Due to the global challenge of water insecurity, desalination capacity in the world has grown in recent decades. At the same time, concerns over desalination's detrimental environmental impact have increased. To evaluate the environmental impact of desalination, Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) are often conducted. Yet, the disparate array of LCA studies do not provide a systematic understanding of the underlying evidence related to specific environmental impacts of desalination. To fill this gap, we reviewed 38 studies with 295 LCA scenarios on desalination published from 2000 to 2018. This paper presents the scope of current research related to LCA methods, databases, and methods. We produced an evidence map to identify identified that maintenance and operation, treatment process, and the energy sector as the main contributors to negative environmental impacts as they relate to key life-cycle phases, the water cycle, and components such as energy, chemicals, and materials. Next, we compared the environmental impact of alternative options including water supply and technologies to reduce the environmental burden of desalination and found the possible future technology interventions for sustainable desalination. At the same time, we reveal that emerging technologies that aim to reduce energy consumption have the potential to increase other environmental burdens such as chemical usage. The systematic review provides an evidence-based framework for future research, which should consider the various impact categories, address gaps between the current studies and the real-world environmental concerns, evaluate social and economic impacts, and examine new and emerging technologies.

由于全球对水不安全的挑战，近几十年来，世界范围内的海水淡化能力有所提高。同时，人们对海水淡化对环境的不利影响越来越引起人们的关注。为了评估淡化对环境的影响，经常进行生命周期评估（LCA）。然而，各种各样的LCA研究并未提供对与海水淡化的特定环境影响相关的基础证据的系统理解。为了填补这一空白，我们回顾了2000年至2018年发布的295项LCA海水淡化方案中的38项研究。本文介绍了与LCA方法，数据库和方法相关的当前研究范围。我们制作了证据图，以识别已确定的维护和运营，处理过程，能源部门是造成负面环境影响的主要因素，因为它们与关键的生命周期阶段，水循环以及诸如能源，化学品和材料等组件有关。接下来，我们比较了包括水供应和减少海水淡化对环境造成负担的技术在内的替代方案对环境的影响，并发现了未来可能采取的可持续海水淡化技术干预措施。同时，我们发现旨在降低能耗的新兴技术有可能增加其他环境负担，例如化学药品的使用。系统评价为将来的研究提供了一个基于证据的框架，该框架应考虑各种影响类别，解决当前研究与现实环境之间的差距，