Looking for Best Practices in Greening Tourism

Water consumption

Wateris one of the most important resources we have. The blue planet, as astronauts use to call the Earth, has plenty of water, but the majority of it is salted and cannot be consumed by the people.
Climate change affects especially the rise of temperatures that will change the weather in all the regions of the planet. Hydro-medtheorological disasters are becoming more present every year, what really has made people more conscious of climate change. And the melting of polar's Eerthh Ice will rapidly increase the effects of climate change.
Consequences can be extremely bad, but recent meetings of experts have shown how regions like the Mediterranean will have longer summers seasons and will become more desertified, receiving less water from the rain than usually.
The racionalized use of water as a scarce resources is an intelligent way to make tourism sustainible in those regions, like the Mediterranean coast, today's most intensive tourist region in the planet.
In this section this information on best practices on water consumotion will have it's place.

Tagged: consumption, greening, water

2 Comments

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on November 25, 2007 at 5:51pm: Guidelines for Sustainable Water Management in Tourism
Facilities

Thanks to Marcus Endicott I've known about this interesting
site: SWAMP is a project under the Energy, Environment
and Sustainable Development Programme of the 5th Framework
Programme.

The project aims at developing economically feasible and
technically satisfying wastewater treatment for tourism facilities
with seasonal fluctuation using an integrated approach comprising
sustainable water management, constructed wetlands for wastewater
treatment and reclamation of the treated effluent.

It is intended to develop sustainable water management concepts and
test them at 13 selected sites in four European countries: Italy,
Austria, Germany and Latvia. This allows to run tests at different
types of sites (camping sites, tourist farms, mountain shelters
etc.) in different climate zones (Atlantic, continental,
Mediterranean and mountainous). At these sites, pilot constructed
wetlands shall be built to adjust the system to the special
requirements of each tourism facilities. Tests on the pilot plants
will be run and monitored to develop guidelines for the design,
construction and operation of such plants in the future. The tests
will also be used to check the hygienic efficiency of constructed
wetlands. The design principles to be developed will take into
consideration further disposal or reuse of the treated effluent,
especially irrigation.

The results shall be compiled into design and operation guidelines,
which will initially be prepared at the European level and then
adapted for each participating country.

Dissemination of the results is planned through the partner network
and by an information campaign developed by SWAMP.

= = = In the SWAMP site you can also get the:

Guidelines for Sustainable Water Management in Tourism
Facilities
http://www.swamp-eu.org/pub/SWAMP_guidelines.pdf

These guidelines are the joint result and work of the SWAMP project
team (SWAMP stands for "Sustainable Water Management and Wastewater
Purification in Tourism Facilities").

They include the experiences collected at the SWAMP demonstration
sites and knowledge of all the project partners. The intention is
to promote an integrated approach to water supply and wastewater
treatment, targeted towards reuse of water and nutrients, in
tourism facilities at remote locations. The guidelines describe the
suggested sanitary techniques and give advise about best solutions,
layout and operation. A decision tree helps to select the best
choice of a scheme for a given situation.

These guidelines should help owners of tourism facilities to decide
in favour of a sustainable water use and give engineers and
technicians the know-how they may need in order to implement the
most advantageous solutions.

Comment by Oriol Miralbell on December 1, 2008 at 12:03pm: Waterless UrinalsSaving Water and improving hygiene
Conventional urinals use at least three litres of water per flush, whereas waterless urinals need neither water nor a flushing system. These new urinals save costs, and above all water, without making concessions on convenience. At the same time they improve hygiene.
Models made of sanitary ware and fibreglass-reinforced synthetic material (polyester) are available. Their specially treated surfaces prevent liquids from clinging. The urine flows off the smooth surface of the urinal into a siphon that serves to trap the odour - this is the centrepiece of all waterless urinals. The siphon contains a liquid sealant with a lighter-than-water specific density. This floats to the top, allowing the urine to flow through it and away, taking any odours with it. The liquid sealant remains in the siphon.
Waterless urinals have no joints or cracks which bacteria can colonise. The special surface repels most liquids and impurities. Cleaning therefore involves less cost and effort than with conventional systems, and strong toilet cleaners are now unnecessary. With some systems, water and disinfectant are enough to guarantee hygienic operation.
Waterless urinals are functional, economical, hygienic, virtually odour-free, non-contact, and - as the name says – use no water at all.
Read more...