Rainwater harvesting and management – policy and regulations in Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schuetze

This paper discusses the most important policies and regulations supporting the decentralized management, harvesting and utilization of rainwater in Germany, where such measures have been increasingly applied during the last few decades. The development and implementation of specific policies and regulations contributed significantly to that trend. They also work as incentives for the development of advanced technologies and businesses as well as the widespread and growing implementation of measures for decentralized rainwater management, harvesting and utilization by public and private actors. This development can generally be associated with environmental and economic concerns related with required adaptation to changes in climate, demographic structures and infrastructures as well as climate resilience including flood control and drought resistance. The addressed and supported measures can be assigned to the two focus areas ‘Decentralized rainwater harvesting and utilization’, aiming for saving of precious fresh water resources and centrally supplied drinking water, as well as ‘decentralized rainwater retention and management’, aiming for flood control and protection of existing infrastructures and ecosystems. The decentralized management of rainwater and its separation from combined sewer systems at the source is generally regarded as the state of the art and basic condition for sustainable municipal wastewater management.

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan W. Loiacono ◽  
Chu-Fei H. Ho ◽  
Natalie V. Sierra ◽  
Domènec Jolis ◽  
Carolyn Chiu ◽  
...  

The City and County of San Francisco (“City”) embarked upon a 30-year master planning process in part prompted by public concerns related to the neighbourhood impacts of the Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant (SEP). The Sewer System Master Plan, as it is called, developed a long term Integrated Urban Watershed Management Plan for the City's treatment plants and collection system. This paper focuses on the planning framework and public input to the process, particularly as it relates to proposed changes to the SEP. The resulting improvements address issues of replacing aging infrastructure, eliminating odor emissions, and visually screening the treatment plants that are situated within an urban setting. The recommended project addresses the needed repair of the existing infrastructure; and proposes that the City move towards an integrated urban watershed approach, initially through localized rainwater harvesting and opportunistic water reclamation.


Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Karolina Fitobór ◽  
Bernard Quant

Due to climate change and anthropogenic pressure, freshwater availability is declining in areas where it has not been noticeable so far. As a result, the demands for alternative sources of safe drinking water and effective methods of purification are growing. A solution worth considering is the treatment of rainwater by microfiltration. This study presents the results of selected analyses of rainwater runoff, collected from the roof surface of individual households equipped with the rainwater harvesting system. The method of rainwater management and research location (rural area) influenced the low content of suspended substances (TSS < 0.02 mg/L) and turbidity (<4 NTU). Microfiltration allowed for the further removal of suspension particles with sizes larger than 0.45 μm and with efficiency greater than 60%. Granulometric analysis indicated that physical properties of suspended particles vary with the season and weather. During spring, particles with an average size of 500 μm predominated, while in autumn particles were much smaller (10 μm). However, Silt Density Index measurements confirmed that even a small amount of suspended solids can contribute to the fouling of membranes (SDI > 5). Therefore, rainwater cannot be purified by microfiltration without an appropriate pretreatment.


Author(s):  
Karl-Heinz Ladeur

The most important phenomena attributable to the project of “global administrative law” (GAL) consists of rules, principles, practices, or procedures that have a more informal character and are generated from networks of public and private actors. The main characteristics of those rules is that they tend to be generated below the level of formal international treaties and that norm production occurs—at least in part—outside traditional formal modes of decision-making. However, some GAL norms including standards on products and services in particular, can have far reaching consequences as their factual weight is much more influential than domestic norms. GAL also develops new forms of procedure (e.g., voting) that are different from traditional international forms.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pertti Lahdenperä

The prevailing practice in new areal real estate development is for public and private actors to perform their duties by turns. Yet, the planning process could benefit from simultaneous contributions from society and developers and their designers. That, again, requires that the municipality selects the private partner consortia prior to completion of the local detailed plan through a competition in order to find the most potential actors and the best ideas for implementation of an urban structure of high quality. Candidates will be attracted by offering them the right to implement a residential/business block as a developer. The several blocks involved in an areal development project, and the laboriousness of producing competitive solutions, require a well planned selection process. A novel multi‐target competition process was developed which is presented in this paper with special emphasis on the allocation algorithms that allow selecting the most qualified competitors for parallel follow-up competitions from among a large group of registered candidates. The approach was tested in an actual real estate development project in the municipal district of Vuores which was the original reason for launching the study. Santruka Pletojant nekilnojamaji turta naujose teritorijose, vieši ir privatūs asmenys dažniausiai savo pareigas vykdo paeiliui. Tačiau planavimo procesui būtu tik geriau, jei tuo pačiu metu prisidetu ir visuomene, ir vystytojai, ir projektuotojai. Tam velgi reikia, kad savivaldybe paskelbtu konkursa ir pasirinktu privačiu partneriu grupes prieš užbaigdama vietini detaluji plana didžiausia potenciala turintiems dalyviams aptikti ir geriausioms idejoms surinkti, kokybiškai miesto struktūrai išvystyti. Kai teritoriju pletros projektas apima kelis kvartalus, o kuriant konkurencingus sprendimus idedama daug darbo, reikia gerai suplanuoto atrankos proceso. Yra sukurtas novatoriškas daugiatikslis konkurso procesas, pristatomas šiame darbe, daugiau demesio skiriama paskirstymo algoritmams, kuriuos naudojant iš daugybes registruotu kandidatu galima atrinkti tinkamiausius tolesniems tuo pat metu vykdomiems konkursams. Toks būdas patikrintas realiame nekilnojamojo turto pletros projekte, kuris vyko Vuores savivaldybes teritorijoje, ir būtent del šios priežasties pradetas šis tyrimas.


2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-272
Author(s):  
San Sebastian

An abridged version of the Consultative Opinion is presented here. For details of the full text readers are advised to contact the ICEAC.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Karczmarczyk

Abstract Hauled liquid waste as a pollutant of soils and waters in Poland. Improperly maintained holding tanks are often underestimated source of contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water. As a rule, wastewater stored in holding tanks, should be transported and treated in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). There are 2,257,000 holding tanks in Poland, located mainly in rural areas. The article presents the results of analysis of wastewater management in 20 rural and urban-rural communes, which were chosen at random from the total number of 2,174 communes in Poland. The only criterion of commune selection was total or partial lack of sewerage system. Analysis of the collected data showed that on average only 27% of liquid waste from holding tanks ended at the WWTPs. The median is even lower and amounts to 17.5%. More than 4,000 Mg of P and 26,000 Mg of N is dispersed in the environment in uncontrolled manner. Those diffuse point sources of pollution may be one of the reasons in the difficulty of achieving of good ecological status of rivers and affect the quality of the Baltic Sea.


YMER Digital ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 446-455
Author(s):  
Eshetu Mathewos Juta ◽  

The term “urban mass transit” generally refers to scheduled intra-city service on a fixed route in shared vehicles. Public transportation is an important contributing factor to urban sustainability. Effective transportation networks that incorporate public transit livable by easing commute and transportation needs and increasing accessibility. To assess public transportation accessibility in metropolitan networks, two indices are used: the supply level of urban public transportation facilities resource and the public transportation-private automobile traveling time ratio. As the research in the Wolaita sodo town region and the assessment system, an evaluation technique for urban public transportation facility resource supply is developed based on accessibility. Accessibility is a representative indicator for evaluating the supply of bus system. Traditional studies have evaluated the accessibility from different aspects. Considering the interaction among land use, bus timetable arrangement and individual factors, a more holistic accessibility measurement is proposed to combine static and dynamic characteristics from multisource traffic data. The objective is to highlight the main lessons learned and identify knowledge gaps to guide the design and evaluation of future transport investments. Moreover, studies looking at ways to improve the operational efficiency of systems and those seeking to promote behavioral changes in transport users offer great potential to generate learning that is useful for the public and private actors involved.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Copping

&lt;p&gt;The study focuses on the role of the private sector in the development and delivery of hydromet and early warning services (EWS) in sub-Saharan Africa, within the current landscape of the Africa Regional Weather Enterprise (ARWE).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was sponsored by the World Bank and conducted through interviews with 28 National Hydro&amp;#173;Meteorological Services (NMHS) and 87 participating companies who either work in or have interest in the region&amp;#8217;s hydromet market, varying in size from single-person entities to large multinationals. Less than 4% of companies have their headquarters (and solely operate) in Africa. 157 projects were identified from the 65 most active donors financing hydromet projects in sub-Saharan Africa, and classified by sector and complexity, from niche to &amp;#8220;full-chain&amp;#8221; solutions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study analyses which and how private sector actors operate within the framework of national, regional and international hydromet projects, in which countries, which products and services they provide and in which end-user categories, from research and development, to innovation and capacity building initiatives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study further analyses the success rates of international companies winning tenders in sub-Saharan Africa , and the patterns leading to success.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The report concludes by drawing on lessons from the positive dynamics and gaps in partnerships and engagements between public and private actors. The results of the study create the need for sixteen recommendations to further improve the ARWE, with a key emphasis on PPE, to successfully complete African hydromet programs, and in turn satisfy end-user needs, to protect lives, property, and to support their national economies for the prosperity of all.&lt;/p&gt;


Politik ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yochai Benkler

The article tells the story about how Wikileaks emerged and was welcomed as a part of the fourth estate in 2006 and later, especially in 2010, was subject of a multi-system attack by both public and private actors. Wikileaks is part of the new, networked fourth estate, which is likely to combine elements of both traditional and novel forms of news media. e networked fourth estate is needlessly attacked by traditional media, but there is no reason to think that the latter is more professional and responsible than the former. e future of the fourth estate is likely a new model of cooperation between traditional and networked models, but the transition to this new model will likely be anything but smooth. 


Author(s):  
Isabelle Le Mouillour

International cooperation is high on the agenda of policy makers in times of globalisation and shared challenges such as climate change, poverty, equity or digitalisation. The present paper investigates strategies and actors involved in international cooperation policy in the field of vocational education and training within the francophone area. Using a discursive institutionalism approach as an analysis frame, the article traces and identifies the development of ideas and discourses. It also examines the changes and tensions in the French public institutional set-up in that specific policy field. The analysis builds on analysis of policy documents, mission statements of actors involved (ministries, public and private actors, non-for-profit organisations, international and European actors).


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