Main Questions

How water systems & water use induce environmental changes?

Are there systemic eco-efficiency improvement from innovative technologies/management practices?

What are the costs & benefits for the different actors?

What are the appropriate economic incentives & regulatory measures for technology uptake?


Research Challenges

EcoWater will advance the current state-of-the-art through:

  • The development of a methodological approach for meso-level eco-efficiency assessment, building on a set of indicators that can be used to compare effects of technology implementation and uptake

  • The elaboration of economic assessments across service systems, considering costs of existing and potentially applicable technologies

  • The application of Value Chain Analysis tools, to consider interactions among actors involved in the corresponding value chains

  • The integration of all relevant resources, tools, results and data into a toolbox for technology benchmarking, in order to foster further applications.

In Brief

EcoWater will advance current research on eco-efficiency metrics through the development of an analytical framework, indicators and tools to assess:

  1. What is to be improved
  2. What should count as a real improvement in terms of economic output vs. environmental influence.

 

Why water systems?

Water is an input to most production processes

There is significant environmental impact and cost in making water suitable for different use purposes

Most technology assessments focus only on water efficiency gains.
Little attention is paid to other environmental aspects (e.g. carbon footprints) or potential benefits from by-products

The uptake of water-related innovations remains regulatory-driven