The results suggest that HFC-152a inhaler has the lowest impacts for ten out of 14 categories considered, while the dry powder inhaler is the worst option for eight impacts; however, it has the lowest climate change and ozone depletion impacts. Considering the annual use of pressurised metered-dose and dry powder inhalers in the UK, they generate 1.34 Mt CO2 eq., largely due to HFC-134a inhalers. This represents 4.3% of greenhouse gas emissions of the NHS (National Health Service). Replacing HFC-134a with HFC-152a would reduce the climate change and ozone depletion impacts of inhalers in the UK by 90%–92%. Most other environmental impacts would also decrease significantly (28%–82%). Switching from pressurised metered-dose inhalers to dry powder inhalers would lead to an even higher reduction in the climate change impact (96%). However, several other impacts would increase significantly, including human toxicity, marine eutrophication and fossil depletion. Since changing propellants or replacing pressurised metered-dose inhalers with dry powder inhalers requires further research and development, pharmaceutical companies should continue to work on minimising propellant usage in inhalers and on achieving higher rates of recycling of current inhalers.

Retraction of “The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option”

Retraction of “The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option”

Optimising cascaded utilisation of wood resources considering economic and environmental aspects

Cascaded wood utilisation could help to bridge the gap between the rising wood demand and fresh wood availability as well as contributing to a circular economy. However, the economic and environmental implications of cascading wood-based products are not fully known yet and are hence explored in this paper, considering both aspects simultaneously for the first time. The study focuses on the production of the following five products in an integrated system: medium-density fibre, oriented-strand board, particleboard, coated paper and wood pellets. Firstly, a multi-objective optimisation model has been developed to minimise the costs and greenhouse gas emissions of cascaded utilisation of wood. The ε-constraint method has been used to solve the model and derive Pareto optimal solutions. The latter have been used to select two cascaded-utilisation scenarios and compare their environmental performance with two other scenarios: current situation and the use of fresh wood only. The environmental impacts have been estimated using life cycle assessment. The results reveal that cascaded utilisation is more environmentally and economically sustainable than the current situation or the use of fresh wood. One of the scenario (Scenario 2) reduces the impacts by 1%-23% on the current situation; the global warming potential (GWP) is lower by 15%. However, the costs in this scenario are only 4% lower. In another (Scenario 1), the costs are lower by 24% but the reductions in impacts are more limited, ranging from 1%-8% relative to the Reference scenario with the GWP being only 1% lower. The cascaded use of wood also offers the potential to save up to 35% of fresh wood resources, thus contributing to a circular economy. Using only fresh wood (Scenario 3) is the worst option, increasing the costs by 13% while offering small or no environmental benefits in most of the impacts. These results will be of interest to the wood industry, forestry authorities and policy makers.

Expression of Concern: The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option

Expression of Concern: The Decoy Effect as a Nudge: Boosting Hand Hygiene With a Worse Option

Environmental impacts of takeaway food containers

The consumption of takeaway food is increasing worldwide. Single-use containers used for takeaway food represent a significant source of waste and environmental impacts due to their low recyclability. Consequently, it is important to identify the best available alternatives and improvement opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of fast-food containers. For these purposes, this study estimates and compares for the first time the life cycle impacts of three most widely-used types of takeaway container: aluminium, polypropylene and extruded polystyrene. These are also compared to reusable polypropylene containers. The findings suggest that single-use polypropylene containers are the worst option for seven out of 12 impacts considered, including global warming potential. They are followed by the aluminium alternative with five highest impacts, including depletion of ozone layer and human toxicity. Overall, extruded polystyrene containers have the lowest impacts due to the lower material and electricity requirements in their manufacture. They are also the best option when compared to reused takeaway polypropylene containers, unless the latter are reused 3–39 times. The number of uses needed for the reusable “Tupperware” polypropylene food savers is even higher, ranging from 16 to 208 times, with terrestrial ecotoxicity being always higher than for extruded polystyrene, regardless of the number of uses. However, extruded polystyrene containers are currently not recycled and cannot be considered a sustainable option. If they were recycled in accordance with the European Union 2025 policy on waste packaging, most of their impacts would be reduced by >18%, while also reducing littering and negative effects on marine organisms. Most of the impacts of the other two types of container would also be reduced (>20%) through increased recycling. Implementing the European Union 2025 policy on recycling of waste packaging would reduce all the impacts by 2%–60%, including a 33% reduction in global warming potential. Based on 2025 million takeaway containers used annually in the European Union, the latter would save 61,700 t CO2 eq./yr, equivalent to the emissions of 55,000 light-duty vehicles. The outcomes of this study will be of interest to packaging manufacturers, food outlets, policy makers and consumers.

A Multi-Criteria Assessment of Water Supply in Ugandan Refugee Settlements

Water supply challenges in emergency situations have increased in recent years and there is a need for analyses targeting economic and environmental sustainability. Our study investigated the end-user water demand, the capital and operational costs, the carbon footprint, the freshwater availability and the risks surrounding water quality for several groundwater supply alternatives in Ugandan refugee settlements. We compared hand pumps, motorised pumps (solar, diesel and hybrid) and water trucking. The end-users’ survey highlighted the significant variability of water access. The economic evaluation showed that the breakeven year for solar and diesel pumps was greatly affected by the length of the water distribution systems (e.g., pipes, storage tanks), the chosen timeframe and the daily working hours of the diesel engine. When excluding capital investment, most alternatives were economically viable at the existing water fee (0.8 USD/m3), and solar driven pumps were down to 0.09 USD/m3. Finally, the combustion of diesel caused the highest CO2-eq emissions per m3. Water trucking is the worst option in both the economic and environmental analysis at 7–8 USD/m3 and >1 kg CO2-eq/m3. The methodology and the results of this paper will support decision-makers to build and finance sustainable water provision solutions in refugee settlements.