IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/recore/v58y2012icp125-131.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does seasonality affect water reuse possibilities? An efficiency and cost analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Sala-Garrido, Ramón
  • Molinos-Senante, María
  • Hernández-Sancho, Francesc

Abstract

Because of the harsh conditions of water stress and seasonal water demand in many zones, water reuse has emerged as a key alternative for achieving sustainable water management. An efficient performance by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in technical and economic terms favors water reuse. However, seasonality in the flow of wastewater and in the pollutant load may be a determining factor in the efficiency of WWTPs. To evaluate if seasonality affects WWTP efficiency, analytical benchmarking methodology Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to obtain an average efficiency score for seasonal and non-seasonal plants. Given the importance of extended aeration (EA) and activated sludge (AS) technologies, empirical research has been carried out for both processes. It is confirmed that non-seasonal WWTPs are more efficient than seasonal plants, and this is especially true for AS plants as seasonality has a greater effect on this technology. Energy cost is the most important factor for explaining operational cost differences between seasonal and non-seasonal plants. The results of this study show how economic and management strategies can be applied to optimize the use of resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Sala-Garrido, Ramón & Molinos-Senante, María & Hernández-Sancho, Francesc, 2012. "How does seasonality affect water reuse possibilities? An efficiency and cost analysis," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 125-131.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:58:y:2012:i:c:p:125-131
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.11.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344911002357
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resconrec.2011.11.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Garcia, Serge & Reynaud, Arnaud, 2004. "Estimating the benefits of efficient water pricing in France," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Byrnes, Joel & Crase, Lin & Dollery, Brian & Villano, Renato, 2010. "The relative economic efficiency of urban water utilities in regional New South Wales and Victoria," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 439-455, August.
    3. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song & Tengfei Wang, 2005. "The Application of Mathematical Programming Approaches to Estimating Container Port Production Efficiency," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 73-92, September.
    4. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181.
    5. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, September.
    6. Hu, Jin-Li & Wang, Shih-Chuan & Yeh, Fang-Yu, 2006. "Total-factor water efficiency of regions in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 217-230, December.
    7. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Thrall, Robert M., 1990. "Recent developments in DEA : The mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 7-38.
    8. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    9. Stewart, Theodor J., 2010. "Goal directed benchmarking for organizational efficiency," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 534-539, December.
    10. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ziyang Guo & Yongjun Sun & Shu-Yuan Pan & Pen-Chi Chiang, 2019. "Integration of Green Energy and Advanced Energy-Efficient Technologies for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-29, April.
    2. Massarutto, Antonio & Grassetti, Luca & Lambardi di San Miniato, Michele & Moletta, Mattia, 2023. "Efficient firms are all alike, but every inefficient firm is such in its own way: Heterogeneity of costs determinants in the Italian water sector," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Alda A. Henriques & Milton Fontes & Ana S. Camanho & Giovanna D’Inverno & Pedro Amorim & Jaime Gabriel Silva, 2022. "Performance evaluation of problematic samples: a robust nonparametric approach for wastewater treatment plants," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(1), pages 193-220, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gonzalez, M. & Trujillo, L., 2007. "Efficiency measurement in the port industry: a survey of the empirical evidence," Working Papers 07/08, Department of Economics, City University London.
    2. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499, April.
    3. Silvia Saravia-Matus & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Sreejith Aravindakshan & Stefan Sieber & Jimmy A. Saravia & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2021. "Can Enhancing Efficiency Promote the Economic Viability of Smallholder Farmers? A Case of Sierra Leone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    4. Nadimi, Reza & Tokimatsu, Koji, 2019. "Potential energy saving via overall efficiency relying on quality of life," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 283-299.
    5. Ali, Agha Iqbal & Lerme, Catherine S. & Seiford, Lawrence M., 1995. "Components of efficiency evaluation in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 462-473, February.
    6. Blaeschke, Frédéric & Haug, Peter, 2014. "Does Intermunicipal Cooperation Increase Efficiency? Evidence from the Hessian Wastewater Sector," IWH Discussion Papers 11/2014, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. Cheng, Gang & Qian, Zhenhua, 2011. "Dea数据标准化方法及其在方向距离函数模型中的应用 [Data normalization for data envelopment analysis and its application to directional distance function]," MPRA Paper 31995, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Iveta Palecková, 2017. "Application of Window Malmquist Index for Examination of Efficiency Change of Czech Commercial Banks," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 3, pages 173-190, September.
    9. Sreejith Aravindakshan & Frederick Rossi & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Prakashan Chellattan Veettil & Timothy J. Krupnik, 2018. "Application of a bias-corrected meta-frontier approach and an endogenous switching regression to analyze the technical efficiency of conservation tillage for wheat in South Asia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 153-171, June.
    10. Basanta R. Dhungana & Peter L. Nuthall & Gilbert V. Nartea, 2004. "Measuring the economic inefficiency of Nepalese rice farms using data envelopment analysis," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 48(2), pages 347-369, June.
    11. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    12. Zhang, Anming & Zhang, Yimin & Zhao, Ronald, 2002. "Profitability and productivity of Chinese industrial firms: Measurement and ownership implications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 65-88.
    13. Carvalho, Anne Emília Costa & Sampaio, Luciano Menezes Bezerra, 2015. "Paths to universalize water and sewage services in Brazil: The role of regulatory authorities in promoting efficient service," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-10.
    14. Førsund, Finn & Krivonozhko, Vladimir W & Lychev, Andrey V., 2016. "Smoothing the frontier in the DEA models," Memorandum 11/2016, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    15. Wencheng Li & Lei Wang & Qi Wan & Weijia You & Shaowen Zhang, 2022. "A Configurational Analysis of Family Farm Management Efficiency: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-18, May.
    16. Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Pengzhen Yin & Malin Song, 2017. "Measuring energy and environmental performance for regions in China by using DEA-based Malmquist indices," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 715-735, October.
    17. Joanna Domagała, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture in the EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    18. Bozec, Richard & Dia, Mohamed, 2007. "Board structure and firm technical efficiency: Evidence from Canadian state-owned enterprises," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(3), pages 1734-1750, March.
    19. Heikki Loikkanen & Ilkka Susiluoton, 2000. "Cost Efficiency of Finnish Municipalities in Basic Service Provision 1994-2002," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600056, EcoMod.
    20. Capece, Guendalina & Costa, Roberta & Di Pillo, Francesca, 2021. "Benchmarking the efficiency of natural gas distribution utilities in Italy considering size, ownership, and maturity," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:58:y:2012:i:c:p:125-131. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kai Meng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.