The water footprints of construction products and buildings

Supervisors: Judith Thornton & Martin Tillotson, School of Civil Engineering

Overview

The environmental impacts of the construction industry have generally been considered in terms of
energy, materials and resource consumption over the lifespan of the building and its end of life
disposal. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used in many studies of buildings and has
demonstrated that whilst in most cases the operational energy use far exceeds the energy used
during construction, as the build quality and thermal performance of buildings improves the energy
used in production of construction materials and the construction process itself will need to be
addressed. In contrast, little cradle to grave analysis of the water impacts of buildings has been
done. Operational water use has been extensively studied, but we know very little about how much
water is used in the construction product supply chain, or at the end-of-life disposal stage. Water
footprints can be used to measure the water used during the entire life cycle of a product. These
water uses may be many steps removed in the supply chain, and/or occur in other countries. They
may relate to water for cooling during electricity generation, or the evapotranspiration from trees
that are later used for construction timber. The importance of the water footprint needs to be
considered in light of the water scarcity issues affecting particular countries or watersheds.

A number of potential PhD projects are possible within this area, and students would be encouraged
to come up with their own idea. Projects we are particularly interested in include:

What place does water footprint calculation have when considering the environmental
impacts of construction timber?
The water footprints of building elements and construction techniques for low water
footprint buildings.
The water impacts of key construction materials, including concrete and steel.

No closing date, we welcome applications throughout the year. Informal enquiries to Dr Judith
Thornton. j.thornton@leeds.ac.uk

Funding: There is no project funding attached. The University has several sources of funding for PhD
studies. These are detailed at: http://scholarships.leeds.ac.uk

Entry requirements/necessary background: First degree plus demonstrable interest/experience in

the topic. The latter could be via a Masters degree, wider reading or job-related experience.