Cruz-Pérez Noelia, Santamarta Juan C, Gamallo-Paz Isabel, Rodríguez-Martín Jesica, García-Gil Alejandro
Departamento de Ingeniería Agraria y del Medio Natural, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain.
Departamento Técnicas y Proyectos en Ingeniería y Arquitectura, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Spain.
Sustain Water Resour Manag. 2022;8(4):121. doi: 10.1007/s40899-022-00706-0. Epub 2022 Jul 17.
The Canary Islands have a water culture tied to the exploitation of their groundwater by means of wells and water galleries. However, the growth of tourism, the increase in the local population and the development of agriculture have led to the emergence of new ways of obtaining water, such as the desalination of seawater. The presence of these desalination plants covers the entire archipelago except for the island of La Palma, and sometimes they function as a complement to water needs, while in other cases they are the only source of drinking water available. To study the environmental impact of the production of drinking water through the exploitation of the aquifer and the desalination of seawater, the carbon footprint methodology was used following the guidelines of the GHG Protocol. The result has shown that seawater installations have the largest carbon footprint, mainly due to the high electricity consumption in the islands and the electricity mix of the archipelago which, as it does not rely entirely on renewable energy sources, increases CO emissions into the atmosphere due to the production of drinking water in the islands.
加那利群岛拥有与通过水井和地下水道开采地下水相关的水文化。然而，旅游业的发展、当地人口的增加以及农业的发展导致了新的取水方式的出现，比如海水淡化。除了拉帕尔马岛之外，这些海水淡化厂遍布整个群岛，有时它们作为对用水需求的补充，而在其他情况下，它们是唯一可用的饮用水源。为了研究通过开采含水层和海水淡化生产饮用水对环境的影响，按照温室气体协议的指导方针采用了碳足迹方法。结果表明，海水淡化设施的碳足迹最大，主要是由于群岛上的高电力消耗以及该群岛的电力结构，因为它并不完全依赖可再生能源，所以岛屿上饮用水生产导致的二氧化碳排放增加，从而排放到大气中。
