Wave of the Future: The Case for Smarter Water

The current state of municipal water pricing in Canada is significantly flawed, with costs that include underfunded water agencies, aging infrastructure and excessive consumption. Reforms are required, including the expanded use of water meters and seasonal surcharges that better reflect costs.growth, innovation, energy, environment

Buried Treasure: The Economics of Leak Detection and Water Loss Prevention in Ontario

On average approximately 13% of the water that is withdrawn by Canadian municipal water suppliers is lost before it reaches final users. This is an important topic for several reasons: water losses cost money, losses force water agencies to draw more water from lakes and streams thereby putting more stress on aquatic ecosystems, leaks reduce system reliability, leaks may contribute to future pipe failures, and leaks may allow contaminants to enter water systems thereby reducing water quality and threatening the health of water users. Some benefits of leak detection fall outside water agencies’ accounting purview (e.g. reduced health risks to households connected to public water supply systems) and, as a result, may not be considered adequately in water agency decision-making. Because of the regulatory environment in which Canadian water agencies operate, some of these benefits-especially those external to the agency or those that may accrue to the agency in future time periods- may not be fully counted when agencies decide on leak detection efforts. Our analysis suggests potential reforms to promote increased efforts for leak detection: adoption of a Canada-wide goal of universal water metering; development of full-cost accounting and, pricing for water supplies; and co-operation amongst the provinces to promulgate standards for leak detection efforts and provide incentives to promote improved efficiency and rational investment decision-making.The authors thank two reviewers for their comments, Alan Feder of Fuseforward, Inc. for valuable information on leak detection methods and Tianshu Wang for assistance with calculations found in this report

Détermination des coûts du changement climatique : une étude de cas qui utilise des données sur le climat, sur l’utilisation des terres et sur la qualité de l’eau pour évaluer les impacts économiques du changement climatique sur la santé publique à l’échelle locale

Un des rapports possibles entre le changement climatique et la santé publique tient à la façon dont le changement climatique pourrait accroître la probabilité de l'exposition humaine à des pathogènes d’origine hydrique. Il se peut que le changement climatique ait cet effet à cause 1) de la survie accrue des agents pathogènes fécaux dans les sols attribuable aux températures et aux précipitations, 2) du transport de pathogènes par voie terrestre et de leur passage dans les sources d’eau, et 3) de l’accroissement des risques découlant de la défaillance des systèmes de traitement de l’eau et de désinfection provoquée par des inondations et des débordements des réseaux pluviaux, des réseaux d’égouts et des fosses septiques

Improved Water Demand Forecasting to Promote Sustainable Water Management

The Region of Durham in Ontario is a fast growing urban area east of Toronto and has a population of 650,000, covering an area of 2500 km2. It has a single tiered water supply system with the regional agency acting as a retailer to provide water to households, businesses, institutions and farms. In 2014 its output was 63,555 Mega Litres. The Region of Durham’s water agency faces many challenges including growing demands, ageing infrastructure, water quality concerns and rising costs operations. Forecasting water demands on a daily basis is remarkably difficult. Variables such as weather conditions, operational changes, watermain breaks, business cycles, human behaviour, economic and social factors effect water demand forecasting, but it is difficult to quantify those factors and thus difficult to make an accurate prediction. The water industry has responded to this challenge by developing sophisticated procedures for forecasting. The approaches used include Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and time series statistical modeling, which takes into consideration all possible factors as input variables to build forecasting model. The Region of Durham has thus far relied upon ANN with mixed results. Through several years of observation, overall the ANN forecasting model can predict a relatively accurate water demand for next 24 hour period (R2 >0.7) in some pressure zones. Winter forecasting is more accurate than summer because outdoor water use is extremely variable

Costing Climate Change: a case study of employing climate, land-use and water quality data to assess the economic impacts of climate change on local public health

One of the potential linkages between climate change and public health stems from the way climate change may increase the likelihood of human exposure to water-borne pathogens. Climate change may have this effect due to 1) increased survival of fecal pathogens on land mediated by temperature and precipitation, 2) transport of pathogens over land and loading to water sources, and 3) increased risks from failure of water treatment and disinfections arising from flooding, and storm-water and sewage/septic overflows

Extending Municipal Water Demand Forecasting Capacities by Incorporating Behavioural Responses

Growing urban water demands are putting increasing pressure on the infrastructure of many water agencies, signaling the potential need for greater capital investments. Most water agencies forecast demand by multiplying future population estimates with historical per capita water use. However, this approach tends to be inaccurate by failing to account for other demand drivers, such as income, price and household appliance holdings. Providing water agencies with enhanced water forecasting capabilities that better reflect water users’ behaviour is one way these agencies can address this challenge. The proposed study builds upon the following initial project: Project (2008-2012): More Value from the Same Water: Maximizing Water's Sustainable Contribution to the Canadian Economy, Diane Dupont, Brock University This project sought to advance understanding of the factors (i) governing water use, (ii) influencing water recirculation decisions, and (iii) influencing adoption of residential water conserving technologies. The project produced statistical models of households' and manufacturing firms' water use. As an extension of this research, the proposed project is based on observations made by a number of experts in the municipal water sector. Specifically, it has been observed that water conservation departments are not always involved in demand forecasting, since this is done on the basis of infrastructure requirements. Previous experience in the energy industry has demonstrated how costly it can be to overbuild supply networks based on faulty demand forecasts that have failed to incorporate behavioural responses related to conservation. Thus, there is a need to bring together the behavioural sciences that underlie efforts to promote water conservation in the short-term with longer-term water demand forecasts

EXTENDING MUNICIPAL WATER DEMAND- FORECASTING CAPACITIES

Water suppliers run the risk of overestimating future demands unless they account for households’ responsiveness to price changes and conservation measures. With the BROCKWATER program, planners working for small and medium size municipal water agencies have the capacity to account for households’ behaviour when making water demand projections

Contemporary Water Governance: Navigating Crisis Response and Institutional Constraints through Pragmatism

Water has often been the source of crises and their frequency will intensify due to climate change impacts. The Niagara River Watershed provides an ideal case to study water crises as it is an international transboundary system (Canada-United States) and has both historical and current challenges associated with water quantity and quality, which resonates broadly in water basins throughout the world. The aim of this study was to understand how stakeholders perceive ecosystems and the relationship with preferences for governance approaches in the context of water governance. An online survey instrument was employed to assess perceptions of the system in terms of resilience (engineering, ecological, social-ecological, or epistemic), preferences for governance approaches (state, citizen, market, and hybrid forms), and the most pressing issues in the watershed. Responses showed that, despite demographic differences and adherence to different resilience perspectives, support was strongest for governance approaches that focused on state or state-citizen hybrid forms. The validity of the resilience typology as a grouping variable is discussed. The roles of institutional constraints, pragmatism in governance approach preferences, and the influence of multiple crises are explored in relation to the context of the study site, as well as to water governance scholarship more broadly.Funding for this work, as part of the Climate Change Adaptation and Water Governance (CADWAGO) project, from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Volkswagen Stiftung and Compagnia di San Paolo through the Europe and Global Challenges programme.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/22

Probing the relationship between ecosystem perceptions and approaches to environmental governance: an exploratory content analysis of seven water dilemmas

Addressing wicked ‘water dilemmas’ requires an understanding of the context within which they are embedded. This study explored perceptions of the ecosystem in terms of resilience and the governance approaches employed through a content analysis of documents from seven case studies across the globe. Analytical constructs developed for resilience and governance approaches guided the exploration. Multiple resilience types were present in documents for each case, but few patterns emerged across cases. Governance approaches were strongly focused on state approaches in most cases. A relationship between resilience type and governance approach was not clear; however, a pattern emerged between the presence of the social–ecological resilience type and non-state-centred governance forms. The type of author (government, non-government) or the type of document (research and advisory, descriptive) were not found to mediate the findings as resilience framings varied considerably and state governance approaches were emphasised throughout. As the findings stand in contrast to contemporary scholarship on understanding ecosystems and environmental governance they raise important issues to which individuals must be cognizant when accessing documents for guidance. They also open avenues for future investigation of water dilemmas at the nexus of theory, policy and practice."Funding for this work, as part of the CADWAGO project, was provided by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Volkswagen Stiftung and Compagnia di San Paolo through the Europe and Global Challenges programme."https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21693293.2016.120290