Green technologies for the use of urban wastewater: economic analysis

  • Horacio Alfredo Gil Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto
  • José Manuel Cisneros Departamento de Ecología Agraria, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto
  • Jorge Dante de Prada Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto
  • José Omar Plevich Departamento de Producción Vegetal, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto
  • Angel Ramon Sanchez Delgado Departartamento de Matemática, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro
Keywords: water pollution, environmental benefit, urban sanitation

Abstract

Urban sewage is one of the biggest polluters of water resources. For treatment, the usual conventional technologies (CT) are based on civil and hydraulic engineering; more recently, green technologies (GT) based on biology and ecology began to be developed. The aim of this study was to assess the economic aspects of these technologies using cost-benefit analysis. The economic benefits are derived from the sale of forest products and the environmental benefits of water decontamination, valued by the avoided cost method. The results of the study establish that GT have better commercial and economic performance than CT, and that the inclusion of environmental benefit significantly improves the results.

Author Biography

José Omar Plevich, Departamento de Producción Vegetal, Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria, Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto
Departamento de Matemática da UFRRJ Área: Otimização Agrícola e Problemas Ambientais
Published
19/12/2013
Section
Papers