Global population growth is urban growth and, therefore, most of the water-related challenges and solutions reside in cities. Unless water management and water governance processes are significantly ...improved within the next decade or so, cities are likely to face serious and prolonged water insecurity, urban floods, and/or heat stress, which may result in social instability and, ultimately, massive migration. Aging water infrastructure, one of the most expensive infrastructures in cities, is a relevant challenge in order to address Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: clean water and sanitation, SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities, and SDG 13: climate action. The choice of good governance arrangements has important consequences for economic performance, for the well-being of citizens, and for the quality of life in urban areas. The better governance arrangements work in coordinating policies across jurisdictions and policy fields, the better the outcomes. Rapidly-changing global conditions will make future water governance more complex than ever before in human history, and expectations are that water governance and water management will change more during the next 20 years compared to the past 100 years. In this Special Issue of Water, the focus will be on practical concepts and tools for water management and water governance, with a focus on cities.
Eutrophication of water bodies is a serious and widespread environmental problem. Achieving low levels of phosphate concentration to prevent eutrophication is one of the important goals of the ...wastewater engineering and surface water management. Meeting the increasingly stringent standards is feasible in using a phosphate-selective sorption system. This critical review discusses the most fundamental aspects of selective phosphate removal processes and highlights gains from the latest developments of phosphate-selective sorbents. Selective sorption of phosphate over other competing anions can be achieved based on their differences in acid–base properties, geometric shapes, and metal complexing abilities. Correspondingly, interaction mechanisms between the phosphate and sorbent are categorized as hydrogen bonding, shape complementarity, and inner-sphere complexation, and their representative sorbents are organic-functionalized materials, molecularly imprinted polymers, and metal-based materials, respectively. Dominating factors affecting the phosphate sorption performance of these sorbents are critically examined, along with a discussion of some overlooked facts regarding the development of high-performance sorbents for selective phosphate removal from water and wastewater.
There is a recognised need for a fundamental change in how the UK manages urban water and flood risk in response to increasingly frequent rainfall events coupled with planned urban expansion. ...Approaches centred on 'living with and making space for water' are increasingly adopted internationally. Nonetheless, widespread implementation of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) is currently hampered by barriers that impede uptake and innovation. We investigate the barriers to implementation of BGI in Newcastle, UK, through a series of semi-structured interviews with professional stakeholders. We identify and categorise 17 types of barrier and identify targeted strategies to overcome the dominant barriers. We recommend promotion of BGI's capacity to meet the objectives of multiple organisations and Local Authority departments, in addition to managing urban water. We conclude that strong business cases, supported by monetised evidence of benefits, and collaborative, inter-agency working could advance implementation of BGI within the current flood risk management legislation.
Nowadays, it is better understood that the benefits of green infrastructure include a series of ecosystem services, such as cooling, water storage and management, recreation and landscaping, among ...others. Green technologies are still developing to provide sustainable solutions to the problems that modern cities and peri-urban areas face at an ever-increasing rate and intensity. Constructed wetlands technology is an established green multi-purpose option for water management and wastewater treatment, with numerous effectively proven applications around the world and multiple environmental and economic advantages. These systems can function as water treatment plants, habitat creation sites, urban wildlife refuges, recreational or educational facilities, landscape engineering and ecological art areas. The aim of this article is to highlight the synergies between this green technology and urban areas in order to reconnect cities with nature, to promote circularity in the urban context and to apply innovative wetland designs as landscape infrastructure and water treatment solutions. This approach could be a step further in the effort to mitigate the current degradation process of the urban landscape. Following the concept of green infrastructure, the article presents and suggests ways to integrate wetland technology in the urban environment, namely: (i) stormwater and urban runoff management (storage and treatment of water during storm events) to provide protection from flood incidents, especially considering climate change, (ii) innovative low-impact infrastructure and design solutions for urban wastewater treatment, and (iii) wetland technology for habitat creation and ecosystem services provision.
Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), a hydrodynamic rainfall-runoff and urban drainage simulation model, is widely applied in planning, analysis, and design. It is worth mentioning that the ...hydrological and hydrodynamic simulation functions of SWMM can also provide decision support for real-time urban stormwater management. However, it remains challenging to directly apply traditional SWMM to real-time urban stormwater management based on web technology. Here we designed and implemented a web service framework based on SWMM (WEB-SWMM), which can provide real-time computing services for urban water management. To test the functionality, efficiency, and stability of the WEB-SWMM, WEB-SWMM was applied to an urban area in China. Test results show that WEB-SWMM could provide real-time computing services stably, quickly, and accurately. In general, the implementation of WEB-SWMM enables traditional SWMM to be quickly and efficiently applied in real-time urban stormwater management. What is more, the web-based hydrological model framework proposed in this paper also applicable to most existing hydrological models.
•The real-time simulation of SWMM is implemented.•WEB-SWMM can provide real-time computing services for urban stormwater management.•WEB-SWMM can provide web services and exchange data with other applications.•The core four tasks and four modules guarantee the regular running of WEB-SWMM.•The framework can be installed and deployed across platforms.
•Systematic analysis of a megacity water management model and economic benefit-costs.•Flood mitigation solutions by optimal combination of multiple LID devices.•Upstream and highland areas are ...suitable for buffer and retaining LIDs, respectively.•Green roof and bioretention cell show best B/C values for all rainfall RPs in Taipei.•LID combinations are effective in reducing peak flow and delaying peak time.
This study establishes an innovative systematic optimization model for megacity flood mitigation by combining multiple Low Impact Development (LID) devices, taking into consideration a Benefit-Cost (B/C) Analysis. The contributions provided by this study include: (1) analysis of flooding consequences on a developing megacity; (2) development of a technical approach enabling an automatic and effective optimization process, linking with an embedded Storm Water Management Model (SWMM); and (3) proposal of adaptive solutions using a combined layout design scheme. Our investigation sets the Benefit/Cost ratio as the objective function to deal with flooding in all return periods (RPs). The decision variables correspond to the allocated areas and quantity of LID devices, including porous pavements, bioretention cells, infiltration trenches, rain barrels, vegetable swales, green roofs, and tree boxes. Under such layout, the flooding loss was simulated with SWMM, and the optimal solution was solved by employing a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm. Min-Sheng Community in Taipei is chosen as a study area for demonstrating the applicability of the developed model. Results show that the B/C ratio of identified optimal design can reach 1.448, with green roofs and bioretention cells as main devices, and rain barrels and porous pavements as secondary supplies. Regarding rainfalls in all RPs, the peak flows and delay of peak times at Fu-Yuan Pumping Station can decrease significantly in the range of 5.75–29.80% and 12.50–20%, respectively; and 9.52%–23.49% and 12.50%–37.5% at the subcatchments. The efficiency of flood detention is higher for low RPs than high RPs, while the time-delay ability is smaller.
Water demand continues to increase amid shrinking natural water sources in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. This holds true for Stellenbosch Municipality, which is situated in the Western ...Cape. The prevailing draught, coupled with rainfall projections predicting that the region will be in a high-risk draught category by 2040, prompted municipal authorities to devise alternative water sources, such as urban waste water recycling (UWWR), to augment its water supplies. This water management approach is a component of integrated urban water management (IUWM), which stems from the water ‘governance’ paradigm. Research on the transition process from a ‘government’ to a ‘governance’ UWWR paradigm is limited both in the global south and in South Africa. Hence, the main objective of this study was to investigate the action knowledge required for a sustainable transition from a ‘government’ to an IUWW ‘governance’ paradigm in the context of Stellenbosch town. The study adopted a transdisciplinary research methodology, while the transformative research paradigm guided the research. Quantitative data collection from a single case study, namely Stellenbosch town, was through the administration of a questionnaire distributed to purposefully sampled participants. ANOVA statistical tools analysed the data. The study ascertained that transitioning frameworks considered in this study could guide a transition process of migrating from conventional urban wastewater management government towards IUWM governance principles in Stellenbosch town and other global south locations.
Target and Action knowledge for transitioning towards IUWM principles Stellenbosch. Source: Authors. Display omitted
•Social elements are the strongest drivers in achieving urban waste water recycling (UWWR) in Stellenbosch.•The social elements identified were perceptions of different communities, urbanization and rural-urban in- migration.•The agricultural community is willing and ready to implement UWWR.•There is need for formulation of UWWR policies which explicitly articulates the “How”, “What”, “Where” and “When” in UWWR initiatives.•There are insurmountable in-house sanitation challenges stemming from the informal settlements.
Facing pressures to contend with continual changes in physical availability, to balance water supply with environmental and social impacts, and to build resilience to environmental hazards such as ...droughts and climate change, water managers increasingly use management plans as a blueprint for managing water. We apply qualitative content analysis to evaluate water management plans from diverse water and land use organizations in California's Central Valley. To understand whether plans are working toward holistic, multi-dimensional management, we assess plans' coverage of water supply, environmental, and socioeconomic dimensions of water use, as well as the quality and implementability of the plans. The plans provide a strong assessment of water supplies and indicate progression toward integrated water resource management. However, we identify gaps in managing water for the environment, considering socioeconomic and distributional impacts, planning for future drought and climate change, and effective coordination with other water agencies and the public.
Rapid urbanisation, population growth and the effects of climate change drive the need for sustainable urban water management (SUWM) in Asian cities. The complexity of this challenge calls for the ...integration of knowledge from different disciplines and collaborative approaches. This paper identifies key issues and sets the stage for interdisciplinary research on SUWM in Asia. It reports on the initial stages of a SUWM research programme being undertaken at Monash University, Australia, and proposes a framework to guide the process of interdisciplinary research in urban water management. Three key themes are identified: (1) Technology and Innovation, (2) Urban Planning and Design, and (3) Governance and Society. Within these themes 12 research projects are being undertaken across Indonesia, China, India and Bangladesh. This outward-looking, interdisciplinary approach guides our research in an effort to transgress single-discipline solutions and contribute on-ground impact to SUWM practices in Asia.
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is generally applauded globally for 'best-practice' water management. The notion of 'best practice' is fluid, informed by constant learning from what works and what does ...not. The Plan's 10-year anniversary in 2022 provides a pivotal point to reflect on practical lessons learnt throughout its implementation and incorporate those into contemporised 'best practice'. This paper explores the emerging paradigm of participatory approaches with private landholders in the conservation and biodiversity fields, and its applicability to water management 'best practice'. Through an original framework and case studies, we explore the opportunity that these practical exemplars offer to refine contemporary theoretical notions of best practice. A case is ultimately presented in which a contemporised paradigm - based on co-operation, co-benefit outcomes and participatory partnerships - offers significant potential for future management in the Basin, especially to overcome deeply entrenched trust deficits among communities.
PDF
