Environmentally Sustainable Development of Hot Spring Spa: A Case Study of Geothermal Springs in Tengchong, Yunnan

Abstract

The rapid growth of the tourism industry has caused the exploitation and destruction of nature. Hot spring bath, as an important form of hot spring tourism in China, is expanding its development scale gradually. Thus, there is a declining in the quality of hot springs leading to a reduction in the number of visitors and a sign of declining in hot spring resorts business. A sustainable direction for development and operation of hot spring is needed in order to preserve natural resources and the quality of hot springs, while visitors can still visit the place for recreation. This study comprised of goal and scope definition, and life cycle inventory analysis, the first two major steps in conducting life cycle assessment, which is an appropriate approach to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts over the life cycle of an outdoor hot spring bathing. The results showed that the energy footprint of the outdoor hot spring bath (within the system boundary) was 2,111 MJ per functional unit (200 visitors who spent two hour per day) or 10.56 MJ/visitor and the total water footprint was 1,198 m3 per functional unit or 5.99 m3/visitor. This study can aid in the energy footprint and water footprint assessment of an outdoor hot spring bathing of a hot spring resort in Tengchong, Yunnan, China. The hot spring bathing process with the major resource consumption can be identified and improved its resource consumption efficiently. Based on the results, the water circulation consumed the most energy consumption among the five energy processes, which accounted 53.82% of total energy consumption or 5.68 MJ/visitor. The water transportation was the most energy-intensive sub-process in the water circulation process. The energy consumption of the water circulation process can be reduced by using energy-saving pumps. The water using process was the major water-intensive process through splash water and evaporation of the outdoor bathing process. Thus, using sustainable equipment during the water using process is beneficial for water consumption reduction. A deeper understanding and a quantitative approach in improving the resource and environmental protection category of the China’s tourist attraction rating system could be obtained by analyzing the LCI results to identify the processes with potentially significant energy and water consumption impacts.

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