Sustainable and Resilient Urban Water Systems: The Role of Decentralization and Planning

Urban water systems face multiple challenges related to future uncertainty and pressures to provide more sustainable and resilient modes of service delivery. Transitioning away from fully centralized water systems is seen as a primary solution to addressing these urban challenges and pressures. We first review the literature on advantages, potential risks, and impediments to change associated with decentralized water system. Our review suggests that adopting decentralized solutions may advance conditions of sustainability and resilience in urban water management. We then explore the potential to incorporate decentralized water systems into broader urban land use patterns that include underserved residential neighborhoods, mixed-use developments, and industrial districts.

[1]  S. Burn,et al.  Utilising integrated urban water management to assess the viability of decentralised water solutions. , 2012, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[2]  J. Niemczynowicz.  Urban hydrology and water management – present and future challenges , 1999 .

[3]  P Cornel,et al.  Semi-centralised supply and treatment systems for (fast growing) urban areas. , 2007, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[4]  Stephen R. Carpenter,et al.  State of the world's freshwater ecosystems: physical, chemical, and biological changes. , 2011 .

[5]  H. Malano,et al.  An Overview of Hybrid Water Supply Systems in the Context of Urban Water Management: Challenges and Opportunities , 2014 .

[6]  Sarah Bell.  Urban Water Systems In Transition , 2012 .

[7]  C. Folke.  RESILIENCE: THE EMERGENCE OF A PERSPECTIVE FOR SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSES , 2006 .

[8]  Christopher D. F. Rogers,et al.  Shared Urban Greywater Recycling Systems: Water Resource Savings and Economic Investment , 2013 .

[9]  R R Brown,et al.  The water sensitive city: principles for practice. , 2009, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[10]  S. Tyler,et al.  A framework for urban climate resilience , 2012 .

[11]  M. Moglia,et al.  Towards sustainable urban water management: a critical reassessment. , 2013, Water research.

[12]  R R Brown,et al.  Urban water management in cities: historical, current and future regimes. , 2009, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[13]  Nicholas J. Ashbolt,et al.  Comparing the Life Cycle Energy Consumption, Global Warming and Eutrophication Potentials of Several Water and Waste Service Options , 2016 .

[14]  P Cornel,et al.  Semicentralised supply and treatment systems: integrated infrastructure solutions for fast growing urban areas. , 2010, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[15]  Sunny C. Jiang,et al.  Taking the “Waste” Out of “Wastewater” for Human Water Security and Ecosystem Sustainability , 2012, Science.

[16]  Pin T. Ng,et al.  Community sustainability and resilience: similarities, differences and indicators , 2016, Tourism and Sustainable Development Goals.

[17]  Lorraine Cairnes,et al.  The Compact City: A Sustainable Urban Form , 1996 .

[18]  Rebekah R. Brown,et al.  Working towards sustainable urban water management: the vulnerability blind spot. , 2011, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[19]  E. Schramm,et al.  Towards More Resilient Water Infrastructures , 2012 .

[20]  Guangtao Fu,et al.  Global resilience analysis of water distribution systems. , 2016, Water research.

[21]  Paul Jeffrey,et al.  Evaluation methods for the design of adaptive water supply systems in urban environments , 1997 .

[22]  G. Minucci,et al.  Resilience trade-offs: addressing multiple scales and temporal aspects of urban resilience , 2015 .

[23]  Rebekah R. Brown.  Local Institutional Development and Organizational Change for Advancing Sustainable Urban Water Futures , 2008, Environmental management.

[24]  C. Myers,et al.  Social vulnerability and migration in the wake of disaster: the case of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita , 2008 .

[25]  N. Ashbolt,et al.  Risk and Governance in Water Recycling , 2006 .

[26]  C. Kennedy,et al.  Developing sustainability criteria for urban infrastructure systems 1 , 2005 .

[27]  W. Shuster,et al.  Impacts of impervious surface on watershed hydrology: A review , 2005 .

[28]  Claudia Pahl-Wostl,et al.  Transitions towards adaptive management of water facing climate and global change , 2006 .

[29]  Integrated Urban Water Cycle , 2000 .

[30]  Claudia Copeland,et al.  Energy-Water Nexus: The Water Sector’s Energy Use , 2014 .

[31]  Richard G. Little,et al.  Controlling Cascading Failure: Understanding the Vulnerabilities of Interconnected Infrastructures , 2002 .

[32]  P. Gleick.  WATER IN CRISIS: PATHS TO SUSTAINABLE WATER USE , 1998 .

[33]  A. Milman,et al.  Incorporating resilience into sustainability indicators: An example for the urban water sector , 2008 .

[34]  Rebekah R. Brown,et al.  Political and Professional Agency Entrapment: An Agenda for Urban Water Research , 2011 .

[35]  W. Arthur,et al.  INCREASING RETURNS AND LOCK-IN BY HISTORICAL EVENTS , 1989 .

[36]  Cathy Wilkinson,et al.  Social-ecological resilience: Insights and issues for planning theory , 2012 .

[37]  D. Rosner.  Flint, Michigan: A Century of Environmental Injustice. , 2016, American Journal of Public Health.

[38]  F. Berkes,et al.  Adaptive co-management for social–ecological complexity , 2009 .

[39]  Shibu Raman.  Designing a liveable compact city: physical forms of city and social life in urban neighbourhoods , 2010 .

[40]  Scott D. Campbell,et al.  Green Cities, Growing Cities, Just Cities? Urban Planning and the Contradictions of Sustainable , 1996 .

[41]  J. Ahern.  From fail-safe to safe-to-fail: Sustainability and resilience in the new urban world , 2011 .

[42]  David Banister.  Reducing the Need to Travel , 1997 .

[43]  Huu Hao Ngo,et al.  Establishment of an economic evaluation model for urban recycled water , 2013 .

[44]  James VanDerslice,et al.  Drinking water infrastructure and environmental disparities: evidence and methodological considerations. , 2011, American journal of public health.

[45]  Yoram Krozer,et al.  Innovations in the water chain - experiences in the Netherlands , 2010 .

[46]  Barry J. Adams,et al.  Developing sustainability criteria for urban infrastructure systems , 2005 .

[47]  Siu-Kit Lau,et al.  Feasibility study of a localized residential grey water energy-recovery system , 2012 .

[48]  L. Allen,et al.  Overview of Greywater Reuse: The Potential of Greywater Systems to Aid Sustainable Water Management , 2010 .

[49]  Rebekah R. Brown,et al.  Rethinking urban water management: Experimentation as a way forward? , 2011 .

[50]  Rebekah R. Brown,et al.  Delivering sustainable urban water management: a review of the hurdles we face. , 2009, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[51]  I. Ray,et al.  The drinking water disparities framework: on the origins and persistence of inequities in exposure. , 2014, American journal of public health.

[52]  Dan M. Frangopol,et al.  Resilience and Sustainability of Civil Infrastructure: Toward a Unified Approach , 2014 .

[53]  S. Al-Athel,et al.  Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: "Our Common Future" , 1987 .

[54]  Igor Linkov,et al.  Resilience and sustainability: Similarities and differences in environmental management applications. , 2018, The Science of the total environment.

[55]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Social-Ecological Resilience to Coastal Disasters , 2005, Science.

[56]  R R Brown,et al.  Extreme events: being prepared for the pitfalls with progressing sustainable urban water management. , 2009, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[57]  George V. Crawford,et al.  ENHANCING WATER SYSTEM SECURITY AND SUSTAINABILITY BY INCORPORATING CENTRALIZED AND DECENTRALIZED WATER RECLAMATION AND REUSE INTO URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS , 2007 .

[58]  Che Biggs,et al.  Distributed Water Systems: A networked and localised approach for sustainable water services , 2009 .

[59]  Christos Makropoulos,et al.  Assessing the combined benefits of water recycling technologies by modelling the total urban water cycle , 2012 .

[60]  V Grace Mitchell,et al.  Applying Integrated Urban Water Management Concepts: A Review of Australian Experience , 2006, Environmental management.

[61]  Paul Brown,et al.  Water Centric Sustainable Communities: Planning, Retrofitting, and Building the Next Urban Environment , 2010 .

[62]  Tamim Younos,et al.  Paradigm shift: Holistic approach for water management in urban environments , 2011 .

[63]  D. Bellinger.  Lead Contamination in Flint--An Abject Failure to Protect Public Health. , 2016, The New England journal of medicine.

[64]  P. Gleick.  Global Freshwater Resources: Soft-Path Solutions for the 21st Century , 2003, Science.

[65]  R. Sadler,et al.  Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Children Associated With the Flint Drinking Water Crisis: A Spatial Analysis of Risk and Public Health Response. , 2016, American journal of public health.

[66]  G. Daigger.  Evolving Urban Water and Residuals Management Paradigms: Water Reclamation and Reuse, Decentralization, and Resource Recovery , 2009, Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation.