UTServicesCFMSustainabilityNewsTowards a Sustainable Water Management at the University of Twente

Towards a Sustainable Water Management at the University of Twente

Environmental impact assessment of water management: a case study at the University of Twente campus. Jorge Veciana Picazo, a third-year ATLAS student at the University of Twente, wrote a research paper on performing an environmental impact assessment of the water management at the UT.

Water Management & Sustainability

Water management at the University of Twente involves the optimal use of the water resources that are available at the campus. Two points to be considered are, firstly, optimal use of water resources entails keeping the community satisfied by, for example, ensuring an adequate water quality and sewage system. Secondly, optimizing the use of water resources also means integrating sustainability in the process of managing and distributing the water provided at the facilities on the campus. At the University of Twente, sustainable water management can be defined as the provision of the water demand for all water users without impairing future supply of water, other environmental resources, and the ecosystem surrounding the facilities.

What is the situation at UT?

Jorge collated a lot of information and fired questions at the staff from Campus & Facility Management. This resulted in an overview of the water supply, water consumption, waste water, rainwater and sewage system and about rainwater storage at UT. A few illustrations:

Vitens

The water at the University of Twente is supplied by Vitens. Vitens is considered one of the biggest water supply companies in the Netherlands. In 2016 and 2017, Vitens achieved Gold-level certification according to the Barometer for Sustainable Land Management (Barometer Duurzaam Terreinbeheer).

Greywater, rainwater to flush toilets

Currently, most of the buildings at the University of Twente use drinking water to flush the toilets. A new solution was recently tested by utilizing rainwater, grey water or possibly process water to flush the toilets. This has already been tested and put into practice by the university in the Technohal.

Water Lab

A research installation has been placed at the Hogekampplein denominated as the Waterlab, where water filtration methods can be researched and tested on various types of waste water (lab, household and rainwater). This water is also stored to be used as irrigation water for the sports field for which currently drinking water is used. In addition, precipitation intensity is increasing and putting at risk the capacity of the existing sewage system. For this reason, being able to collect rainwater with innovative and useful methods will definitely improve the water management at the University of Twente.

Environmental Impact Assessment

Several initiatives have already been implemented to improve the water management at the University of Twente. However, the water management at the UT requires an Environmental Impact Assessment to have a complete overview of how sustainable the water usage at the university campus really is. There are four fundamental criteria that are required for a complete environmental impact assessment of the water management at a university campus:

  • A sustainability framework that can quantitatively and qualitatively assess the water management at the UT through a series of criteria and indicators.
  • An in-depth calculation of the water footprint of the University of Twente, including blue, green and grey water and the usage of water as a group of consumers.
  • Water-energy nexus is needed to analyze the consumption of water through the energy used at the university.
  • Life cycle assessment is required to determine the kind of water consumption which is causing more impact on the environment.

These methods are elaborated further in the full paper.

Would you like to read more about Jorge’s research paper?

Or would you like to research this topic further? The full paper can be found here, or email sustainability@utwente.nl for more information.