这项研究讨论了城市水基础设施造成的最大环境负担 审查有关生命周期评估的已发表论文。由于地理位置不同，影响也不同 根据地理位置和社会经济背景，水系统分为四类:城市地区 在发达国家；发达国家的农村地区；发展中国家的城市地区；以及发展中国家的农村地区。评估显示，能源密集型工艺 与操作阶段相关的是最重要的生命来源- 循环环境排放，以便在所有四类水系统中采用集中方法。对于这些集中方法，这些基本设施的施工和拆除处置生命周期阶段并不重要，因为它们的环境影响通常是在这些系统相对较长的寿命期内平均的。对于通常与农村供水系统相关的非集中式方法，这些非运行阶段变得更加关键。包括24个参考文献、表格和图表。

This study discusses the biggest environmental burdens imposed by municipal water infrastructure based on reviewing published papers on relevant life-cycle assessments. Since impacts vary due to geographical location and socio-economic context, the water systems were grouped into four categories: urban areas in developed countries; rural areas in developed countries; urban areas in developing countries; and, rural areas in developing countries. The evaluation revealed that energy-intensive processes associated with the operational stage are the most important source of life-cycle environmental releases for centralized approaches across all four categories of water systems. For these centralized approaches, the construction, and demolition disposal life-cycle stages for these capital facilities are not as important because their environmental impacts are typically averaged over the relatively long life-times of these systems. For non-centralized approaches often associated with the rural categories of water systems, these non-operational stages become more critical. Includes 24 references, tables, figure.