Topic 4 How it can be managed?
There are 2 possible strategies:
1-Water consumption minimization
2- Water and wastewater management
Example of systems for water consumption minimization
Systems with FECES / URINESPRE-SEPARATION
Source: https://www.ecovita.net/
Environmental Performance Indicators and associated examples of excellence:- Daily water consumption per guest (l / guest per day): average water consumption per tourist is ≤ 200 l per guest per day.
- Water consumption per guest-night (l / guest per night) and energy needed for water heating:
- Flow of showers and toilets, urinals and toilet flushing (l / min or l / flushing): flowrate of the showers is ≤ 7 l / min; flowrate of the bathroom taps is ≤ 6 l / min (≤ 4 l / min for new taps); average effective toilet flushing is ≤ 4, 5 l; waterless urinals are installed.
- Implementation of an environmental management plan for swimming pools and application of ozonation or UV treatment (e.g. chlorine consumption reduction through optimized dosage and the application of complementary disinfection methods such as ozonation and UV treatment).
Diversification and enhancement of separate flows
Source: Eusebi A.L., Fatone F., Idro-ed eco-innovazioni per edifici e città circolari e resilienti. Ecomondo
https://www.zandxmechanicalinstallations.com/greywater-recycling/
Rain Water Harvesting –Building Scale
Diversification and enhancement of separate flows
Sneek, Lemmerweg-Oost 32 houses are treated.
Source: Eusebi A.L., Fatone F., Idro-ed eco-innovazioni per edifici e città circolari e resilienti. Ecomondo
DEcentralized Sanitation And Reuse – Different Approaches
Source: Zeeman, 2002 «DEcentralized Sanitation And Reuse (DESAR): DEcentralized Sanitation And Reuse”
Hydroponic Systems: plant-based Constructed Vertical ECOsystem technology for greywater treatment
Benefits from vertECO:
- Closing the water cycle
- Sustainable reduction in water consumption (up to 50%)
- Chemical free and zero consumables
- Aesthetically pleasing and multiple design options
Key innovation of ecosystem services and green aesthetics integration directly into buildings
Features:
- Vertical set-up optimizes the use of space
- Outdoors or indoors installation
- Cost saving solution for treating solid- and faecal-free wastewater
- High contaminant removal rates
- Low energy consumption
- Suitable for hotels with high water consumption and green areas
- Noticeable microclimatic improvements, with lower demand on indoor climate conditioning
Infrastructure and services
Services such as water supply and wastewater treatment are intended to cope with peak demand and ensure the sustainability of tourism in the tourist destination.
Environmental Performance Indicators and associated examples of excellence:
- Percentage of wastewater sent for secondary treatment or tertiary (%): ≥ 95% of the wastewater produced in the structure receives at least one secondary treatment or one tertiary treatment for discharge to sensitive receiving waters, even in the high tourist season.
- Applicability: All touristic structures incl. Small Entreprise
- Efficiency of on-site wastewater treatment: When it is not possible to send the wastewater to a centralized treatment, the on-site treatment includes a preliminary treatment (sieve / screen, homogenization and decantation), followed by a biological treatment with> 95% BOD5 removal,> 90% nitrification and anaerobic digestion (outside the site) of excess sludge.
- Applicability: All touristic structures incl. Small Entreprise which are not connected to a sewer system
- Implementation of rainwater and grey water recycling which responds to internal water demand and / or a grey water recycling system that responds to internal or external demand.
- Applicability: All touristic structures incl. Small Entreprise
Tour operators are also key actors within the tourism sector, with significant direct influence over:
- tourism service providers
- destination managers
- consumers and tourists
Through these relationships, tour operators also have significant indirect influence over environmentally important upstream supply chains that supply products and services to accommodation and food and drink providers, and over environmentally important functions under the remit of destination managers, such as land-planning and service provision within destinations.
Thus, tour operators are strategically positioned to coordinate and leverage sustainability improvements across the tourism sector (i.e. to improve the economic, social and environmental performance of the sector).
Environmental Performance Indicators and associated examples of excellence:
- Percentage of highly sustainable tours sold (e.g. eco-certificates) (in terms of value) (%):
○The tour operator promotes sustainable tour packages in its general advertising material.
○The flagship sustainable tourism offers packages (for example, travel packages with the Austrian quality label) represent a share of sales ≥ 10%.
○The tour operator uses marketing and communication methods effective to encourage more sustainable choices in the offer of tourist packages.
○The tour operator provides all its customers with information on destinations and awareness in order to encourage sustainable behavior in the tourist destination.
Applicability: Tour Operator, Small Entreprise
3.Scientific evidence
Cooley et al. (2007) estimate that hotels can reduce indoor water consumption by 30% by installing water-efficient fixtures. Smith et al. (2009) suggest that minimizing water consumption in landscaping can conserve 30-50% of water:
- Pools can be responsible for considerable water consumption, and the most important measure is consequently to reduce their size and to avoid large pool-landscapes when designing hotels.
- Toilets, showerheads and faucet flow restrictors can be replaced with efficient ones. The most efficient toilets can use as little as 1L for a “miniflush”, compared to up to 12L for older models.
- Changing cooking practices, use of efficient dishwashers and pre-rinse spray valves with smaller nozzles to achieve higher water velocity, use of boiler less food steamers and efficient ice-makers.
Management can focus on educational programmes for staff, and informative signs on how to save water, addressing tourists. Measuring water consumption and establishing benchmarks can help to better understand consumption patterns.
Fortuny, Soler, Cánovas, & Sánchez (2008) show, for instance, that many water-saving technologies such as flow limiters on taps and showers, or lavatory cisterns with reduced flush options have short payback times between 0.1 and 9.6 years, making them economically attractive.
Low water costs are a potential barrier to action. Water politics, need to focus on steering consumption through increases in costs, and where considerable increases in water prices may be demanded to raise awareness and to engage stakeholders pro-actively in water-saving measures.
An assessment of a 30-room hotel revealed 67% of its guestroom faucet aerators were faulty and leaked at flows of up to 21 liter/minute. Installing 5.6 liter/min aerators could have reduced water consumption by more than 200,000 EUR liter/year and saved 2,000 EUR per year. This measure required a 150 EUR investment and offered a payback period of 5 weeks.
The following video offers an example on how to reduce water consumption in hotels:
Case Studies
Source
Bonanno et al., (2018)
Cirelli, 2016
Location
Sicily
Case Study Type
Agritourism
Solution
Wastewater natural based solutions and constructed wetland treatments
Improvement Obtained
Waste Water Management
References
Cirelli, 2016
Location
Sicily
Case Study Type
Agritourism
Solution
Wastewater natural based solutions and constructed wetland treatments
Improvement Obtained
Waste Water Management
References
Italian Eco Hotel
Location
Venice
Case Study Type
Hotel
Solution
Reduction and reuse of water
Improvement Obtained
Reduction in water consumption by 31%
Strategies applied:
- Choosing low impact amenities and materials
- Reducing and reusing of water
- Reducing the carbon footprint of guests
- Bathing bio-lake, a swimming pool with living water without traces of chemical products for purification, created through aquatic plants and natural oxygenation.
References
3 Ears agritourism
Location
Castle of Spedaletto, Tuscany Region
Case Study Type
Agritourism Accommodation
Solution
Bio-pool (half pool and half lake) with natural based solutions and treatments
Improvement Obtained
Elimination of the use of chemicals reagents and limited necessity of periodic addition of water to rebalance the level lowered to evaporation
ECOTOURIST Water Loop (Ecolodge) in Tinos Island
The innovative solution was implemented within the EU funded H2020 HYDROUSA Project. In the Ecolodge, water loops are integrated within a remote eco-tourist facility.
Rainwater and vapour water recovery systems are demonstrated within the facilities of the eco-tourist resort “Tinos Ecolodge”. This includes the production of drinking water from vapour water using a fog catcher like system. Wastewater is treated by reedbeds and is recycled locally in agriculture.
Reclaimed water is currently being used to irrigate 0.15 ha of local crops. The facility is remotely located off the grid and thus all activities will be powered using renewable energy.
Source: https://www.hydrousa.org/
Rainwater harvesting system: This innovative solution was implemented within the EU funded H2020 HYDROUSA Project.
The solution will upgrade an existing rainwater harvesting system of domestic residences located in a village of Mykonos to reclaim potable water after slow sand filtration and recharge water into the aquifer, mitigating the long-encountered problem of saline water intrusion.
The water will be used to cultivate lavender for essential oil production.
Source: https://www.hydrousa.org/
Samba Hotel is a large resort (441 rooms), green areas and exterior pools, conference room, bar and restaurant.
The proposed solution within the demEAUmed Project integrates innovative water treatment technologies, TICs and water management tools. Different proven water treatment technologies at pre-marketable level are being properly combined to treat and adapt the different water flows to the necessities of the different areas in the resort, while saving freshwater consumption and reducing environmental and socio-economic impact in a safe way.
- Certified by EMAS and ISO14001
- Water use from 25,000 to 34,000 m3/year (100 to 135 L/person/day)
- Grey water system for water closets
The Viennese three-star Boutiquehotel Stadthalle Wien is the world’s first zero-energy balance hotel in urban areas. The hotel only uses water from their own well to water the plants and flowers in the garden.
The hotel uses solar energy for heating and rainwater for toilet flushes. Guests are also offered a 10% reduction on their room price if they travel by train or bike. If they have electric cars, they can charge them for free at the hotel’s electric fuel station. Also, the substantial breakfast buffet consists, as far as possible, of organic food.
The hotel heating uses water heated by a 130m2 solar energy plant. A ground-water heating pump, three wind wheels and more than 80m2 of large photovoltaic plant create so much energy that not only the energy needs of new hotel can entirely be served, but energy can also be emitted to the original hotel and the ecological electric supply network.
The filling of the toilets’ flushing tanks as well as the watering of the garden is done through a rainwater collection system. The fresh air for the controlled air conditioning is warmed by a solar energy plant, and during the summer the building can be cooled by cold ground water which is pumped through the concrete ceiling. Thereby, the company does not have to use energy-consuming air conditioning, and energy consumption is also reduced by the use of LED and energy saving lighting reduces.