A new operational approach for understanding water-related interactions to achieve water sustainability in growing cities

AbstractAbout 56 percent of the world’s population currently lives in cities. Anthropogenic activities have both directly and indirectly modified their environment. Therefore, management actions at the urban level determine whether or not cities are heading toward sustainability. Consequently, water management is in need of a clear insight of the social and ecological water-related interactions. Thus, a new operational approach is proposed for a better understanding of the interactions between the water cycle, cities and the society. In our approach, eleven key issues and their interactions emerge from an analysis of 371 documents published between 2012 and 2018. The interactions between different key issues were examined through four main foci of analysis: water resources, urban throughput, water equity, and water governance and financing. Those main foci help to comprehend water as a holistic element intertwined in urban areas. In addition, our approach provides six challenges to guide the stakeholders in decision-making processes: how to recognize, integrate, and/or restore water-related ecosystem services, how to maintain and improve the supporting green and blue spaces, how to guarantee the quality and quantity of water resources and the water supplied and used, how to ensure public and social health and well-being of the citizens, how to prevent and manage water-related conflicts, and how to make informed and equitable decisions on water management at urban level?

Download Full-text

Хот суурин газрын усны нөөцийн нэгдсэн менежментийн үнэлгээ: Чиг хандлага ба нөлөөллийн тогтолцоо

Mongolian Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences ◽

10.22353/mjeas.v2i1.49 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 12-18

Author(s):

Б. Тайванбат ◽

О. Алтансүх ◽

М. Энх-Үүр ◽

K. Van Leeuwen ◽

Steven H. A. Koop

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Integrated Water Resources Management ◽

Management Plan ◽

Living Environment ◽

Integrated Water Management ◽

Current State ◽

State Of Water

The large number of people living together in urban areas requires a comprehensive solutions for issues such as the reasonable allocation and adequate use of natural resources, urban planning, and efficient waste management to meet the city's needs. One of the main factors influencing the health and comfort of urban residents is the supply of clean water and sewerage systems. Therefore, in order to rationally allocate and use water resources to meet urban needs, and to create a healthy and comfortable living environment for city residents, it is necessary to develop an integrated water resources management plan at the national and basin levels, as well as an integrated water management plan and assessment for city level. In addition to assessing the current state of water management, it is important to identify factors and trends that may further strain water resources to prevent future risks. To address the pressures on water management in Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan, representing Mongolia's urban areas, the City Blueprint Approach, developed by the EU Water Innovation Partnership and the Dutch Institute of Water Cycle, was used in this study. Currently, this approach is used in about 80 cities in more than 40 countries, it is a relatively new and innovative method among Asian cities. As a result, water management in Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan is hampered by both social, economic, and environmental factors.

Download Full-text

Urban-Water Harmony model to evaluate the urban water management

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2014.272 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 70 (11) ◽

pp. 1774-1781 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yifan Ding ◽

Deshan Tang ◽

Yuhang Wei ◽

Sun Yin

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Urban Expansion ◽

Water Environment ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Urban Water ◽

Urban Water Management

Water resources in many urban areas are under enormous stress due to large-scale urban expansion and population explosion. The decision-makers are often faced with the dilemma of either maintaining high economic growth or protecting water resources and the environment. Simple criteria of water supply and drainage do not reflect the requirement of integrated urban water management. The Urban-Water Harmony (UWH) model is based on the concept of harmony and offers a more integrated approach to urban water management. This model calculates four dimensions, namely urban development, urban water services, water–society coordination, and water environment coordination. And the Analytic Hierarchy Process has been used to determine the indices weights. We applied the UWH model to Beijing, China for an 11-year assessment. Our findings show that, despite the severe stress inherent in rapid development and water shortage, the urban water relationship of Beijing is generally evolving in a positive way. The social–economic factors such as the water recycling technologies contribute a lot to this change. The UWH evaluation can provide a reasonable analysis approach to combine various urban and water indices to produce an integrated and comparable evaluation index. This, in turn, enables more effective water management in decision-making processes.

Download Full-text

Water and wastewater related issues in Sri Lanka

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2003.0661 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 47 (12) ◽

pp. 305-312 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

N.J.G.J. Bandara

Keyword(s):

Water Resources ◽

Sri Lanka ◽

Ground Water ◽

Low Income ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Marine Pollution ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Agricultural Runoff ◽

Water And Wastewater

The primary problems concerning water resources in Sri Lanka are the depletion and degradation of the resource caused by various anthropogenic activities. Surface inland waters in urban areas are polluted heavily with domestic sewage and industrial effluents, and in rural areas with agricultural runoff. With regard to ground water in certain areas of the dry zone, there is a high fluoride content and in hard, rocky, alluvial areas, there is a high concentration of iron. In urban over-crowded cities, there is biological contamination of ground water. Over-utilization, particularly through tube wells, is another major problem affecting ground water resources in Sri Lanka. Oil spills, dumping of waste from ships, coral and sand mining, and industrial activities are the main causes of marine pollution in the country. Except for pipe-borne water supply, irrigation and hydropower schemes, in general water resources in Sri Lanka are managed very poorly. Regulations are available to control most water related problems but enforcement of these regulations is lacking. The ultimate result of degradation and depletion of water resources is the increasing health hazards. Water-borne and vector-borne diseases are prevalent, particularly amongst urban low-income communities with poor sanitary facilities and drainage. Despite government initiatives and legislation, very slow progress has been made towards combating water pollution. This paper examines the most significant water and wastewater related issues in Sri Lanka and their controlling mechanisms.

Download Full-text

Smart Water Management Framework Berbasis IoT Untuk Mendukung Pertanian Urban

Petir ◽

10.33322/petir.v14i1.1112 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Yan Mitha Djaksana

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Domestic Water ◽

Management Framework ◽

Reuse Water ◽

Smart Water ◽

Framework Model ◽

Large Populations

Related to water resources is one of the problems that often occurs in certain areas that have large populations such as urban areas, in addition to having to provide water that is used for daily activities, today many urban residents live in urban hardships, so an alternative is needed in providing resources water that must be purchased in daily necessities, in this paper we proposed a framework for support urban farming that we called the smart water management system by utilizing the IoT (Internet of Thinks) technology specifically sensors and machine learning algorithms in managing available water resources. many researchers have developed a similar model, but the framework model that we proposed using reuse water and filtered rainwater so that it meets the minimum quality requirements of water that can be reused in agriculture, so we hopes to make domestic water use more effective and efficient and predictable water consumption and availability.

Download Full-text

How Does Digitization Succeed in the Municipal Water Sector? The WaterExe4.0 Meta-Study Identifies Barriers as well as Success Factors, and Reveals Expectations for the Future

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14227709 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (22) ◽

pp. 7709

Author(s):

Günter Müller-Czygan ◽

Viktoriya Tarasyuk ◽

Christian Wagner ◽

Manuela Wimmer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Digital Systems ◽

Urban Water ◽

Water Industry ◽

Urban Water Management ◽

The Future ◽

German Speaking

Water is increasingly taking center stage when it comes to coping with climate change. Especially in urban areas, negative consequences from heavy rainfall events and prolonged dry periods are rising worldwide. In the past, the various tasks of urban water management were performed by different departments that often did not cooperate with each other (water supply, wastewater disposal, green space irrigation, etc.), as the required water supply was not a question of available water volumes. This is already changing with climate change, in some cases even dramatically. More and more, it is necessary to consider how to distribute available water resources in urban areas, especially during dry periods, since wastewater treatment is also becoming more complex and costly. In the future, urban water management will examine water use in terms of its various objectives, and will need to provide alternative water resources for these different purposes (groundwater, river water, storm water, treated wastewater, etc.). The necessary technological interconnection requires intelligent digital systems. Furthermore, the water industry must also play its role in global CO2 reduction and make its procedural treatment processes more efficient; this will also only succeed with adequate digital systems. Although digitization has experienced an enormous surge in development over the last five years and numerous solutions are available to address the challenges described previously, there is still a large gap between the scope of offerings and their implementation. Researchers at Hof University of Applied Sciences have investigated the reasons for this imbalance as part of WaterExe4.0, the first meta-study on digitization in the German-speaking water industry, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Only 11% of roughly 700 identified products, projects and studies relate to real applications. For example, the surveyed experts of the water sector stated that everyday problems are considered too little or hardly at all in new solutions, which greatly overburdens users. Furthermore, they see no adequate possibility for a systematic analysis of new ideas to identify significant obstacles and to find the best way to start and implement a digitization project. The results from four methodologically different sub-surveys (literature and market research, survey, expert interviews and workshops) provide a reliable overview of the current situation in the German-speaking water industry and its expectations for the future. The results are also transferable to other countries.

Download Full-text

Water management and climate change monitoring in Tunisia and Egypt using remote sensing techniques

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3100 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Simonetta Paloscia ◽

Giacomo Fontanelli ◽

Simone Pettinato ◽

Emanuele Santi ◽

Giuliano Ramat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Management ◽

Remote Sensing ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Agricultural Practice ◽

Water Efficiency ◽

Environmental Models ◽

Remote Sensing Techniques

This project deals with the implementation of an innovative water management system in Mediterranean countries (i.e. Tunisia and Egypt), which suffer from chronic water scarcity, together with two European countries (Germany and Italy). The consortium is developing and applying synergic methods and algorithms for investigating the water cycle, using remote sensing techniques.The focus is on the use of satellite data (both optical and microwave) for monitoring vegetation cover and water status along with soil moisture temporal evolutions in order to improve the knowledge of the water cycle in arid areas. Both local and regional monitoring are carried out in order to investigate different spatial scales.Environmental models and algorithms for the retrieval of hydrological parameters have been developed in the frame of this project in order to match the main goal of the project, i.e. to propose practical and cost-effective solutions for driving and updating a method for the sustainable use of water in agriculture.&#160;An optimized management of water resources for cultivated lands on Egyptian Delta (Northern part) and Tunisian territory will be realized by analyzing the available spatial and temporal data for the areas of interest appropriately selected for this purpose. As such, an efficient water use, equitable distribution of water resources, community participation in decisions, and sustainable system operation over time can be supported.First of all, we aim to localize different crop and irrigation techniques for the study regions. This information is required as a basis for further investigations and assessments. Secondly, the water efficiency for different lands, crop types and irrigation systems will be assessed.Afterwards, possible improvements in agricultural practice with respect to climate change scenarios and information on water efficiency will be determined by rating the outcome from the assessment.

Download Full-text

The Palo Verde Water Cycle Model (PVWCM) – Development of an Integrated Multi-Physics and Economics Model for Effective Water Management

10.1115/power2021-65768 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Bobby D. Middleton ◽

Patrick V. Brady ◽

Jeffrey A. Brown ◽

Serafina T. Lawles

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Sonoran Desert ◽

Power Plants ◽

Water Cycle ◽

Cooling Water ◽

Software Tool ◽

Cycle Model ◽

The Us ◽

Water Strategy

Abstract Water management has become critical for thermoelectric power generation in the US. Increasing demand for scarce water resources for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use affects water availability for power plants. In particular, the population in the Southwestern part of the US is growing and water resources are over-stressed. The engineering and management teams at the Palo Verde Generating Station (PV) in the Sonoran Desert have long understood this problem and began a partnership with Sandia National Laboratories in 2017 to develop a long-term water strategy for PV. As part of this program, Sandia and Palo Verde staff have developed a comprehensive software tool that models all aspects of the PV (plant cooling) water cycle. The software tool — the Palo Verde Water Cycle Model (PVWCM) — tracks water operations from influent to the plant through evaporation in one of the nine cooling towers or one of the eight evaporation ponds. The PVWCM has been developed using a process called System Dynamics. The PVWCM is developed to allow scenario comparison for various plant operating strategies.

Download Full-text

Comprehensive integrated water management

Water Resources: Future Perspectives, Challenges, Concepts and Necessities ◽

10.2166/9781789062144_0119 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 119-130

Author(s):

Alireza Rezaee ◽

Omid Bozorg-Haddad ◽

Ronny Brendtsson ◽

Vijay P. Singh

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Resources Management ◽

Integrated Management ◽

Well Being ◽

High Quality ◽

Integrated Water Management ◽

Resources Management ◽

The Social ◽

Quality Water

Abstract Improper utilization of water resources has the potential to result in reduced availability of high-quality water and adverse effects on societal development. In fact, what appears to be a serious gap in comprehensive water resources studies is the lack of a coherent approach that can link different social, economic and environmental parts within the framework of the integrated water management paradigm to extract strategies and operational plans. Comprehensive water resources management (CWRM) is a process that intends to develop and manage water, land and other resources in a way that maximizes the social and economic well-being of human societies, without compromising the integrity and sustainability of vital ecosystems and future benefits. This chapter discusses the definitions of integrated and comprehensive water resources management describing the steps of using integrated management in practical examples.

Download Full-text

Is Canada fulfilling its obligations to sustain marine biodiversity? A summary review, conclusions, and recommendations 1This manuscript is a companion paper to Hutchings et al. (doi:10.1139/a2012-011) and VanderZwaag et al. (doi:10.1139/a2012-013) also appearing in this issue. These three papers comprise an edited version of a February 2012 Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel Report.

Environmental Reviews ◽

10.1139/er-2012-0049 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 353-361 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Jeffrey A. Hutchings ◽

Isabelle M. Côté ◽

Julian J. Dodson ◽

Ian A. Fleming ◽

S. Jennings ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Well Being ◽

Companion Paper ◽

Marine Biodiversity ◽

Management Actions ◽

New Research ◽

Research Initiatives ◽

Developed Nations

Canada has made numerous national and international commitments to sustain marine biodiversity. Given current and potential threats to biodiversity from climate change, fisheries, and aquaculture, we provide a summary review of Canada’s progress in fulfilling its obligations to protect, conserve, recover, and responsibly exploit marine biodiversity. We conclude that Canada has made little substantive progress, when compared to most developed nations, in meeting its biodiversity commitments. Much of Canada’s policy and rhetoric has not been operationalised, leaving many of the country’s national and international obligations unfulfilled in some key areas, such as the establishment of marine protected areas and incorporation of the precautionary approach to fisheries management. We conclude that regulatory conflict within Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the absolute discretion exercised by the national Minister of Fisheries and Oceans contribute significantly to an unduly slow rate of policy and statute implementation. We recommend new approaches and measures to sustain Canadian marine biodiversity and new research initiatives to support scientific advice to decision-makers. Many recommendations focus on management actions required to meet existing commitments to biodiversity conservation. Overall, we conclude that the most effective strategy is to protect existing biological diversity and to rebuild depleted populations and species to restore natural diversity. By improving and protecting the biodiversity in Canada’s oceans, such a strategy will restore the natural resilience of Canada’s ocean ecosystems to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change and other anthropogenic activities with consequent long-term benefits for food security and social and economic well-being.

Download Full-text

Evaluating the Functioning Mechanisms of ‘TANK Systems’ in Peri-Urban Areas of Chennai, India—Land Use Change as the Determinant

Water ◽

10.3390/w11061219 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1219

Author(s):

Rukkumany R. Harishankar ◽

Ranee Vedamuthu

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Land Use ◽

Water Resources ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Management Model ◽

Community Control ◽

Community Management ◽

The Government ◽

Common Lands

Ensuring the sustenance of water resources that act as sources of water for cities threatened by urbanization and developmental pressures is a crucial problem in peri-urban areas. The objective of this research was to establish the role of change in agricultural land use as a determinant in the evaluation of the existing water management system and to ascertain whether the control by the government or community management can be effective in ensuring the sustenance of water resources in peri-urban areas. The cases selected for the study were the water management systems present in two villages located in the peri-urban areas of Chennai, India. This research adopted a case study strategy with mixed methods of analyses. The analysis traces trajectories of change in the land use of agricultural lands and the common lands related to water management through methods, trend analysis, analysis of spatial patterns of change and the changes in the components of the community management. Results from the analysis indicated that under the context of intensive change from agricultural to nonagricultural land uses, the interlinkages within the traditional community management model had broken up, making community control improbable. The current management model of the government was also found to be inadequate. Results indicated that government agencies with trained personnel engaged in periodic maintenance activities, constant monitoring against encroachment, and pollution, and through the formation of user associations under their control can ensure the sustenance of water resources.

Download Full-text