Integrated Water Resources Management in Cities in the World: Global Solutions

Population growth, urbanisation, climate change, biodiversity loss, energy use, water security and ageing infrastructures for water supply and treatment require a thorough understanding of the options available for moving towards sustainable cities. The present study provides an analysis of transformation patterns regarding integrated water resources management (IWRM) of cities across the globe. We evaluate IWRM in 125 cities with 48 mostly quantitative indicators collected for each city by performing a cluster analysis of 6,000 indicator scores following the City Blueprint Approach. We distinguish five clusters of cities which show a pattern of problem-shifting, i.e., the shifting of largely preventable water resources problems often in the following sequence: drinking water insecurity, pollution caused by inadequate wastewater treatment, inadequate solid waste management, inaction on climate change adaptation, and resource depletion. A city that can address and solve all these problems can be classified as water-wise. Based on the cluster analysis, seven principles are defined to enable urban areas to become water-wise. Because water takes a central position in the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), and is linked, directly or indirectly, to nearly all SDGs, success in IWRM is an important enabler for the other SDGs

City-to-City Learning to Enhance Urban Water Management: The Contribution of the City Blueprint Approach

Cities face several water challenges which ask for more pro-active governance approaches. One option that cities have is to start networking and build learning alliances with other cities. Forming meaningful alliances however asks for clear and easily accessible city-matching methodologies which are based on a standardised assessment approach and the presence of structured and large databases. The City Blueprint Approach is an example of such a methodology. Aim of this paper is to show the potential of this approach as a substantive methodology for enhancing urban water management. This is done by illustrating the use of the approach in four cities, which were studied in the H2020 project POWER (Political and sOcial awareness on Water EnviRonmental challenges) and by comparing the results found with good practises present in the City Blueprint database. These good practises however cannot simply be copy-pasted from one city to another. We therefore outline in what way more in-depth city to city learning results can be achieved and be tailored to best-fit particular urban areas. The paper concludes with some suggestions for enhancing the potential for city-to-city learning in urban water governance networks

Towards a water-smart society: Progress in linking theory and practice

Few scientific publications discuss the vision of the water-smart society. Our paper addresses this gap, outlining key principles of urban water–smartness and translating them into five strategic objectives to support decision-making at the local government level. Based on recent literature and dialogue with six European water Living Labs, we argue that the water-smart society must highlight societal well-being and co-development across sectors. Furthermore, we emphasize the need for a long-term perspective, conserving nature, and maximising ecosystem services, while anticipating change. Finally, we discuss how a more grounded conceptualisation of the water-smart society can guide utilities and urban policy design.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

City-to-city learning to enhance urban water management: The contribution of the City Blueprint Approach

Cities face several water challenges which ask for more pro-active management approaches. One option that cities have is to start networking and build learning alliances with other cities. Forming meaningful alliances however asks for clear and easily accessible city-matching methodologies which are based on a standardised assessment approach and the presence of structured and large databases. The City Blueprint Approach is an example of such a methodology. Aim of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of this approach as a substantive methodology for enhancing learning on urban water management. This is done by illustrating the use of the approach in four cities, which were studied in the H2020 project POWER (Political and sOcial awareness on Water EnviRonmental challenges) and by comparing the results found with good practices present in the City Blueprint database. These good practices however cannot simply be copy-pasted from one city to another. We therefore outline in what way more in-depth city-to-city (C2C) learning results can be achieved and be tailored to best-fit particular urban areas. The paper concludes with some suggestions for enhancing the potential for C2C learning in urban water management networks

Assessment and Actions to Support Integrated Water Resources Management of Seville (Spain)

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) of the city of Seville, Spain, located in the southern Guadalquivir River Basin is assessed applying the city blueprint approach (CBA). The trends and pressures framework identifies five major indicators reflecting ‘concern’ for Seville’s urban water management: heat island effect, urban drainage flooding, river peak discharges, unemployment rate and economic pressure. The results indicate increased daytime and night-time temperatures and increased urban flooding due to sealed soil, and river rise from regional precipitation under climate change. The financial pressures are driven by the high unemployment rate and the low per capita income compared to other cities assessed. The city blueprint framework identifies three categories reflecting ‘poor’ performance for the urban water management of Seville: water infrastructure, solid waste and climate adaptation. An aging sewer network, low operational cost recovery and combined-sewer overflow systems dominate. Solid waste management is characterized by high waste generation, low recycling rate and minimal energy recovery. The percentage of green space is low, but growing. The Governance Capacity Framework identifies five conditions reflecting ‘limited’ governance of water scarcity: awareness, useful knowledge, continuous learning, agents of change and financial viability. The assessment of water governance reflects a low citizens’ sense of urgency. Integrating citizens and stakeholders in a more participative governance will result in increased awareness of economic efforts required to face water scarcity, renewal of water infrastructure and climate adaptation. The blue city index (BCI) of Seville is 5.8/10, placing it highly among other Mediterranean cities, and in the top 20% of 125 cities assessed worldwide. Application of the CBA to the urban water resources of cities allows clear definition of water and resource management challenges and is the first step to becoming a ‘water smart’ city

Integrated Water Resources Management in Cities in the World: Global Challenges

Water scarcity and accessibility remain persistently amongst the most prominent global challenges. Although there is a wide agreement among international organizations that Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and water governance are key to overcome water-related challenges, global assessments of the progress made by cities is lacking. This paper for the first time analyses the challenges of water, wastewater, municipal solid waste and climate change in cities. We used empirical studies (125 cities) based on the City Blueprint Approach and developed a statistical estimation model to estimate IWRM performances of another 75 cities. These 200 cities in total represent more than 95% of the global urban population. This comprehensive global picture enables us to evaluate the existing gaps in achieving water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). The best performing cities were Amsterdam and Singapore. Unfortunately, most cities do not yet manage their water resources wisely and are far from achieving the SDGs. For instance, targets regarding drinking water supply are still a challenge for many cities in Africa and Asia and challenges regarding sanitation are high in cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The same holds for solid waste management, climate adaptation, and people living in informal settlements. In another paper we will address the solution pathways to these global challenges

Water Security in Sub-Saharan African Cities: City Blueprint Assessment of Abuja, Bangui, Harare, Libreville, Windhoek and Yaoundé

Water Security in African capital cities is extremely challenged by rapid growth and urbanisation, amplified by effects of climate change. In this chapter we describe the baseline assessment of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and governance capacity of six African capitals: Abuja, Bangui, Harare, Libreville, Windhoek, and Yaoundé. The assessment was done by local young professionals, as part of the internship and/or consultancy at UNESCO field units in these capitals, using the City Blueprint Approach (CBA). The young professionals were trained to collect data, interview important stakeholders and interpret the results. The CBA assesses external trends and pressures, performance of IWRM, and the governance capacity in a city. Furthermore, the project led to the development of an unofficial network of young professionals that empowered them through peer-to-peer learning of best practices in the different cities. After the assessment, the young professionals presented the outcome at workshops with city stakeholders to identify and prioritise the most pressing challenges in the cities. Common issues found in the six cities were: 1) challenging water supply and lack of wastewater treatment, 2) lack of adequate solid waste handling, 3) high burden of disease and flood risk, 4) economic pressure and political instability, 5) lack of data and monitoring constrains the capacity of these cities to address water-related challenge

The Energy & Raw Materials Factory: Role and Potential Contribution to the Circular Economy of the Netherlands

Water is an abundant resource worldwide, but fresh and clean water is scarce in many areas of the world. Increases in water consumption and climate change will affect global water security even further in the near future. With increasing numbers of people living in metropolitan areas, water, energy, and materials need to be used carefully, reused and renewed. Resource scarcity is the driver behind the circular economy. The recovery of materials and energy can add significant new value streams and improve cost recovery and water quality. In this paper, we present the creation of the Energy & Raw Materials Factory (ERMF) of the Dutch Water Authorities, also known as the Resource Factory, as one of the solutions to this global challenge of water in the circular economy. Resources like cellulose, bioplastics, phosphate, alginate-like exopolymers from aerobic granular sludge (bio-ALE), and biomass can be recovered. Bio-ALE is an alginate-like polymer of sugars and proteins and can be used in agriculture and horticulture, the paper industry, medical, and construction industries. The ERMF demands significant investments but the return on investment is high both from a financial and environmental perspective, provided that markets can be realized. Experiences in the Netherlands show that the concept of the ERMF is viable and adds to the creation of a circular economy. Achieving climate neutrality and production of new and promising resources like bio-ALE are possible. The ERMF can contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations on water and sanitation, once fully operational

The challenges of water, waste and climate change in cities

Cities play a prominent role in our economic development as more than 80 % of the gross world product (GWP) comes from cities. Only 600 urban areas with just 20 % of the world population generate 60 % of the GWP. Rapid urbanization, climate change, inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures and poor solid waste management may lead to flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, adverse health effects and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. These megatrends pose urgent challenges in cities as the cost of inaction is high. We present an overview about population growth, urbanization, water, waste, climate change, water governance and transitions. Against this background, we discuss the categorization of cities based on our baseline assessments, i.e. our City Blueprint research on 45 municipalities and regions predominantly in Europe. With this bias towards Europe in mind, the challenges can be discussed globally by clustering cities into distinct categories of sustainability and by providing additional data and information from global regions. We distinguish five categories of sustainability: (1) cities lacking basic water services, (2) wasteful cities, (3) water-efficient cities, (4) resource-efficient and adaptive cities and (5) water-wise cities. Many cities in Western Europe belong to categories 3 and 4. Some cities in Eastern Europe and the few cities we have assessed in Latin America, Asia and Africa can be categorized as cities lacking basic water services. Lack of water infrastructures or obsolete infrastructures, solid waste management and climate adaptation are priorities. It is concluded that cities require a long-term framing of their sectoral challenges into a proactive and coherent Urban Agenda to maximize the co-benefits of adaptation and to minimize the cost. Furthermore, regional platforms of cities are needed to enhance city-to-city learning and to improve governance capacities necessary to accelerate effective and efficient transitions towards water-wise cities. These learning alliances are needed as the time window to solve the global water governance crisis is narrow and rapidly closing. The water sector can play an important role but needs to reframe and refocus radically

Application of the City Blueprint Approach to assess the challenges of water management and governance in Quito (Ecuador)

In this paper, we provide an assessment of the challenges of water, waste and climate change in the city of Quito by performing the City Blueprint Approach consisting of three assessment frameworks: (1) the Trends and Pressure Framework (TPF), (2) the City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and (3) the water Governance Capacity Framework (GCF). The TPF summarizes the main social, environmental and financial aspects that may affect urban water management. The CBF provides a clear overview of sustainable urban water management performance and its bottlenecks in municipalities and regions. The GCF comprises nine governance conditions which each consist of three indicators. The GCF provides insight in the most effective improvements to increase the governance capacity to address the identified urban water challenges. Our results show that poor wastewater treatment and long-term drinking water security are Quito’s main water challenges that may be jeopardized given the city’s rapid urbanization and economic pressure. The GCF analysis reveals that cooperation between stakeholders, implementing capacity and citizens’ awareness are the most important conditions for further development to find adequate solutions for Quito’s long-term drinking water security. We also suggest that more attention should be drawn to the transparency, accountability and participation principles. The results of Quito show that the City Blueprint Approach can serve as an affordable quick-scan to facilitate cities in their strategic planning to reach their sustainable development goals