Four alternative cases for water supply were environmentally evaluated and compared based on the standard environmental impact categories from the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology extended with a freshwater withdrawal category (FWI). The cases were designed for Copenhagen, a part of Denmark with high population density and relatively low available water resources. FWI was applied at loca...

The desalination technology of choice today is reverse osmosis (RO). In this process saline water is forced using mechanical pressure across a membrane that can selectively pass water and reject almost all ions and most neutral molecules. Reverse osmosis proved to be robust and most energy efficient technology that can be exploited for a wide range of water sources. Nevertheless water desalinat...

W ithin the past few decades, the water quality in many of the coastal aquifers along the Mediterranean Sea has rapidly degraded. Overexploitation of the groundwater basins, particularly during the tourist season, has resulted in the lowering of groundwater tables and increasing seawater intrusion into the aquifers. Countries such as Cyprus and Israel have shut down hundreds of wells along the ...

were " enduring one form or another of water scarcity ". In spite of water manufacturing capacity doubling between now and 2016, up to half the world's population will still be suffering shortage by the middle of the century, according to the GWI. The cost of desalination is falling as a result of technological development, increasing the demand, and the cost of reusing water from sewage can be...