Sustainable, Resilient, and Reliable Urban Water Systems: Making a Case for 'One Water Approach'

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarin Raj Pokhrel ◽  
Gyan Chhipi-Shrestha ◽  
Kasun Hewage ◽  
Rehan Sadiq
Keyword(s):  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Visionary Leadership ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Service Components

An urban water system (UWS) has three main service components: 1) drinking water, 2) wastewater, and 3) stormwater. Historically, each component in urban water development evolved over time with different objectives for “different” types of water. Even today, the trend continues, as different urban water services are managed in silos. This trend is less sustainable, resilient, and reliable mainly because of significant pressures on freshwater supplies exerted by increasing population, demand for high living standards, rapid urbanization, and climate change. To cope with these challenges, the conventional thinking necessitates a change. This paper identifies a number of significant research gaps related to inter-relationships among various UWS service components. An innovative paradigm - One Water Approach (OWA), which considers “urban water” as a single entity, is investigated. Currently, Australia, the United States, and Singapore are leading the pack to implement OWA, whereas only a few Canadian municipalities have embraced OWA at a very basic level. In the European Union nations, Amsterdam (Netherlands) emphasized the need for integrated water resource management in an urban environment. This review highlights the challenges in adopting OWA and also proposes guiding principles in ongoing water management practices. Institutional complexities involving an intricate regulatory structure for different UWS service components, a wider fragmentation in decision making at government levels, and insufficient stakeholder engagement within and between water utilities and other institutions present serious challenges. Various strategies such as, data sharing between water utilities, use of novel technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, sensor technologies), and visionary leadership at different government levels have been identified as key drivers for the adoption and implementation of OWA. The authors believe that a paradigm shift from ‘conventional’ approach to OWA is needed to increase resiliency and reliability of water services and assist decision-makers of UWSs.

The California Urban Water Conservation Council: a consensus partnership for water conservation

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-288
Author(s):  
M.A. Dickinson
Keyword(s):  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Efficiency ◽  
Environmental Groups ◽  
Best Management ◽  
Conservation Council

California, perhaps more than any other of the United States, has been a leader in water efficiency experiments. It adopted uniform efficient plumbing standards in 1978 for showerheads and faucets and the same for water closets in 1992. Comprehensive water management planning was adopted in 1983 for all water agencies serving more than 3,000 connections or 3,000 people, and in 1991, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by major water utilities and environmental groups statewide - pledging to implement standardized water efficiency programs called “Best Management Practices” in an attempt to help save the dying Bay-Delta Estuary. The California Urban Water Conservation Council, created by this Memorandum, is a non-profit NGO formed to oversee the Best Management Practices and to enforce the terms of the Memorandum. Since the historic signing of this Memorandum ten years ago, the Council has become a national example of consensus partnership on water efficiency. Water utilities and environmental groups work together on defining programs for water conservation, not as adversaries fighting each other in the press or in the courtroom. Technical assistance provided by Council staff helps utilities plan and implement conservation projects. This paper will outline national programs and will focus specifically on the Council partnership, which has resulted in benefits to water utilities, environmental groups, and state governmental agencies alike.

scholarly journals Regulatory and Resource Management Practices for Urban Watersheds: The Florida Experience

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard O. Carey ◽  
George J. Hochmuth ◽  
Christopher J. Martinez ◽  
Treavor H. Boyer ◽  
Vimala D. Nair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Resource Management ◽  
Atmospheric Deposition ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Septic Systems ◽  
Urban Watersheds ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Quality

Urban water quality management is becoming an increasingly complex and widespread problem. The long-term viability of aquatic ecosystems draining urban watersheds can be addressed through both regulatory and nutrient and water management initiatives. This review focuses on U.S. regulatory (federal, state, and local) and management (runoff, atmospheric deposition, and wastewater) impacts on urban water quality, specifically emphasizing programs in Florida. Because of rapid population growth in recent decades, and projected increases in the future, appropriate resource management in Florida is essential. Florida enacted stormwater regulations in 1979, before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) amended the Clean Water Act (CWA) to regulate stormwater discharges. However, in the United States, more research has been conducted on larger structural best management practices (BMPs) (e.g., wet ponds, detention basins, etc.) compared with smaller onsite alternatives (e.g., green roofs, permeable pavements, etc.). For atmospheric deposition, research is needed to investigate processes contributing to enhanced deposition rates. Wastewater (from septic systems, treatment plants, and landfills) management is especially important in urban watersheds. Failing septic systems, elevated nutrient concentrations in discharged effluent, and landfill leachate can all potentially degrade water quality. Proposed numeric nutrient criteria from the USEPA and innovative technologies such as bioreactor landfills are emergent regulatory and management strategies for improved urban water quality.

scholarly journals Water Sensitive Cities: integrated approach to enhance urban flood resilience in Parma (Northen Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Dada ◽  
Christian Urich ◽  
Michèle Pezzagno ◽  
Giovanna Grossi
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Flood Hazards ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Water Sensitivity ◽  
Porous Pavement

<p>The climate change of the last half century is globally causing an increasingly in violent meteorological phenomena. Cities are experiencing the pressures of these phenomena and they are facing many challenges - economic, social, health and environmental.</p><p>Over the coming decades the population growth and the rapid urbanization will bring to a tumultuous growth of the cities that will become more and more vulnerable, especially to flood hazards.</p><p>In order to make our urban water systems more effective to these challenges new water management strategies must be developed. The complexity of this challenge calls for the integration of knowledge from different disciplines and collaborative approaches.</p><p>The concept of Water Sensitive Cities is one of the starting points for developing new techniques, strategies, policies, and tools to ensure a better liveability, sustainability, and resilience of the cities.</p><p>In this study, the DAnCE4Water model to promote the development of Water Sensitive Cities, was applied to Parma, an Italian town that faced serious water issues in the last years. Through the model the efficiency of new decentralized technologies, as green roofs and porous pavement, and their integration with the existing centralized technologies (sewerage), was estimated.</p><p>The first phase of the study concerned the analysis of the current state of the sewerage network and the relative critical issues. Flow rates and the amount of surface runoff were calculated using the SWMM modelling software.</p><p>In the second phase three hypothetical different scenarios were created by adopting different intervention strategies. The first scenario was created by using green roofs for a percentage of existing buildings in the urban area equal to 30%; the second scenario was created by adopting the porous pavement technology. For the third scenario, a possible urban development was simulated, with its consequent population, without adopting any flood risk mitigation strategy. A hydraulic study was carried out for each scenario highlighting the differences in terms of runoff formation and percentage of infiltration.</p><p>The integrated approach enables a city to test its current water management practices and policy, it helps cities to identify their short and long term goals to enhance water sensitivity, it gives a quantification of benefits and costs and it provides an estimate,  still in the design phase, of the effectiveness of possible strategies under different scenarios like climate changes, changes in the societal needs and urban changes by modelling the complex dynamics between societal system, urban environment and the urban water system.</p>

scholarly journals A Water Evaluation and Planning-based framework for the long-term prediction of urban water demand and supply

SIMULATION ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003754972098425
Author(s):  
Arfa Saleem ◽  
Imran Mahmood ◽  
Hessam Sarjoughian ◽  
Hasan Arshad Nasir ◽  
Asad Waqar Malik
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Water Evaluation And Planning

Increased usage and non-efficient management of limited resources has created the risk of water resource scarcity. Due to climate change, urbanization, and lack of effective water resource management, countries like Pakistan are facing difficulties coping with the increasing water demand. Rapid urbanization and non-resilient infrastructures are the key barriers in sustainable urban water resource management. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address the challenges of urban water management through effective means. We propose a workflow for the modeling and simulation of sustainable urban water resource management and develop an integrated framework for the evaluation and planning of water resources in a typical urban setting. The proposed framework uses the Water Evaluation and Planning system to evaluate current and future water demand and the supply gap. Our simulation scenarios demonstrate that the demand–supply gap can effectively be dealt with by dynamic resource allocation, in the presence of assumptions, for example, those related to population and demand variation with the change of weather, and thus work as a tool for informed decisions for supply management. In the first scenario, 23% yearly water demand is reduced, while in the second scenario, no unmet demand is observed due to the 21% increase in supply delivered. Similarly, the overall demand is fulfilled through 23% decrease in water demand using water conservation. Demand-side management not only reduces the water usage in demand sites but also helps to save money, and preserve the environment. Our framework coupled with a visualization dashboard deployed in the water resource management department of a metropolitan area can assist in water planning and effective governance.

scholarly journals Innovation results of IAM planning in urban water services

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (7) ◽  
pp. 1518-1526 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Cardoso ◽  
A. Poças ◽  
M. S. Silva ◽  
R. Ribeiro ◽  
M. C. Almeida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Asset Management ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Sustainable Infrastructure ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Software Company ◽  
Urban Water Services ◽  
Levels Of Service

The requirement to provide urban water services continuously while infrastructures are ageing, imposes the need for increasingly sustainable infrastructure asset management (IAM). To achieve and maintain adequate levels of service, the AWARE-P IAM methodology has been applied in collaborative projects launched by the National Civil Engineering Laboratory, in partnership with IST (Technical University of Lisbon), Addition (software company) and several water utilities. The objective of these projects is to support urban water utilities in the development, implementation and maintenance of IAM plans. To guarantee the success of IAM planning, following the AWARE-P IAM methodology, utilities are required to: consider that the infrastructure has system behaviour and lifespan is indefinite and guarantee the full-alignment of IAM planning with organisation objectives. By analysing the strategic and tactical plans of participating utilities, the proposed methodology principles are discussed and supported. The main innovation results from the implementation of IAM planning are also presented and discussed, including the challenges of setting up an IAM process, together with the major benefits and drawbacks that come up when developing IAM plans. The results were demonstrated by the effective implementation of 16 strategic and 14 tactical IAM plans by the participating utilities.

Resilient urbanization and infrastructure governance: the case of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, 1993–2007

Water Policy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 848-864 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Spencer ◽  
Bunnarith Meng
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Water Service ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
The Government

Abstract After years of civil war, Cambodia began to focus on reconstruction and the development of its much-needed infrastructure across the country in the early 1990s. While most government institutions at the capital/provincial levels were crippled, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) was able to provide excellent water service to most of the capital's residents, even the extremely poor. This case represents a traditional utility that was able to creatively experiment with new management practices and solicit community involvement in the administration of its work. It also illustrates the fact that under certain conditions, urban water services can actually generate revenues to subsidize other functions of the government. Specifically, it provides a useful illustration of a resilient governance of infrastructure able to adapt to rapidly changing and challenging circumstances.

scholarly journals WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM: AN OVERVIEW

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-63
Author(s):  
Phu Le Vo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Water Resource ◽  
Water Resource Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Rapid Urbanization

Water is a resource needed in all aspects of life and is regarded as a decisive factor for Earth's ecosystems survival. However, water resource has also become a limiting factor of social and economic development. For cities of the developing world, water is increasingly playing a vital role in sustainable urban development. Since economic reform known as “Doi Moi" (renovation) in 1986, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has undergone the rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization. As a result, the City has experie critical environmental challenges in which water use and management have placed constraints on its sustainable development. These striking challenges include water shortage, pollution and depletion of surface and groundwater sources. The underlying reasons can be attributed to inadequate management practices. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of rapid urbanization and growing water resource problems. It also examines the management practices and analyze the root causes of water resource issues in the course of sustainable development.

Strategies to improve implementation of adaptive management practices for restoration in coastal Louisiana

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 83-91
Author(s):  
Tim Carruthers ◽  
Richard Raynie ◽  
Alyssa Dausman ◽  
Syed Khalil
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Coastal Protection ◽  
Coastal Restoration ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Coastal Louisiana ◽  
Restoration Effort

Natural resources of coastal Louisiana support the economies of Louisiana and the whole of the United States. However, future conditions of coastal Louisiana are highly uncertain due to the dynamic processes of the Mississippi River delta, unpredictable storm events, subsidence, sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and extensive historic management actions that have altered natural coastal processes. To address these concerns, a centralized state agency was formed to coordinate coastal protection and restoration effort, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA). This promoted knowledge centralization and supported informal adaptive management for restoration efforts, at that time mostly funded through the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA). Since the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in 2010 and the subsequent settlement, the majority of restoration funding for the next 15 years will come through one of the DWH mechanisms; Natural Resource and Damage Assessment (NRDA), the RESTORE Council, or National Fish and Wildlife Foundation –Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (NFWF-GEBF). This has greatly increased restoration effort and increased governance complexity associated with project funding, implementation, and reporting. As a result, there is enhanced impetus to formalize and unify adaptive management processes for coastal restoration in Louisiana. Through synthesis of input from local coastal managers, historical and current processes for project and programmatic implementation and adaptive management were summarized. Key gaps and needs to specifically increase implementation of adaptive management within the Louisiana coastal restoration community were identified and developed into eight tangible and specific recommendations. These were to streamline governance through increased coordination amongst implementing entities, develop a discoverable and practical lessons learned and decision database, coordinate ecosystem reporting, identify commonality of restoration goals, develop a common cross-agency adaptive management handbook for all personnel, improve communication (both in-reach and outreach), have a common repository and clearing house for numerical models used for restoration planning and assessment, and expand approaches for two-way stakeholder engagement throughout the restoration process. A common vision and maximizing synergies between entities can improve adaptive management implementation to maximize ecosystem and community benefits of restoration effort in coastal Louisiana. This work adds to current knowledge by providing specific strategies and recommendations, based upon extensive engagement with restoration practitioners from multiple state and federal agencies. Addressing these practitioner-identified gaps and needs will improve engagement in adaptive management in coastal Louisiana, a large geographic area with high restoration implementation within a complex governance framework.

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