The planning and construction of large-scale wastewater infrastructure, such as sewerage networks and wastewater treatment plants, is undertaken by the public sector or by publicly regulated monopolies. Only on smaller scales can infrastructure be managed by private companies or through local collective initiatives. Within this framework of water cycle management, there is an increasing movement of the population towards cities where economic activity is concentrated. This scenario is particularly pronounced in certain regions of the world and makes it necessary to rethink whether decentralised treatment offers a way of ensuring the servicing of wastewater treatment in new urban developments, alleviating pressure on facilities that are at the limit of their capacity.

In this study four systems were evaluated: two centralised and two decentralised configurations, from an environmental and economic perspective, posing as working hypothesis how different wastewater treatment schemes influence the carbon footprint of the population living in a neighbourhood. The analysis of the results identifies that the decentralised systems present a reduction in the carbon footprint of residents of around 20–23 % depending on the technology considered. In addition, reclaimed water can meet the water quality requirements for irrigation of the green areas in the neighbourhood. Although decentralised systems have higher construction costs, they can be amortised due to lower energy consumption, so the payback time is estimated to be 8–9 years, lower than that of centralised systems. Considering the problems associated with changing and replacing existing networks, decentralised wastewater treatment systems is especially recommended for new dwelling developments, based on its environmental and economic indicators.

大型废水基础设施（如污水管网和废水处理厂）的规划和建设是由公共部门或公共监管的垄断部门进行的。只有在较小规模下，基础架构才能由私人公司或通过地方集体计划进行管理。在水循环管理的这一框架内，越来越多的人口向经济活动集中的城市流动。这种情况在世界某些地区尤其明显，因此有必要重新考虑分散处理是否可以提供一种确保新城市发展中的污水处理服务的方法，从而减轻对能力有限的设施的压力。

在这项研究中，从环境和经济角度评估了四个系统：两个集中式配置和两个分散式配置，将不同的废水处理方案如何影响居住在该地区的居民的碳足迹作为工作假设。对结果的分析表明，根据所考虑的技术，分散式系统可减少居民的碳足迹约20-23％。此外，再生水可以满足灌溉附近社区绿色区域的水质要求。尽管分散式系统的建设成本较高，但由于能耗较低，可以进行摊销，因此投资回收期估计为8–9年，比集中式系统的回收期短。