Integrating Water Networks Characteristics and Watershed Sustainability into Industrial Facility Site Selection

This chapter presents a mathematical programming approach for choosing installation locations for industrial facilities considering water usage and disposal. A material flow analysis model is incorporated, where the integration of water within the industrial facility as well as the interaction between the wastewater discharged and the surrounding watershed and the environment are involved. The properties (pH, toxicity, density, color, chemical oxygen demand, etc.) that impact the process sinks and the environment are tracked by the model along with the compositions of the targeted pollutants. The interactions between pollutants and the environment, as well as all the inlets and outflows that have an impact on the watershed, are considered by the presented model. The objective function is to minimize the overall annual cost, which includes the expenditures associated with fresh water, land acquisition, raw material, product, and utility transportation; in addition to the wastewater treatment (including piping) and new facility construction. Two case studies, from Egypt and Mexico, are examined using the presented approach.