0000000000341159
AUTHOR
ÁGueda Bellver-domingo
The Quantification of Non-Action Costs as an Incentive to Address Water Pollution Problems
Diffuse pollution is one type of pollution generated by agricultural, livestock, and urban runoff that is responsible for surface and groundwater pollution. As a result, the exposed population develops different diseases that affect their short, medium, and long-term quality of life. Researchers need to be able to assess the loss of quality of life in monetary terms to include this social impact in decision-making processes. Specifically, if no measure is implemented to correct the situation, these costs can be considered as the non-action costs of the social impact of water pollution. This study assesses the importance of measuring healthcare costs as a proxy for non-action costs for the e…
Shadow prices of emerging pollutants in wastewater treatment plants: Quantification of environmental externalities.
Conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are designed to remove mainly the organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus compounds and suspended solids from wastewater but are not capable of removing chemicals of human origin, such as pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs). The presence of PPCPs in wastewater has environmental effects on the water bodies receiving the WWTP effluents and renders the effluent as unsuitable as a nonconventional water source. Considering PPCPs as non-desirable outputs, the shadow prices methodology has been implemented using the output distance function to measure the environmental benefits of removing five PPCPs (acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen…
Industrial Symbiosis: A Mechanism to Guarantee the Implementation of Circular Economy Practices
There is a growing concern regarding the scarcity of natural resources. The levels of resource exploitation generated by the current system of production and consumption has led the European Commission to develop a set of guidelines that aim to reduce the pressure on natural resources. The set of guidelines proposed by the European Union is based on the transformation of the current linear economic system into a circular system in which resources and materials remain in the production system for longer. However, for this change to take effect, practical measures are required. This paper presents an industrial symbiosis approach as a practical application of a circular economy model. The aim…
Assessment of domestic water consumption in Valencia city through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis
The influence of quantitative and qualitative population conditions needs to be jointly considered in the assessment of urban water demand. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA...
The influence of oversizing on maintenance cost in wastewater treatment plants
Abstract Management of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) is a complex process, not only from a technical point of view but also from an economic point of view. There are several factors that influence the wastewater treatment process and can cause an increase in management costs. One of these factors is the treatment capacity, in particular the WWTPs’ oversizing problem. The difference between the design population equivalent (p.e.) and the actual p.e. treated generates imbalances in the wastewater treatment process costs. This paper analyses the influence that oversizing has on the maintenance costs for WWTPs in the Valencia region (Spain). Through an econometric approach, the behaviour …
Efficiency of wastewater treatment facilities: The influence of scale economies.
The water cycle, from catchment to discharge, is a sector that involves an important investment and operation and maintenance costs. In particular, sewage treatment is a challenge for governments because they are having to consider economic, environmental, and social aspects. Within the European Union, implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC is responsible for the location of wastewater treatment facilities in the territory, due to the requirement that all urban areas must have this infrastructure to reduce the environmental impact of treated water in water bodies. Different sizes of municipalities affect the design of each wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and cause variations in the operat…
Identification of effective parameters for anti-inflammatory concentration in València City's wastewater using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis
The current literature about pharmaceutical and personal care compounds (PPCPs) focuses on identifying their concentration and toxicological risk both in surface water and in wastewater. However, the influence of urban areas (population ageing, income level, hospitals and others) has not yet been analysed. Knowing how a population (and its facilities) affects PPCPs' presence in wastewater is important to identify the conditions that are responsible for their presence. In this work, the influence of water consumption, population ageing, income level, hospitals and nursing homes on the anti-inflammatory concentration have been analysed. To fill the gap between the quantitative data on PPCPs' …
Monetary valuation of salicylic acid, methylparaben and THCOOH in a Mediterranean coastal wetland through the shadow prices methodology
The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products and drugs of abuse (PPCPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) indicates discharge of the effluent may not be suitable for the ecological balance of water ecosystems, such as wetlands. These PPCPs degrade water quality, considered as an ecosystem service (ES), provoking serious environmental impacts. Assessing the monetary value of PPCPs can be used as a proxy for environmental status of the ES of water quality (ESWQ). Considering PPCPs as non-desirable outputs of WWTPs, the shadow prices methodology has been implemented using directional distance function to measure the environmental avoided cost of removing salicylic acid (SA), …