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چکیده
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To reduce the water consumption of concrete industry is one of the most important indicators of sustainability within the concrete industry. However, a lack of available benchmark metrics has made it difficult for decision makers within the concrete industry to identify areas to target for water consumption reduction and even for governments to provide a basis to analyse water consumption impacts of concrete production on their national environment. This chapter looks at water footprint of concrete industry based on a life cycle assessment approach. A comprehensive water footprint model of concrete production is provided. Elaboration is paid to the raw materials (cement and aggregates), energy, transportation and human's food, as important factors affecting water footprint of the concrete industry. A large cement plant, a concrete plant and an aggregate producer in Iran are analysed and the effects of different parameters on the water footprint model are evaluated based on a sensitivity analysis method. The chapter shows that the water consumption intensities of cement, aggregate and concrete productions account for 2.126 m3/ton, 0.583 m3/ton and 0.967 m3/ton, respectively indicating a high contribution of the concrete industry to water consumption and risk of surviving such industry in dry regions. The chapter demonstrates that water footprint can be most effectively reduced by shifting to greater contributions of wind and solar energy. In addition, the chapter illustrates that the personnel's food contributes to 6,850 m3, 565,000 m3, and 22,610 m3 water footprint, in the investigated concrete, cement and aggregate plants in 2017, respectively; highlighting the role of human management on the water footprint reduction. This chapter will be of interest to those seek sustainability in concrete production. It provides an understanding of water consumption of the concrete industry broader than is currently available.
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