A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

To tackle current water insecurity concerns, wastewater reclamation and reuse have appeared as a promising candidate to conserve the valuable fresh water sources while increasing the efficiency of material utilization. Climate change, nevertheless, poses both opportunities and threats to the wastewater reclamation industry. Whereas it elevates the social perception on water-related issues and fosters an emerging water-reuse market, climate change simultaneously presents adverse impacts on the water reclamation scheme, either directly or indirectly. These effects were studied fragmentally in separate realms. Hence, this paper aims to link these studies for providing a thorough understanding about the consequences of the climate change on the wastewater reclamation and reuse. It initially summarizes contemporary treatment processes and their reuse purposes before carrying out a systematic analysis of available findings. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.