Life Cycle Assessment of Flood Spreading System Daefeh Watershed in Rafsanjan Plain

Nowadays, around the world, environmental impacts, as one of the most important dimensions of sustainable development, play a significant role in strategic decision makings. Water resources management is one of the most sensitive measures due to its bi-directional relationship with sustainable development and also as a facilitator of this path, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. One of the main purpose of the LCA approach is to assess the environmental impact of emissions. In this study, environmental compatibility of mechanical watershed management measures to manage water resources is investigated by using this approach. Therefore, material flow, energy and environmental impacts of all stages of the life cycle of one unit of flood spreading system (located in Daefeh watershed in Rafsanjan plain) were analyzed based on IMPACT 2002+ method available in the Simapro software. The results showed that the earthen structure of the flood spreading system with 8.37 kPt environmental impact is the hot spot of this system (Mostly due to the earthworks), including 91.34% of environmental burdens in the construction phase and 55.2% of the total emission effects. The findings of this research showed that the environmental consequences of emissions during the life cycle of this system were 15.2 kPt. Construction process stage (with the highest amount of environmental burdens in each impact category except for resource depletion) 39.2%, use stage 31.3%, extraction and productivity of materials 23.3% and transportation stage 0.93% of Environmental burdens were allocated in this study. The environmental consequences of emissions in the categories of adverse effects on human health, climate change, resource depletion and ecosystem depletion of the flood spreading system are 6.63, 3.54, 3.06 and 1.94 kPt, respectively. Also the results of this study will be useful for evaluating the environmental effects of different structures. Finally, it is suggested that in the integrated watershed management, which is responsible for protecting our nation's natural resources, life cycle assessment approach be developed and the green building approach could be implemented, such as selecting the design discharge with environmental considerations, selecting quantities and types of environmentally friendly materials.