IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/waterr/v31y2017i8d10.1007_s11269-017-1586-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cost Savings in Wastewater Treatment Processes: the Role of Environmental and Operational Drivers

Author

Listed:
  • A. Guerrini

    (University of Verona)

  • G. Romano

    (University of Pisa)

  • L. Carosi

    (University of Pisa)

  • F. Mancuso

    (Ingegnerie Toscane, R&D Area)

Abstract

In this study, 139 Tuscan Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) were analyzed with the aim of evaluating their efficiency and highlighting the main efficiency drivers, as well as distinguishing among wastewater features, WWTP technology, other features of WWTPs, output variables, and sludge disposal. From a methodological point of view, the proposed method includes an ordinary least squares analysis of total plant costs regressed on a set of 28 exogenous variables and a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis model, where efficiency scores are obtained through weight restrictions. Moreover, the results of this study demonstrate that, with the exception of the “other features of WWTPs”, all other clusters of variables exert a negative effect on cost savings; in other words, larger scale of operations and higher usage of the productive capacity (grouped as “other features of WWTPs”) can improve cost efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • A. Guerrini & G. Romano & L. Carosi & F. Mancuso, 2017. "Cost Savings in Wastewater Treatment Processes: the Role of Environmental and Operational Drivers," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(8), pages 2465-2478, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1007_s11269-017-1586-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11269-017-1586-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11269-017-1586-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11269-017-1586-9?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. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6151-8, September.
    2. Saal, David S & Parker, David, 2001. "Productivity and Price Performance in the Privatized Water and Sewerage Companies of England and Wales," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 61-90, July.
    3. Romano, Giulia & Guerrini, Andrea, 2011. "Measuring and comparing the efficiency of water utility companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 202-209.
    4. Victor V. Podinovski, 2015. "DEA Models with Production Trade-offs and Weight Restrictions," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Joe Zhu (ed.), Data Envelopment Analysis, edition 127, chapter 5, pages 105-144, Springer.
    5. Andrea Guerrini & Giulia Romano & Bettina Campedelli, 2013. "Economies of Scale, Scope, and Density in the Italian Water Sector: A Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(13), pages 4559-4578, October.
    6. Victor V. Podinovski & Tatiana Bouzdine-Chameeva, 2013. "Weight Restrictions and Free Production in Data Envelopment Analysis," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(2), pages 426-437, April.
    7. 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.
    8. Kristof De Witte & Rui Marques, 2010. "Designing performance incentives, an international benchmark study in the water sector," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 18(2), pages 189-220, June.
    9. María Molinos-Senante & Manuel Mocholi-Arce & Ramón Sala-Garrido, 2016. "Efficiency Assessment of Water and Sewerage Companies: a Disaggregated Approach Accounting for Service Quality," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(12), pages 4311-4328, September.
    10. Dyson, R. G. & Allen, R. & Camanho, A. S. & Podinovski, V. V. & Sarrico, C. S. & Shale, E. A., 2001. "Pitfalls and protocols in DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 245-259, July.
    11. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    12. T Joro & E-J Viitala, 2004. "Weight-restricted DEA in action: from expert opinions to mathematical models," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 55(8), pages 814-821, August.
    13. Abbott, Malcolm & Wang, Wei Chun & Cohen, Bruce, 2011. "The long-term reform of the water and wastewater industry: The case of Melbourne in Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 115-122, June.
    14. John Ashton, 2000. "Cost efficiency in the UK water and sewerage industry," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(7), pages 455-458.
    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. Amir Homayoun Sarfaraz & Amir Karbassi Yazdi & Thomas Hanne & Peter Fernandes Wanke & Raheleh Sadat Hosseini, 2023. "Assessing repair and maintenance efficiency for water suppliers: a novel hybrid USBM-FIS framework," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 1321-1342, September.
    2. Manuel Mocholi-Arce & Trinidad Gómez & Maria Molinos-Senante & Ramon Sala-Garrido & Rafael Caballero, 2020. "Evaluating the Eco-Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison of Optimistic and Pessimistic Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Caterina Lucia & Daniela Pampinella & Eristanna Palazzolo & Luigi Badalucco & Vito Armando Laudicina, 2023. "From Waste to Resources: Sewage Sludges from the Citrus Processing Industry to Improve Soil Fertility and Performance of Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa L.)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, April.

    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. Tourinho, Marco & Santos, Paulo Rosa & Pinto, Francisco Taveira & Camanho, Ana S., 2022. "Performance assessment of water services in Brazilian municipalities: An integrated view of efficiency and access," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Guerrini, Andrea & Romano, Giulia & Mancuso, Fabrizio & Carosi, Laura, 2016. "Identifying the performance drivers of wastewater treatment plants through conditional order-m efficiency analysis," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 20-31.
    3. Francisco González-Gómez & Miguel García‐Rubio & Francisco Alcalá-Olid & M. Ortega-Díaz, 2013. "Outsourcing and Efficiency in the Management of Rural Water Services," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(3), pages 731-747, February.
    4. Podinovski, Victor V., 2016. "Optimal weights in DEA models with weight restrictions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 254(3), pages 916-924.
    5. Podinovski, Victor V., 2017. "Returns to scale in convex production technologies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 970-982.
    6. Congcong Yang & Alfred Taudes & Guozhi Dong, 2017. "Efficiency analysis of European Freight Villages: three peers for benchmarking," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 25(1), pages 91-122, March.
    7. Loske, Dominic & Klumpp, Matthias, 2021. "Human-AI collaboration in route planning: An empirical efficiency-based analysis in retail logistics," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    8. Sickles, Robin C. & Song, Wonho & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2018. "Econometric Analysis of Productivity: Theory and Implementation in R," Working Papers 18-008, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    9. Angeliki Flokou & Vassilis Aletras & Dimitris Niakas, 2017. "Decomposition of potential efficiency gains from hospital mergers in Greece," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 467-484, December.
    10. Moonyoung Eom & Hyungchul Yoo & Jisung Yoo, 2022. "Efficiency and Productivity of Local Educational Administration in Korea Using the Malmquist Productivity Index," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Ströhl, Florian & Borsch, Erik & Souren, Rainer, 2018. "Integration von Gewichtsrestriktionen in das DEA-Modell nach Charnes, Cooper und Rhodes: Exemplarische Optionen und Auswirkungen," Ilmenauer Schriften zur Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, volume 3, number 32018.
    12. Dyckhoff, Harald & Souren, Rainer, 2022. "Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis and production theory for performance evaluation: Framework and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(3), pages 795-816.
    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. Liu, Junqing & Fukushige, Mototsugu, 2020. "Efficiency and pricing of water supply and sewerage services in Japan," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Ruiz, José L. & Segura, José V. & Sirvent, Inmaculada, 2015. "Benchmarking and target setting with expert preferences: An application to the evaluation of educational performance of Spanish universities," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(2), pages 594-605.
    16. Edirisinghe, N.C.P. & Zhang, X., 2010. "Input/output selection in DEA under expert information, with application to financial markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1669-1678, December.
    17. Podinovski, Victor V., 2019. "Direct estimation of marginal characteristics of nonparametric production frontiers in the presence of undesirable outputs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(1), pages 258-276.
    18. Victor V. Podinovski & Robert G. Chambers & Kazim Baris Atici & Iryna D. Deineko, 2016. "Marginal Values and Returns to Scale for Nonparametric Production Frontiers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 236-250, February.
    19. Madlener, Reinhard & Antunes, Carlos Henggeler & Dias, Luis C., 2009. "Assessing the performance of biogas plants with multi-criteria and data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 1084-1094, September.
    20. Martin Bod’a & Martin Dlouhý & Emília Zimková, 2018. "Unobservable or omitted production variables in data envelopment analysis through unit-specific production trade-offs," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 26(4), pages 813-846, December.

    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:spr:waterr:v:31:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1007_s11269-017-1586-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.