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Indicators for commercial urban water management: the cases of retail parks in Spain and Brazil

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 10; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1573062x.2012.716855

1744-9006

Ramon Farreny, Joan Rieradevall, Ademir Paceli Barbassa, Bernardo Arantes do Nascimento Teixeira, Xavier Gabarrell,

Water Systems and Optimization

The use of planning and management tools for water management in urban environments is a promising area. This paper focuses on the description of two indicators, Water Intensity of a Purchase (WIP) and Potential Water Self-Sufficiency (PWSS) from rainwater harvesting, for the expanding sector of Retail Parks (RP). The WIP measures the water that is consumed per average customer and purchase, whereas the PWSS quantifies the potential capacity of the system to satisfy its water demand from rainwater. These tools have been checked in two case studies in Spain and Brazil. The results show a WIP of 8.0 and 22.9 litres, respectively, which measures the (in)efficiency of water use. This water demand, mainly of low quality, is met with the potable water supply network, while stormwater runoff is lost to sewage. The PWSS results, 3.0 for Spain and 1.4 for Brazil, indicate that RP could satisfy their needs with rainwater and even have a surplus of water. The combined use of both WIP and PWSS can be useful for the planning, design, evaluation and monitoring of RP.