Water Infrastructure Renewal Policies to Enable Equitable and Sustainable Prosperity

Abstract

Cities across Canada are renewing their water infrastructure in response to growing populations and aging networks. However, greenhouse gas emissions from pipe manufacturing, transportation, installation, and end-of-life treatment – collectively “embodied emissions” – worsen climate change. Greener pathways of construction are required to sustain infrastructural performance and access while minimizing emissions. Using publicly available pipe data from 3,136 neighbourhoods in 11 cities across four Canadian provinces, we evaluate the influence of neighbourhood-level urban design – population density and housing types – on the per capita embodied emissions of water, sanitary, and stormwater networks. Total per capita embodied emissions due to water infrastructure vary 20-fold across the neighbourhoods. Emissions go down when population density goes up and when the percentage of single-family homes decreases; for every 14-fold increase in population density, per capita emissions halve. The research indicates that denser neighbourhoods with fewer single-family homes reduce the environmental cost of water infrastructure.