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oai:riuma.uma.es:10630/295872026-02-03T11:29:27Zcom_10630_2254col_10630_37953

Assessing changes in eco-productivity of wastewater treatment plants: The role of costs, pollutant removal efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions Gemar-Castillo, Germán Gómez-Núñez, Trinidad Molinos-Senante, María Caballero-Fernández, Rafael Enrique Sala-Garrido, Ramón Plantas depuradoras de agua - Aspectos ambientales Improving eco-efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has been identified as being essential for achieving urban sustainability. Several previous papers have evaluated the eco-efficiency of WWTPs using data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. However, those models provided only a static assessment in that they ignored possible fluctuations over time within each plant. To overcome this temporal limitation, this paper evaluates dynamic eco-efficiency (changes in eco-productivity over time) of WWTPs using the dynamic weighted Russell directional distance model (WRDDM). This approach allows one to obtain an eco-productivity change index for each major component of the WRDDM model (costs, pollutants removal, and greenhouse gas emissions). Our results illustrate that although eco-productivity improved in half of the WWTPs we assessed, there was still potential for improving some eco-efficiency components. Moreover, operational costs and greenhouse gases emissions were the main drivers reducing eco-productivity. This paper demonstrates the importance of evaluating change in eco-productivity over time and in identifying the drivers associated with those changes, both of which can be used to support decision-making focused on the sustainability of WWTPs 2024-02-01T11:00:11Z 2024-02-01T11:00:11Z 2024-02-01T11:00:11Z 2018-03 journal article Gémar, G., Gómez, T., Molinos-Senante, M., Caballero, R., & Sala-Garrido, R. (2018). Assessing changes in eco-productivity of wastewater treatment plants: The role of costs, pollutant removal efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 69, 24-31. https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29587 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2017.11.007 eng open access Elsevier