The Water-Sustainable City Science, Policy and Practice

Cities place enormous pressures on freshwater quality and availability because they are often located some distance from the water sources needed by their populations. This fact compels planners to build infrastructure to divert water from increasingly distant outlying rural areas, thus disrupting their social fabric and environment. In addition, increasing urbanization due to population growth, economic change, and sprawl places huge burdens upon the institutions, as well as the infrastructure, that deliver, protect, and treat urban water. This book assesses the challenges facing the world’s cities in providing reliable, safe, and plentiful supplies through infrastructural, economic, legal, and political strategies.

The book considers engineering, social science, and built environment issues, with close examination of experiences in California and Australia, and their global implications. It addresses urban stream syndrome and related issues’ and includes historical as well as contemporary insights into water sustainability in cities. Conservation, wastewater re-use, green infrastructure innovations, and the water–energy nexus from the vantage point of urban water management are discussed in depth. The authors conclude that while throughout history cities have faced the twin challenges of too much – or too little – water at inopportune times, the impact of climate extremes on cities makes low-impact developments especially relevant.

This comprehensive and timely assessment of the world’s urban water-sustainability challenges will be of great interest to both students and academics in the field as well as urban water professionals and decision-makers.