Browsing by Author "Poch, Manel"

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    Agent-based modelling to simulate the socio-economic effects of implementing time-of-use tariffs for domestic water
    (2022) Vidal Lamolla, Pol; Popartan, Alexandra; Perello-Moragues, Toni; Noriega, Pablo; Sauri, David; Poch, Manel; Molinos-Senante, Maria
    Designing and implementing innovative and effective policies to reduce domestic water demand is vital to enhance sustainability of cities. Past research has shown that Time-of-Use Tariffs (TOUT) is a powerful tool to reduce water consumption in urban settings. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this dynamic water pricing approach might be influenced by the socioeconomic conditions and preferences of households. To shed light on this issue, this paper employed an agent-based modelling method to simulate the possible socioeconomic effects of implementing TOUT in a Spanish municipality. The types of households were characterized according to size, number of inhabitants, income and to socio-cognitive profiles (clients, techno-solutionist, committed and envi-ronmentalist). Results from the modelling indicate that the implementation of a TOUT system would reduce domestic water use by 17.2%. However, this reduction was not homogenous for the socioeconomic groups of households defined. Low-income households are those who most reduced their water consumption (25.0%) but had the lowest water bill savings (9.3%). By contrast, high-income households present the largest water bill savings (11.9%) but the lowest reduction in water use (10.4%). The findings of this study evidence the impor-tance of considering the socioeconomic and socio-cognitive differences among water users to evaluate the effectiveness of TOUTs.
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    From wastewater treatment plants to decentralized resource factories
    (2024) Molinos Senante, María; Poch, Manel; Rosso, Diego; Garrido-Baserba, Manel; CEDEUS (Chile)
    Current wastewater management practices underutilize wastewater as a valuable source of water, energy, and essential plant nutrients. A new paradigm shift is needed, one that integrates the water-energy-food nexus into wastewater management. Decentralized wastewater management has the power to redefine not only the urban water cycle but also reshape society towards a more economic and environmentally sustainable future.
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    Increasing resilience through nudges in the urban water cycle: An integrative conceptual framework to support policy decision-making
    (2023) Poch, Manel; Aldao, Carolina; Godo-Pla, Lluis; Monclus, Hector; Popartan, Lucia Alexandra; Comas, Joaquim; Cermeron-Romero, Manuel; Puig, Sebastia; Molinos-Senante, Maria
    Relevant challenges associated with the urban water cycle must be overcome to meet the United Nations Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs) and improve resilience. Unlike previous studies that focused only on the provision of drinking water, we propose a framework that extends the use of the theory of nudges to all stages of the overall urban water cycle (drinking water and wastewater services), and to agents of influence (citizens, organizations, and governments) at different levels of decision making. The framework integrates four main drivers (the fourth water revolution, digitalization, decentralization, and climate change), which influence how customers, water utilities and regulators approach the challenges posed by the urban water cycle. The proposed framework, based on the theory of nudges first advanced by the Nobel Prize in behavioral economics Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (Thaler and Sunstein, 2009), serves as a reference for policymakers to define me- dium-and long-term strategies and policies for improving the sustainability and resilience of the urban water cycle. Finally, we provide new insights for further research on resilience approaches to the management of the urban water cycle as an element to support the more efficient formulation of policies.
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    The Economics of Wastewater Treatment Decentralization : a Techno-economic Evaluation
    (2018) Garrido Baserba, Manel; Vinardell, Sergi; Molinos Senante, María; Rosso, Diego; Poch, Manel; CEDEUS (Chile)
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    The third route: A techno-economic evaluation of extreme water and wastewater decentralization
    (2022) Garrido-Baserba, Manel; Barnosell, Irene; Molinos-Senante, Maria; Sedlak, David L.; Rabaey, Korneel; Schraa, Oliver; Verdaguer, Marta; Rosso, Diego; Poch, Manel
    Water systems need to become more locally robust and sustainable in view of increased population demands and supply uncertainties. Decentralized treatment is often assumed to have the potential to improve the technical, environmental, and economic performance of current technologies. The techno-economic feasibility of imple-menting independent building-scale decentralized systems combining rainwater harvesting, potable water pro-duction, and wastewater treatment and recycling was assessed for six main types of buildings ranging from single-family dwellings to high-rise buildings. Five different treatment layouts were evaluated under five different climatic conditions for each type of building. The layouts considered varying levels of source separation (i.e., black, grey, yellow, brown, and combined wastewater) using the corresponding toilet types (vacuum, urine-diverting, and conventional) and the appropriate pipes and pumping requirements. Our results indicate that the proposed layouts could satisfy 100% of the water demand for the three smallest buildings in all but the aridest climate conditions. For the three larger buildings, rainwater would offset annual water needs by approximately 74 to 100%. A comprehensive economic analysis considering CapEx and OpEx indicated that the cost of installing on-site water harvesting and recycling systems would increase the overall construction cost of multi-family buildings by around 6% and single-family dwellings by about 12%, with relatively low space requirements. For buildings or combined water systems with more than 300 people, the estimated total price of on-site water provision (including harvesting, treatment, recycling, and monitoring) ranged from $1.5/m(3) to $2.7/m,(3) which is considerably less than the typical tariffs collected by utilities in the United States and Western Europe. Where buildings can avoid the need to connect to centralized supplies for potable water and sewage disposal, water costs could be even lower. Urine-diversion has the potential to yield the least expensive solution but is the least well developed and had higher uncertainty in the cost analysis. More mature layouts (e.g., membrane bio-reactors) exhibited less cost uncertainty and were economically competitive. Our analysis indicates that existing technologies can be used to create economically viable systems that greatly reduce demands on centralized utilities and, under some conditions, eliminate the need for centralized water supply or sewage collection.