urban water system Articles
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Multiple conceptions of sustainable urban water systems: problem or asset?
This paper examines various conceptions that researchers and practitioners in the sector have about sustainable urban water systems, to discern what these conceptions are and whether they are complementary or divergent. The study is based on a literature review and field studies, including semi-structured interviews. The results show that the conceptions held by the various actors are largely ...
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Impacts of variable energy prices on the financial sustainability of water facilities: case from Ghana
Water is conveyed to consumers through systems that generally rely heavily on energy. The dependence on energy is a major challenge to utility providers because of frequent variation in energy prices. This paper assesses the effect of energy price changes on the financial sustainability of water facilities. It further investigates the proportion of energy cost to total costs of water supply. The ...
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Adapting urban water systems to climate change
This handbook on adaptation of urban water systems to climate change is an initiative of the SWITCH project1 and the result of a collaboration between ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the International Water Association (IWA) and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. It draws on the research and findings from the SWITCH1 and PREPARED2 EU Framework Programme projects. ...
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A socio-technical model to explore urban water systems scenarios
This article reports on the ongoing work and research involved in the development of a socio-technical model of urban water systems. Socio-technical means the model is not so much concerned with the technical or biophysical aspects of urban water systems, but rather with the social and institutional implications of the urban water infrastructure and vice versa. A socio-technical model, in the ...
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Decision support system for metabolism-based transition to urban water systems of tomorrow
A decision support system (DSS) tool for the assessment of intervention strategies in an urban water system (UWS) with an integral simulation model called ‘WaterMet2’ is presented. Lists of intervention options and performance indicators are exposed by the DSS for the user to define intervention strategies and metrics for their comparison. The quantitative and risk-based metrics are ...
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Modelling the urban water system of Alexandria using the Aquacycle model
As in other cities in Egypt, water demand in the metropolitan area of Alexandria is rapidly increasing over time, as a result of urban expansion, amelioration of living standards and industrial development. As the River Nile is the main source of freshwater supply, concerns arise regarding a potential reduction in Alexandria's allocation quota, which could affect population growth at the ...
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Enhancing resilience in urban water systems for future cities
In future cities, urban water systems (UWSs) should be designed not only for safe provision of services but should also be resilient to emerging or unexpected threats that lead to catastrophic system failure impacts and consequences. Resilience can potentially be built into UWSs by implementing a range of strategies, for example by embedding redundancy and flexibility in system design, or by ...
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Quantitative Microbial Risk Analysis to evaluate health effects of interventions in the urban water system of Accra, Ghana
A quantitative microbial risk assessment was applied to evaluate the microbial risks of the Accra Urban Water System (AUWS). The exposure assessment was based on the count of indicator organisms in waste water from open roadside drains and in water and sand samples from the beach. The predicted total disease burden generated in a representative catchment of the AUWS (Odaw Catchment) was 36,329 ...
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Urban Hydroinformatics: Data, Models and Decision Support for Integrated Urban Water Management
Urban Hydroinformatics: Data, Models and Decision Support for Integrated Urban Water Management is an introduction to hydroinformatics applied to urban water management. It shows how to make the best use of information and communication technologies for manipulating information to manage water in the urban environment. The book covers the acquisition and analysis of data from urban water ...
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Realising sustainable urban water management: Can social theory help?
It has been acknowledged, in Australia and beyond, that existing urban water systems and management lead to unsustainable outcomes. Therefore, our current socio-technical systems, consisting of institutions, structures and rules, which guide traditional urban water practices, need to change. If a change towards sustainable urban water management (SUWM) practices is to occur, a transformation of ...
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Water scarcity and institutional change: lessons in adaptive governance from the drought experience of Perth, Western Australia
Urban water systems will be increasingly challenged under future climates and global pressures. Meeting challenges by reconfiguring water systems to integrate supplies and deliver multifunctional uses is technically well described. Adjusting the institutions that frame the management of these systems is not well operationalized in practice or conceptualized in theory. This study seeks to ...
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Business Models: Where there’s muck, there’s money
In the developing world, the business of sanitation is rarely considered to be a money maker. However, new developments in the productive use of human waste are opening up real opportunities for cashing in on urban wastewater and sludge. Research carried out by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is attempting to establish where and how such models can be made socially or ...
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Climate-readiness, competition and sustainability: an analysis of the legal and regulatory frameworks for providing water services in Sydney
This paper examines whether key legislative and regulatory frameworks for the provision of water services in Sydney, Australia, successfully support the complex task of planning and managing urban water systems to balance water security, cost and sustainability considerations. The challenges of managing urban water systems under a changing and uncertain climate became starkly apparent during ...
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Decision support system for the long-term city metabolism planning problem
A decision support system (DSS) tool for the assessment of intervention strategies (Alternatives) in an urban water system (UWS) with an integral simulation model called ‘WaterMet2’ is presented. The DSS permits the user to identify one or more optimal Alternatives over a fixed long-term planning horizon using performance metrics mapped to the TRUST sustainability criteria. The DSS exposes ...
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Flexible engineering designs for urban water management in Lusaka, Zambia
Urban water systems are often designed using deterministic single values as design parameters. Subsequently the different design alternatives are compared using a discounted cash flow analysis that assumes that all parameters remain as-predicted for the entire project period. In reality the future is unknown and at best a possible range of values for design parameters can be estimated. A ...
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Role of decentralised systems in the transition of urban water systems
Provision of conventional centralised water, wastewater and stormwater systems for urban municipal services has been common practice for over 100 years. These systems center around the protection of human health, ensuring reliable water supply and minimizing flooding; often with minimal consideration of the environmental and ecological impacts associated with fresh water extraction and wastewater ...
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A mathematical approach to find long-term strategies for the implementation of resource-orientated sanitation
In the present discussion of sustainability centralised water infrastructures are exposed to new challenges, which may cause a conceptual alteration in urban water management. If technologies for closing urban water and nutrient cycles are to at least partially replace existing systems, then intensive reconstruction work becomes essential. The paper presents the development and implementation ...
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Decentralised systems – definition and drivers in the current context
This paper explores the current context for decentralised approaches in the provision of urban water services. It examines the recent history of decentralised systems' implementation in Australia and identifies its drivers. The drivers included addressing capacity constraints of centralised systems, mitigating the environmental impact of urban development, and increasing the resilience ...
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Modelling the urban water cycle as an integrated part of the city: a review
In contrast to common perceptions, the urban water infrastructure system is a complex and dynamic system that is constantly evolving and adapting to changes in the urban environment, to sustain existing services and provide additional ones. Instead of simplifying urban water infrastructure to a static system that is decoupled from its urban context, new management strategies use the complexity ...
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