A New Integrated Grey Water Footprint Assessment Method

Abstract:

Water footprint is a volumetric indicator of freshwater appropriation. The grey water footprint (GWF) provides a tool to assess the water volume needed to assimilate a pollutant. However, evaluating the impact on water environment cannot rely solely on volumetric consumption of freshwater. It demands accurate assessment criteria to reflect its environmental and ecological effects on ambient water resource. In this paper, a new assessment method is proposed: the effluent toxicity and the Potential Eco-toxic Effects Probe (PEEP) index of aquatic environment are taken into consideration. This method provides a comprehensive indicator for evaluating water footprint, specified in effluents’ ecological impact on ambient water sources.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 671)
• Pages: 412-418
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.671.412
• Online since: November 2015
• Authors: Lu Lu Xu, Li Zhu Chen, Hugh Gong, Xue Mei Ding*
• Keywords: Ecological Effects, Effluent Toxicity, Environmental Effects, Water Footprint

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