Page 106 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Chapter 8

Will the well run dry? Developments in water
resource planning and impact assessment

Andrew S Carre and Ralph E Horne

8.1 Introduction
Humankind’s dependence on water is universally recognised, although our planning, man-
agement and use of it have not always sufficiently valued it as a finite resource. Indeed, as
Adam Smith pointed out some time ago: ‘Nothing is more useful than water: but it will
purchase scarce nothing; scarce anything can be had in exchange for it’ (Smith 1776).
Treating this unique, limited and clearly useful resource as virtually ‘free’ inevitably results
in problems in maintaining sustainable supply along the lines of Garret Hardin’s Tragedy of
the commons (Hardin 1968). In Australia, rationing has long been practiced through alloca-
tion systems, notably in the vast Murray-Darling basin. However, perennial questions arise
as to the appropriateness of allocations in terms of both size and proportions, to different
activities and regions.
Moreover, recent developments such as the widespread recognition that anthropogenic
global climate change is exacerbating normal drought cycles have led many communities to
reassess the value of water and the way it is managed and used. Australia is a noteworthy global
example in this regard, since climate and land management pressures have combined to make
the driest inhabited landmass (Smith 1998) even drier and many areas have experienced severe
drought and the prospect of catastrophic water failure.
Phillip Island, near Melbourne, is but one example of a region with acute water shortages
that have threatened collapse of the reticulated water system: Westernport Water chief David
Mawer has warned Bass Coast Council that Phillip Island could run dry if residents failed to
curb consumption. ‘That would be the extreme case, but we have a reservoir that is not that
big, so if it doesn’t rain, then yes, we will run out’ (Houston 2006).
In this brave new water-scarce world, life cycle assessment (LCA) has emerged as a tool in
quantifying and understanding the causes of water shortage and assessing mitigating strate-
gies. By applying LCA, users and suppliers of water are revealing inefficiencies in existing water
practices and designing more sustainable alternatives. For some water authorities, LCA has
become a key technique in the development of more sustainable supply, management and
treatment systems.
LCA interacts with water systems in two distinct ways: ‘water as impact’ (water resource loss
in producing goods or services) and ‘water as a functional unit’ (LCA of water service provi-
sion). First, water is recognised in many LCAs as a resource of such importance that it is used as
an indicator of a system’s environmental impact. In this context, the water indicator commonly

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