A life cycle assessment based procedure for development of environmental sustainability indicators for urban water systems

Abstract

Environmental sustainability is a concern and stated objective for municipalities and organisations, but is often vaguely defined and clear measurement procedures are lacking. An iterative procedure for the selection of indicators, which reflects the environmental sustainability of urban water systems, is presented. The analytical basis for selecting indicators is life cycle assessment (LCA), which provides a stringent assessment of environmental sustainability. The indicators were evaluated in Case Studies in a developed and a developing region. The iterative procedure allows refinement/replacement of indicators through Case Studies and further LCA.