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The issue of considering water quality in life cycle assessment of water use

  • WATER USE IN LCA
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Available water-use impact assessment methods provide insight into the potential impacts of water use. As water-use impact assessment models develop, the amount of inventory information required increases. Among the parameters needed, water quality is identified as essential since water quality can also influence availability to meet specific water users’ needs. It was argued that these users could be deprived and suffer consequences. However, data on water quality may be difficult to gather and the related impact pathways may entail risks of double counting with emission characterization models. This paper answers to which extent water quality must be considered in water-use impact assessment.

Methods

The role and the necessity of water quality information are discussed along the cause-effect chain of three water-use interventions: water consumption (WU1), water degradation (WU2), and water quality improvement (WU3). Each intervention is individually explored and put in perspective with the human health, ecosystem quality, and natural resources areas of protection (AoPs).

Results and discussion

Our findings suggest that, for WU1, the quality of input water elementary flow might be useful to know the pressure on the resource and the affected users, but alternative methods that avoid the need for this scarce information can be built. WU1 (including quality information) and WU2 are currently assessed by linking water users to water functionality via water quality, which may be misleading in areas unable to compensate for lacking water of a certain quality. In these areas, low-quality water may still be consumed even if it does not fulfill a quality standard. Thus, WU2 would rather lead to toxic impacts instead of to water deprivation impacts since this latter pathway assumes that polluted water below the quality standard will no longer be used. Hence, water deprivation impacts should only focus on WU1 to avoid double counting with emission characterization models. For WU3, no LCA approach exists to meaningfully quantify its environmental benefits, but an indicator for water as a natural resource may be a solution.

Conclusions

This study improves the understanding of the role of water quality information in water-use impact assessment and brings more consistency between existing (and future) models. Further research is required to better understand the positive effects induced by water quality improvement and the effects on freshwater resources themselves. More generally, a framework is required to identify how freshwater resources can be defined as an entity to protect within the AoP natural resource.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Claudine Basset-Mens (CIRAD) for her contribution to the illustrative banana case study conception. Thank you very much to our colleague Arnaud Hélias (SupAgro Montpellier) for his critical comments and fruitful discussions during the development of this manuscript. The authors are members of the ELSA research group (Environmental Life Cycle and Sustainability Assessment, http://www.elsa-lca.org/) and thank all ELSA members for their advice. The authors acknowledge ANR, the Occitanie Region, ONEMA, its industrial partners (BRL, SCP, SUEZ, VINADEIS, Compagnie Fruitière), and IMT Mines Alès for the financial support of the Industrial Chair for Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment “ELSA-PACT” (grant no. 13-CHIN-0005-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ITAP, Irstea, Montpellier SupAgro, Univ Montpellier, ELSA Research Group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair, 361 rue J.F. Breton, 5095, 34196, Montpellier, France

    Charlotte Pradinaud, Montserrat Núñez, Philippe Roux & Ralph K. Rosenbaum

  2. IMT Mines Alès, Centre LGEI, 6 avenue de Clavières, 30319, Alès Cedex, France

    Charlotte Pradinaud & Guillaume Junqua

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  1. Charlotte Pradinaud
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  2. Montserrat Núñez
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  3. Philippe Roux
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  4. Guillaume Junqua
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  5. Ralph K. Rosenbaum
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Correspondence to Charlotte Pradinaud.

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Responsible editor: Andrew Henderson

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Pradinaud, C., Núñez, M., Roux, P. et al. The issue of considering water quality in life cycle assessment of water use. Int J Life Cycle Assess 24, 590–603 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1473-5

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