How sustainable is digitalization in urban water infrastructure? A life cycle assessment of the implementation of smart water meters

ABSTRACT Digitalization, as a key component of smart city development, has the potential to transform urban water systems. Among digital tools, smart water metering has attracted growing attention for its potential to reduce household water demand through improved user awareness and enhance leakage management using high-resolution consumption data. However, despite these benefits, large-scale deployment of smart meters also involves significant environmental impacts, and it remains unclear to what extent these benefits outweigh the associated burdens. To address this gap, an integrated scenario-based life cycle assessment was conducted for a planned smart meter implementation in an Austrian city. Scenarios reflected realistic improvements in water demand and leakage reduction. Environmental impacts were assessed using the global warming potential (GWP) indicator across freshwater treatment and pumping, household water heating, and wastewater treatment. The results show that leakage-focused scenarios were only marginally sustainable when device lifespans were short. A 15% reduction in water demand due to behavioral change yielded substantial GWP reductions, up to 6.1 million kgCO2-eq per year, depending on the electricity mix and meter lifespan. This improvement was largely driven by reduced energy use for water heating, identified as the dominant contributor to GWP. This study provides guidance for sustainable smart metering strategies.