Sustainability of urban water system: examples from Fukuoka, Japan

Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 501-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justyna Czemiel Berndtsson ◽  
Kenji Jinno
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Reclaimed Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Water Shortages ◽  
Urban Water System

Urban water management policy in Japan, with examples from Fukuoka city, is described and the potential for sustainability of Fukuoka's urban water system is discussed. A framework of the qualitative characteristics of a sustainable system (including social, environmental and economic factors) is developed and used in the analyses presented here. The Fukuoka example shows that technically advanced solutions for use of reclaimed water and rainwater in buildings can be practically and economically feasible. Regarding the organization it is shown that the wastewater sector has a somewhat lower status than the water sector. It is argued that merging the water and wastewater sectors could stimulate the development of a holistic approach to urban water management, contribute to increasing resources availability for the wastewater sector and, in this way, the overall sustainability of the urban water system. Tackling water shortages through controlling water demand, investments in increasing water distribution efficiency and utilization of reclaimed water and rainwater in Fukuoka are all in line with increasing sustainability of the urban water system.

Receptivity to transformative change in the Dutch urban water management sector

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. de Graaf ◽  
R. J. Dahm ◽  
J. Icke ◽  
R. W. Goetgeluk ◽  
S. J. T. Jansen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Water System ◽  
Water Systems ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Urban Water System ◽  
Urban Water Systems

Worldwide, the need for transformative change in urban water management is acknowledged by scientists and policy makers. The effects of climate change and developments such as urbanization, the European Water Framework Directive, and societal concerns about the sustainability of urban water system force the sector to adapt. In The Netherlands, a shift towards integration of spatial planning and water management can be observed. Despite major changes in water management policy and approach, changes in the physical urban water management infrastructure remain limited to incremental solutions and demonstration projects. Policy studies show that institutional factors and professional perceptions are important factors for application of innovations in urban water management. An online survey among Dutch urban water management professionals demonstrates that according to most respondents, optimization of the current system is sufficient to achieve both European and national objectives for sustainable urban water management. The respondents are most concerned with the effects of climate change on urban water systems. In contrast to current policy of the national government, priority factors that should be addressed to achieve a more sustainable urban water system are improving knowledge of local urban water systems, capacity building, developing trust between stakeholders, and improving involvement of elected officials and citizens.

scholarly journals Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Framework for the Integrated Urban Water System

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.6) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Pooja Shrivastava ◽  
M K. Verma ◽  
Meena Murmu ◽  
Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Water System ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Dynamic Feedback ◽  
Decentralized System ◽  
Urban Water System ◽  
Spatially Distributed

Over the past century urban water system of developed and developing cities are under increasing stress as water dearth.  The estimation of possible solutions for water management in megacities requires the spatially distributed dynamic and grid-based replication of the evolution of public water infrastructure under consideration of changes (e.g. climate, global, environment, economy, and land-use). These simulations can be realized with the help of frameworks for integrated urban water system. The MCDA framework for integrated approaches of urban water system is characterized as single system (COMBINED SEWER SYSTEM) and entire system (WATER DISTRIBUTION, SEWER NETWORK etc.) investigation with consideration of decentralized system and spatial-temporal interactions and the dynamic feedback of population models to water infrastructure. Urban water system needs the frame work which will meet the sustainable needs of future. The present work identifies the best solutions for existing problems in urban water infrastructure while making interaction with stakeholders to reach sustainable framework for urban water management in this water dearth regions. This framework will provide new knowledge of sustainable integration system between the social and environmental issues.  

Working towards sustainable urban water management: the vulnerability blind spot

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 2362-2369 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Werbeloff ◽  
R. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Response Strategy ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Sustainable Urban Water Management ◽  
Diversity Strategy

The unprecedented water scarcity in Australia coincides with the adoption of a new urban water rhetoric. The ‘Security through Diversity’ strategy has been adopted in a number of Australian cities as a new and innovative approach to urban water management. Although this strategy offers a more holistic approach to urban water management, in practice, the Security through Diversity strategy is largely being interpreted and implemented in a way that maintains the historical dependence on large scale, centralised water infrastructure and therefore perpetuates existing urban water vulnerabilities. This research explores the implementation of Security through Diversity as the new water scarcity response strategy in the cities of Perth and Melbourne. Through a qualitative study with over sixty-five urban water practitioners, the results reveal that the practitioners have absorbed the new Security through Diversity language whilst maintaining the existing problem and solution framework for urban water management. This can be explained in terms of an entrenched technological path dependency and cognitive lock-in that is preventing practitioners from more comprehensively engaging with the complexities of the Security through Diversity strategy, which is ultimately perpetuating the existing vulnerability of our cities. This paper suggests that greater engagement with the underlying purpose of the security though diversity strategy is a necessary first step to overcome the constraints of the traditional technological paradigm and more effectively reduce the continued vulnerability of Australian cities.

scholarly journals Stress-Testing Framework for Urban Water Systems: A Source to Tap Approach for Stochastic Resilience Assessment

Water ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Dionysios Nikolopoulos ◽  
Panagiotis Kossieris ◽  
Ioannis Tsoukalas ◽  
Christos Makropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Stress Testing ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Water System ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Distribution Model ◽  
Generation Model ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Testing Framework ◽  
Urban Water System

Optimizing the design and operation of an Urban Water System (UWS) faces significant challenges over its lifespan to account for the uncertainties of important stressors that arise from population growth rates, climate change factors, or shifting demand patterns. The analysis of a UWS’s performance across interdependent subsystems benefits from a multi-model approach where different designs are tested against a variety of metrics and in different times scales for each subsystem. In this work, we present a stress-testing framework for UWSs that assesses the system’s resilience, i.e., the degree to which a UWS continues to perform under progressively increasing disturbance (deviation from normal operating conditions). The framework is underpinned by a modeling chain that covers the entire water cycle, in a source-to-tap manner, coupling a water resources management model, a hydraulic water distribution model, and a water demand generation model. An additional stochastic simulation module enables the representation and modeling of uncertainty throughout the water cycle. We demonstrate the framework by “stress-testing” a synthetic UWS case study with an ensemble of scenarios whose parameters are stochastically changing within the UWS simulation timeframe and quantify the uncertainty in the estimation of the system’s resilience.

scholarly journals Isotopes from the Tap Reveal Urban Water System Dynamics

Eos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
Environmental Stress ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Water System ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water System

Tracking isotope patterns in tap water also reveals metropolitan water management choices, population ranges, episodes of environmental stress, and even information on household income.

Utilising integrated urban water management to assess the viability of decentralised water solutions

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Burn ◽  
Shiroma Maheepala ◽  
Ashok Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Water System ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
City Development ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Integrated Urban Water Management ◽  
Decentralised Systems

Cities worldwide are challenged by a number of urban water issues associated with climate change, population growth and the associated water scarcity, wastewater flows and stormwater run-off. To address these problems decentralised solutions are increasingly being considered by water authorities, and integrated urban water management (IUWM) has emerged as a potential solution to most of these urban water challenges, and as the key to providing solutions incorporating decentralised concepts at a city wide scale. To incorporate decentralised options, there is a need to understand their performance and their impact on a city's total water cycle under alternative water and land management options. This includes changes to flow, nutrient and sediment regimes, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and the impacts on rivers, aquifers and estuaries. Application of the IUWM approach to large cities demands revisiting the fundamental role of water system design in sustainable city development. This paper uses the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) to expand a logical definition for the aims of IUWM, and discusses the role of decentralised systems in IUWM and how IUWM principles can be incorporated into urban water planning.

A System Innovation-Oriented Integration of Management Information Systems in Urban Water Management

2010 ◽  
pp. 389-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tagelsir Mohamed Gasmelseid
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Water System ◽  
System Innovation ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Management Approaches

The scarcity of water resources exhibited in different parts of the world and the dysfunctional consequences associated with urban water processes and services are encouraging countries to adopt transformative innovative thinking. The movement from the “visions” of urban water management to ‘actions” demands more emphasis on the development of relevant platforms and frameworks that enable effective transitions and sustainability of actions and good practices. Within the context of a changing environment, urban water management processes need to be “shifted” from the “conventional” approach to a wider context capable of addressing the growing urban water management lock-ins. Complexities in urban water management originate from the difficulty of maintaining sector-based balances (mainly supply-demand balances) governing internal functionality as well as from the intensity and uncertainty of the dynamics of both the entire water system and the wide range of change agents interacting in its external environment. Such lock-ins are affecting the capacity of urban water managers and policy makers to develop suitable strategies and implementation pathways and improve the overall resource utilization and service provision capacity and efficiency. While conventional approaches continued to be widely used to address such lock-ins, little improvement tend to be gained with regards to the dynamics of the “problem domain” and the feasibility of “solution spaces”. Over years, emphasis continued to be on advocating “nesting” urban water management processes into the context of integrated water management, but without ensuring the availability of relevant change management strategies, tools and agents. Issues relating to water governance, decentralization of water management processes and authorities, involvement of stakeholders, development and adoption of appropriate information platform, and capacity building are moving to the front line agenda of urban water managers and policy makers. In the absence of relevant tools and integrated frameworks, the capacity of conventional urban water management approaches to address such a new context remains questionable. The complexity exhibited across the entire urban water subsystem (both in scale and magnitude) calls for not only the development on new or modified “program sets” but also transformed and enriched ‘mind sets”. Such migration can be envisioned through the adoption of system thinking, innovation and strategic niche management. This will improve the capacity of the overall urban management “sub-system’ to orchestrate its functionalities with the overall water system using a holistic approach. This contribution focuses on the imperativeness of capacity building in urban water management in a changing environment and the importance of developing sustainability framework and approach in accordance with the principles of system innovation and thinking.

Cascade vulnerability for risk analysis of water infrastructure

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1885-1891 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sitzenfrei ◽  
M. Mair ◽  
M. Möderl ◽  
W. Rauch
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Urban Drainage ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Water Infrastructure ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Urban Drainage Systems ◽  
Vulnerability Maps

One of the major tasks in urban water management is failure-free operation for at least most of the time. Accordingly, the reliability of the network systems in urban water management has a crucial role. The failure of a component in these systems impacts potable water distribution and urban drainage. Therefore, water distribution and urban drainage systems are categorized as critical infrastructure. Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is likely to experience harm induced by perturbation or stress. However, for risk assessment, we usually assume that events and failures are singular and independent, i.e. several simultaneous events and cascading events are unconsidered. Although failures can be causally linked, a simultaneous consideration in risk analysis is hardly considered. To close this gap, this work introduces the term cascade vulnerability for water infrastructure. Cascade vulnerability accounts for cascading and simultaneous events. Following this definition, cascade risk maps are a merger of hazard and cascade vulnerability maps. In this work cascade vulnerability maps for water distribution systems and urban drainage systems based on the ‘Achilles-Approach’ are introduced and discussed. It is shown, that neglecting cascading effects results in significant underestimation of risk scenarios.

Saline sewage treatment and source separation of urine for more sustainable urban water management

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 1307-1316 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Ekama ◽  
J. A. Wilsenach ◽  
G. H. Chen
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Fresh Water ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Source Separation ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Toilet Flushing ◽  
Water Quality And Quantity

While energy consumption and its associated carbon emission should be minimized in wastewater treatment, it has a much lower priority than human and environmental health, which are both closely related to efficient water quality management. So conservation of surface water quality and quantity are more important for sustainable development than green house gas (GHG) emissions per se. In this paper, two urban water management strategies to conserve fresh water quality and quantity are considered: (1) source separation of urine for improved water quality and (2) saline (e.g. sea) water toilet flushing for reduced fresh water consumption in coastal and mining cities. The former holds promise for simpler and shorter sludge age activated sludge wastewater treatment plants (no nitrification and denitrification), nutrient (Mg, K, P) recovery and improved effluent quality (reduced endocrine disruptor and environmental oestrogen concentrations) and the latter for significantly reduced fresh water consumption, sludge production and oxygen demand (through using anaerobic bioprocesses) and hence energy consumption. Combining source separation of urine and saline water toilet flushing can reduce sewer crown corrosion and reduce effluent P concentrations. To realize the advantages of these two approaches will require significant urban water management changes in that both need dual (fresh and saline) water distribution and (yellow and grey/brown) wastewater collection systems. While considerable work is still required to evaluate these new approaches and quantify their advantages and disadvantages, it would appear that the investment for dual water distribution and wastewater collection systems may be worth making to unlock their benefits for more sustainable urban development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document