Challenges in Water Management Series
Editor:
Justin Taberham
Independent Consultant and Environmental Advisor, London, UK
Other titles in the series:
Water Resources: A New Management Architecture
Michael Norton, Sandra Ryan and Alexander Lane
2017
ISBN: 978-1-118-79390-9
This edition first published 2017 © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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Cover image: © Peter Zelei images/Gettyimages
The World Bank in 2014 noted:
Water is one of the most basic human needs. With impacts on agriculture, education, energy, health, gender equity, and livelihood, water management underlies the most basic development challenges. Water is under unprecedented pressures as growing populations and economies demand more of it. Practically every development challenge of the 21st century – food security, managing rapid urbanization, energy security, environmental protection, adapting to climate change – requires urgent attention to water resources management.
Yet already, groundwater is being depleted faster than it is being replenished and worsening water quality degrades the environment and adds to costs. The pressures on water resources are expected to worsen because of climate change. There is ample evidence that climate change will increase hydrologic variability, resulting in extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and major storms. It will continue to have a profound impact on economies, health, lives, and livelihoods. The poorest people will suffer the most.
It is clear that there are numerous challenges in water management in the twenty-first century. In the twentieth century, most elements of water management had their own distinct set of organisations, skill sets, preferred approaches and professionals. The overlying issue of industrial pollution of water resources was managed from a ‘point source’ perspective.
However, it has become accepted that water management has to be seen from a holistic viewpoint and managed in an integrated manner. Our current key challenges include the following:
This series highlights cutting-edge material in the global water management sector from a practitioner as well as an academic viewpoint. The issues covered in the series are of critical interest to advanced-level undergraduates and masters students as well as industry, investors and the media.
I wish to say a big thank you to all the people who took time out of their busy schedules to sit down for an interview as well as provide any supplementary material. Without your help this book would not have been possible. Specifically I wish to thank Jan Peter van der Hoek (Waternet); Jens Feddern and Joachim Jeske (Berliner Wasserbetriebe); Allan Broløs and Charlotte Storm (HOFOR); Marc Waage, Greg Fisher and Melissa Elliot (Denver Water); Christian Guenner (Hamburg Wasser); David Grantham, Karen Simpson, Paul Rutter and Rosie Rand (Thames Water); Wai Cheng Wong and Gayathri Kalyanaraman (PUB); Lisa Botticella (Toronto Water) and Jennifer Bailey (Waterworks Utility). Finally, I wish to thank mum who has a great interest in the environment and water and has supported me in this journey of writing the book.
In the twenty-first century, the world will see an unprecedented migration of people moving from rural to urban areas: In 2012, human civilisation reached a milestone with 50 percent of the world’s population living in urban settings. This is projected to reach 70 percent by 2050. With global demand for water projected to outstrip supply by 40 percent in 2030, cities will likely face water insecurity as a result of climate change and the various impacts of urbanisation.
Traditionally, urban water managers facing increased demand alongside varying levels of supplies have relied on large-scale, supply-side infrastructural projects, such as dams and reservoirs, to meet increased demands for water; however, these projects are environmentally, economically and politically costly. Environmental costs include disruptions of waterways that support aquatic ecosystems, while economic costs stem primarily from a reliance on more distant water supplies often of inferior quality. This not only increases the costs of transportation but also the cost of treatment. Furthermore, with the vast majority of water resources being transboundary, supply-side projects can create political tensions due to water crossing intra- and interstate administrative and political boundaries. As such, cities need to transition from supply-side to demand-side management to achieve urban water security.
Integrated urban water management (IUWM) recognises actions that achieve urban water security extend beyond improving water quality and managing quantity. In particular, IUWM integrates the elements of the urban water cycle (water supply, sanitation, stormwater management and waste management) into both the city’s urban development process and the management of the river basin in which the city is located for the purpose of maximising water’s many environmental, economic and social benefits equitably. IUWM activities to maximise these benefits include: improving water supply and consumption efficiency; ensuring adequate drinking water quality and wastewater treatment; improving economic efficiency of services to sustain operations and investments for water, wastewater and stormwater management; utilising alternative water sources; engaging communities in the decision-making process of water resources management; establishing and promoting water conservation programmes; and supporting capacity development of personnel and institutions that engage in IUWM.
In IUWM, demand management is the process by which improved provisions of existing water supplies are developed. In particular, demand management promotes water conservation during times of both normal and atypical conditions through changes in practices, culture and people’s attitudes towards water resources. Demand management involves communicating ideas, norms and innovative methods for water conservation across individuals and society; the purpose of demand management is to positively adapt society to reduce water consumption patterns and achieve urban water security. Demand management instruments can be divided into regulatory and technological instruments or communication and information instruments. Regulatory and technological instruments include the pricing of water, waste and stormwater to encourage water conservation as well as ensuring the efficient distribution of water. Communication and information instruments include education of young people, public awareness campaigns to encourage water conservation as well as encouraging the installation of water-efficient technologies, such as tap inserts, to reduce water consumption. The book is case study led and provides new research on the human dimensions of IUWM. In particular, it contains nine in-depth case studies of leading developed cities of differing climates, incomes and lifestyles from around the world that have used demand management tools to modify the attitudes and behaviour of water users in an attempt to achieve urban water security. Data for each case study is collected from interviews conducted with each city’s respective water utility along with primary documents. The nine cities are Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Denver, Hamburg, London, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver. Each city scores highly on the Siemens Green City Index for water management. The Green City Index is a research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by Siemens. Each city is selected as a case study for the following reasons. Amsterdam is a city attracting sustainability-related companies and investments and so is attempting to manage its resources wisely while Berlin has a history of managing its water in a closed system. Copenhagen uses a variety of demand management tools to promote water conservation due to scarcity of good quality water: the majority of the city’s groundwater is contaminated from agricultural and industrial production. Denver, since facing a drought in 2002, has been using demand management tools to reduce average per capita water consumption in order to increase the city’s resilience to future droughts. Hamburg has a history of relying on imported water but faces population growth challenges. Similarly, London has implemented demand management efforts in response to demand outstripping supply due to rapid population growth, along with a changing climate. Singapore has a limited surface area to collect surface water and has no groundwater supplies; hence, the city state imports nearly all of its water from neighbouring Malaysia. To reduce the country’s dependency on imported water, the city has implemented aggressive water conservation campaigns in an attempt to achieve urban water security. Toronto, despite being located by the Great Lakes, has implemented water conservation efforts in response to the city government requiring its utilities to be sustainable, both environmentally and financially. Finally, Vancouver is implementing demand management strategies to ensure the city does not have to expand its storage capacity to meet rising demand.
This book will introduce readers to the transition management framework that guides cities and their transitions towards urban water security through the use of demand management strategies. A transition in IUWM is a well-planned, coordinated transformative shift from one water system to another, over a long period of time, where a water system comprises physical and technological infrastructure, cultural/political meanings and societal users. In a water system, society is both a component of the water system and a significant agent of change in the system, both physically (change in processes of the hydrological cycle) and biologically (change in the sum of all aquatic and riparian organisms and their associated ecosystems). In IUWM, transitions to new water systems are triggered by changes in the external environment of the system, leading to it being inefficient, ineffective or inadequate in fulfilling its societal function: the main drivers of water insecurity are rapid population and economic growth, increased demand for food and energy and climate change. In transitions towards urban water security, cities set a target water consumption level to achieve (per capita litres/day, for example) with the baseline for comparison being current levels of water consumption and select a portfolio of demand management tools to promote the better use of existing water supplies before plans are made to further increase supply. Overall, transitions in IUWM involve an iterative, long-term and continuous process of influencing people’s beliefs and practices to achieve urban water security.
The importance of this book is that in IUWM our understanding of the social, economic and political dimensions of demand for water lags significantly behind engineering and physical science knowledge on the supply of urban water resources. As such, little has been written on the actual processes that enable the application of IUWM; therefore, it is difficult to demonstrate or compare successes across cities in managing urban water sustainably. This is despite the fact it is human attitudes and behaviour that determines the actual amount of water that needs supplying. More specifically, the emphasis on engineering, scientific and technological solutions is no longer sufficient to deal with the numerous problems and uncertainties of increasing demand and climate change on water resources. Therefore, it is critical that human dimensions are incorporated into the managing of urban water, as the perspective of society is crucial for the success or failure of any water management strategy. Nevertheless, the concept of IUWM for addressing water scarcity is changing only slowly from an emphasis on science and technology towards solutions that incorporate cultural and behavioural change. This book presents new research on the human dimensions of IUWM. In particular, the book is case study led containing nine case studies on how leading developed cities from around the world have used demand management strategies (involving regulatory and technological and information and communication instruments) to modify the attitudes and behaviour of water users in an attempt to achieve urban water security. Each case study is written from the perspective of the water utility with input from each city’s respective water utility representative.
The book’s chapter synopsis is as follows: