Life Cycle Assessment of Construction of Water Supply Pipelines: A Case Study from Van, Turkey

Abstract

Pipelines that supply water from water resource to the reservoirs constitute an important part of water supply system construction. In this study, environmental impacts of construction of pipeline component of a water supply system in Van, Turkey are investigated using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Construction of pipelines is executed using conventional open cut system. Life cycle inventory (LCI) of the study is generated using primary data gathered and GaBi Professional database is used for background processes. CML 2001 was the environmental impact assessment method used. According to the results, the main contributors to AP, FAETP, GWP, HTP, MAETP are raw materials used for the production of pipelines which are high density polyethylene granules and carbon black. Most of TETP is generated because of installation of pipelines and sand used for backfilling the pipe trenches is responsible of this. Production and installation of pipelines end up with ADP due to the used materials. Transportation activities executed during the construction of pipelines have environmental impacts in every category considered; however, their contribution is not significant compared to the other activities conducted.