scholarly journals Challenges of Water Sensitive Cities in Mexico: The Case of the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Jose Arturo Gleason ◽  
Cesar Casiano Flores
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Sensitive Stage

Mexico is currently facing important water management challenges. Cities in the country are facing water scarcity and at the same time they struggle with floods during the raining season. The water sensitive urban design (WSUD) approach has proved to be helpful around the world in tackling urban water challenges such as floods or water scarcity. The WSUD approach highlights the role of both the water cycle and the water utilities systems, when transitioning towards a water sensitive stage. Therefore, the objective of this research is to demonstrate the relevance for cities of a WSUD approach by analyzing the current situation of the water cycle and the water utility in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (MAG). This research proposes a case study approach. Within our case of study, we focused on the water cycle and the water utilities system (Sistema Intermunicipal de los Servicios de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (SIAPA)) and ask two questions: (1) What are the causes of water scarcity and flooding in the MAG? and (2) What are the proposals to solve these problems under a WSUD approach? By answering these questions, we identified that the water management in the MAG corresponds to a single purpose infrastructure. This type of water management is common in developing cities and does not contribute to solve the problems of water scarcity and floods. The water supply policy is based only on the construction of large dams disregarding the storage and use of rainwater, and reuse of greywater, and water-conservation devices. In order to transition towards a water sensitive stage, changes in the water policy need to take place and a WSUD approach that includes multi-purpose infrastructure, should be considered.

scholarly journals Challenges of Water Sensitive Cities in México: The case of the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Arturo Gleason ◽  
César Casiano Flores
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Sensitive Stage ◽  
Supply Policy ◽  
Water Sensitive Urban Design

Mexico is currently facing important water management challenges. Cities in the country are facing water scarcity and at the same time, they struggle with floods during the raining season. The water sensitive urban design (WSUD) approach has proved to be helpful in tackling urban water challenges such as floods and water scarcity and it is being implemented in cities around the world. The WSUD approach highlights the role of both the water cycle and the water utilities systems, when transitioning towards a water sensitive stage. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyse the current situation of the water cycle and the water utility (SIAPA). To do so, we have selected the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (MAG) and proposes a case study approach. Within our case of study, we answer two questions: 1) What are the causes of water scarcity and flooding in the MAG? and 2) What are the proposals to solve these problems under a WSUD approach? By answering these questions, we identified that the water management in the MAG corresponds to a single purpose infrastructure. This type of management does not contribute to solve the problems of water scarcity and floods. The water supply policy is based only on the construction of large dams disregarding the storage and use of rainwater, and reuse of greywater, and water-conservation devices. In order to transition towards a water sensitive stage, a WSUD approach that includes multi-purpose infrastructure should be considered. Such as green roofs, swales, rainwater gardens, infiltration trenches, etc.

scholarly journals Revealing Unreported Benefits of Digital Water Metering: Literature Review and Expert Opinions

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monks ◽  
Stewart ◽  
Sahin ◽  
Keller
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Australian Water ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
Monetary Benefit ◽  
Business Cases ◽  
Water Meters

Digital water meters can take Australian water utilities into the world of internet of things (IoT) and big data analytics. The potential is there for them to build more efficient processes, to enable new products and services to be offered, to defer expensive capital works, and for water conservation to be achieved. However, utilities are not mounting business cases with sufficient benefits to cover the project and operational costs. This study undertakes a literature review and interviews of industry experts in the search for unreported benefits that might be considered for inclusion in business cases. It identifies seventy-five possible benefits of which fifty-seven are classified as benefiting the water utility and forty are classified as benefiting customers (twenty-two benefit both). Many benefits may be difficult to monetize. Benefits to customers may have a small monetary benefit to the water utility but provide a significant benefit to customer satisfaction scores. However, for utilities to achieve these potential benefits, eight change enablers were identified as being required in their systems, processes, and resources. Of the seventy-five benefits, approximately half might be considered previously unreported. Finally, a taxonomy is presented into which the benefits are classified, and the enabling business changes for them to be realized are identified. Water utilities might consider the taxonomy, the benefits, and the changes required to enable the benefits when developing their business cases.

Water-conservation policies in perspective: insights from a Q-method study in Salta, Argentina

Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 897-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Iribarnegaray ◽  
M. F. E. de la Zerda ◽  
C. M. Hutton ◽  
C. Brannstrom ◽  
V. I. Liberal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Conservation Policies ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Rate Of Success

Narratives and discourses on issues such as water management and other complex social–ecological systems respond partly to people's worldviews or social perspectives. Knowledge of these perspectives might help increase the rate of success of specific initiatives related to water conservation and could be an important tool to improve water governance. A study performed in the city of Salta, Argentina, revealed the existence of four social perspectives on issues related to water management. Perspectives were obtained with Q methodology by interviewing 29 local stakeholders. Participants sorted 68 statements organized around four themes (service provider; water rights; public participation; water availability) according to their degree of agreement or disagreement. The findings support our contention that there are clear links between social perspectives and the rate of success of some water policies implemented by the local water utility in the past 15 years, in particular the promotion and use of household water meters and awareness campaigns launched to reduce water consumption. We show that the limited success of these initiatives was partly due to ignorance or disregard of social perspectives on water management.

scholarly journals Domestic and International Drivers of the Demand for Water Resources in the Context of Water Scarcity: A Cross-Country Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 255
Author(s):  
Rakesh Gupta ◽  
Kejia Yan ◽  
Tarlok Singh ◽  
Di Mo
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Energy Transport ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
National Level ◽  
Population Expansion ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Domestic Water

Global warming, while increasing human demand for water, is reducing water availability by reducing runoff flows and the effective amount of water between seasons, making water scarcity a growing problem globally. Water management plays an important role in mitigating global warming, improving the water cycle, reducing carbon emissions, and providing clean energy, and pricing water is considered a good approach to water management. Pricing water needs to take into account all sectors and aspects of society, such as domestic water, food and agriculture, energy, transport, industry, urban provision, human health, ecosystems, and the environment, and their interrelationships through water, within the context of the fundamental human rights to water and sanitation. This requires that every stakeholder should contribute to the development of water-related policies at every stage of the water interrelationship. This study investigated the relationship between water demand across different sectors of the economy using indicators for China, Australia, Japan, and the UK. Using panel analyses, this study finds that economic growth and population expansion increases the demand for water in all aspects. These findings have significant policy implications for water management. Because water prices can have an impact on global trade and, more importantly, are a major solution to global warming, water management policies should be considered at the global level, not only at the national level.

Encouraging Water Saving: the Role of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Intention

1991 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Murphy ◽  
Raymond Watson ◽  
Susan Moore
Keyword(s):  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
General Level ◽  
Domestic Water ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
The Individual

Few would doubt the need, in today's world, to promote behaviours that actively conserve environmental resources. At a general level, this often involves encouraging behaviours that involve a short-term cost for the individual in order to avoid a long-term negative outcome for the community. Examples of such behaviour are, taking the trouble to turn off lights to save electricity and fixing leaking taps to conserve water. It is these latter kinds of behaviours, namely those associated with the efficient use of water resources, which are the focus of this paper.Faced with the high economic and practical costs of attempting to supply unlimited amounts of water for the Melbourne metropolitan area, the Board of Works has sought, by a number of means, to persuade its consumers to use water more efficiently. One aspect of its strategy was to promote water conservation within the educational curriculum by designing various educational materials and programs for different school levels. These and other promotional materials were made available to schools in the Melbourne metropolitan area in 1988. Prior to the distribution of this material, the data reported in this paper were gathered as the first stage of a longitudinal evaluation of the Board's education strategy.The assumption underlying the Board of Works' educational program was that behaviour change is preceded by changes in knowledge. For example, it was assumed that a person, knowing something about the water cycle, and the system by which water is fed into our taps, would believe that it is important not to waste water. The result would be active water conservation in daily life. Some basis for this assumption has been provided by the report on domestic water use in Perth, Western Australia (Metropolitan Water Authority, 1985), where knowledge and attitudes were found to be predictors of actual water consumption. Such an assumption is based in a general way on a cognitive or information processing model of behaviour change, in which changes in behaviour are seen as proceeding from changes in relevant information or knowledge. This cognitive model is the basis for many social education programs both in schools and in the community. For example, the Quit Campaign and the AIDS campaign have both used strategies that aimed to inform the public about particular health-related behaviours.

Integrated water cycle planning for towns in New South Wales, Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 87-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Schneider ◽  
A. Davison ◽  
A. Langdon ◽  
G. Freeman ◽  
C. Essery ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Use ◽  
State Government ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Stream Water ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Urban Centre

Integration means different things to different people and as a consequence appears to only partially deliver on promised outcomes. For effective integrated water cycle management these outcomes should include improved water use efficiency, less waste, environmental sustainability, and provide secure and reliable supply to meet social and economic needs. The objective of integration is the management and combination of all these outcomes as part of a whole, so as to provide better outcomes than would be expected by managing the parts independently. Integration is also a consequence of the Water Reforms embarked on by the NSW State Government in 1995. The key goals of the reforms are clean and healthy rivers and groundwaters, and the establishment of more secure water entitlements for users. They are also essential for meeting the Council of Australian Government (COAG) water management strategies. The policies and guidelines that formed the NSW Water Reforms were the basis of the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW) (WMA) which is the legislative framework for water management in NSW. The NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation has developed an approach to integrated water cycle management for rural centres in NSW based on a catchment and policy context. This approach includes consideration of catchment wide needs and issues, environmental sustainability, government policy and community objectives in the development of an integrated water cycle plan. The approach provides for a transparent assessment of priorities and how to deal with them, and while specific to urban centres, could easily be expanded for use in the management of the whole of the catchment water cycle. Integration of the water cycle is expected to offer benefits to the local environment, community and economy. For instance, any unused proportion of an urban centre's water entitlement, or an offset against this entitlement created through returned flows (such as via good quality sewage effluent discharge to a river), can provide a surplus which is available to be traded on an annual basis. Further, improved demand management within an urban centre can be expected to result in a reduction in abstraction against the licence entitlement. This may result in the increased availability of in-stream water for environmental or other purposes and is expected to increase the economic value of returned water. Improved water use efficiencies are also expected to result in reduced capital works (and their associated costs) as the efficiency of service delivery and resource use improves. In this paper an example of the application of this process is provided and the outcomes discussed.

scholarly journals Policy, Technology, and Management Options for Water Conservation in the Ogallala Aquifer in Kansas, USA

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 3406
Author(s):  
Jean L. Steiner ◽  
Daniel L. Devlin ◽  
Sam Perkins ◽  
Jonathan P. Aguilar ◽  
Bill Golden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Policy ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Irrigation Scheduling ◽  
Groundwater Depletion ◽  
Ogallala Aquifer ◽  
Net Income ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Irrigation Technology

The Ogallala Aquifer underlies 45 million ha, providing water for approximately 1.9 million people and supporting the robust agriculture economy of the US Great Plains region. The Ogallala Aquifer has experienced severe depletion, particularly in the Southern Plains states. This paper presents policy innovations that promote adoption of irrigation technology, and management innovations. Innovation in Kansas water policy has had the dual effects of increasing the authority of the state to regulate water while also providing more flexibility and increasing local input to water management and regulation. Technology innovations have focused on improved timing and placement of water. Management innovations include soil water monitoring, irrigation scheduling, soil health management and drought-tolerant varieties, crops, and cropping systems. The most noted success has been in the collective action which implemented a Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA), which demonstrated that reduced water pumping resulted in low to no groundwater depletion while maintaining net income. Even more encouraging is the fact that irrigators who have participated in the LEMA or other conservation programs have conserved even more water than their goals. Innovative policy along with creative local–state–federal and private–public partnerships are advancing irrigation technology and management. Flexibility through multi-year allocations, banking of water not used in a given year, and shifting water across multiple water rights or uses on a farm are promising avenues to engage irrigators toward more sustainable irrigation in the Ogallala region.

Economics of Water Scarcity in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Water Rights ◽  
Water Pricing ◽  
Wastewater Reclamation ◽  
Trade Offs

Water scarcity has long been recognized as a key issue challenging China’s water security and sustainable development. Economically, China’s water scarcity can be characterized by the uneven distribution of limited water resources across space and time in hydrological cycles that are inconsistent with the rising demand for a sufficient, stable water supply from rapid socioeconomic development coupled with a big, growing population. The limited water availability or scarcity has led to trade-offs in water use and management across sectors and space, while negatively affecting economic growth and the environment. Meanwhile, inefficiency and unsustainability prevail in China’s water use, attributable to government failure to account for the socioeconomic nature of water and its scarcity beyond hydrology. China’s water supply comes mainly from surface water and groundwater. The nontraditional sources, wastewater reclamation and reuse in particular, have been increasingly contributing to water supply but are less explored. Modern advancement in solar and nuclear power development may help improve the potential and competitiveness of seawater desalination as an alternative water source. Nonetheless, technological measures to augment water supply can only play a limited role in addressing water scarcity, highlighting the necessity and importance of nontechnological measures and “soft” approaches for managing water. Water conservation, including improving water use efficiency, particularly in the agriculture sector, represents a reasonable strategy that has much potential but requires careful policy design. China’s water management has started to pay greater attention to market-based approaches, such as tradable water rights and water pricing, accompanied by management reforms. In the past, these approaches have largely been treated as command-and-control tools for regulation rather than as economic instruments following economic design principles. While progress has been made in promoting the market-based approaches, the institutional aspect needs to be further improved to create supporting and enabling conditions. For water markets, developing regulations and institutions, combined with clearly defining water use rights, is needed to facilitate market trading of water rights. For water pricing, appropriate design based on the full cost of water supply needs to be strengthened, and policy implementation must be enforced. An integrated approach is particularly relevant and greatly needed for China’s water management. This approach emphasizes integration and holistic consideration of water in relation to other resource management, development opportunities, and other policies across scales and sectors to achieve synergy, cost-effectiveness, multiple benefits, and eventually economic efficiency. Integrated water management has been increasingly applied, as exemplified by a national policy initiative to promote urban water resilience and sustainability. While economics can play a critical role in helping evaluate and compare alternative measures or design scenarios and in identifying multiple benefits, there is a need for economic or social cost–benefit analysis of China’s water policy or management that incorporates nonmarket costs and benefits.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING THE PERFORMANCE OF IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AROUND HOMES

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 278-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basant MAHESHWARI
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Educational Programs ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Start Time ◽  
Time Duration ◽  
Irrigation Systems

This study examines factors that affect the efficiency of outdoor home irrigation in the Sydney Metropolitan Area (SMA). The irrigation systems of 50 home sites were monitored, over a five-month period for flow rate, start time, duration and irrigation date. The monitoring was for quantification of the water use for lawn, garden and other garden areas, understanding of the issues and factors that affect the performance of irrigation. Results show that hand watering was the most common method, accounting for 35% of the areas irrigated by homeowners. Both portable sprinklers and microjets accounted for 20% and fixed sprinklers and drip irrigation accounting for 11% and 8% respectively. The study has implications for developing suitable urban water management strategies, and significant opportunities exist for water conservation through appropriately designed educational programs and the installation of improved irrigation systems, especially for the areas that are smaller or used for home gardens.

Nature-based solutions for water resource management in the urban fringe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Oen ◽  
Sarah Hale
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Water Quality ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Urban Fringe ◽  
Case Study Site ◽  
Study Sites

<p>A research project called "Nature based solutions for water management in the peri-urban: linking ecological, social and economic dimensions (NATWIP)" started in 2019 and has the overall goal of: contributing to closing the water cycle gap by exploring the potential that nature-based solutions (NBS) offer to address water management challenges in landscape areas that have been neglected because they lie in the transition zones between the urban and the rural. Since NBS have most commonly been applied in urban areas, it is interesting to broaden the focus to assess the application of NBS on the outskirts of urban areas or the urban fringe as such areas are often affected by expansion processes of the city. Furthermore, these areas have historically played important roles in development and sustenance of urban centres, provision of water-related ecosystem services, particularly water supply, wastewater management and flood control.</p><p>Key NATWIP activities include the establishment of a methodological framework to analyse the social, economic and ecological sustainability dimensions of NBS and subsequently to apply the framework at case study sites in Norway, Sweden, Brazil, India, South Africa and Spain. These case study sites present very diverse water management problems as well as NBS. As more emphasis is placed on the use of NBS in the Nordic countries it is important to identify successful mechanisms for their implementation and monitoring. The case study site in Norway, Skien, represents a highly relevant urban challenge to balance water quality and the increases of water quantity as a result of climate change. This site focuses on the opening of a buried river using blue-green infrastructure as a catalyst for city development. In Sweden rain water harvesting in Gotland has been used in order to address water shortages caused by drought as well as water excess.</p><p>The other case studies sites present interesting examples where the framework is used to explore potential management practices that Nordic countries could learn from. In Spain, the Barcelona Metropolitan backbone is home to green-blue infrastructure and a variety of NBS that aim to improve environmental quality and water cycle management. The Brazilian case study focuses on the most advanced Payment for Environmental Service initiative in Latin America. Through this project, fees collected from water users pay farmers to conserve and restore riparian forests on their lands. In India rainwater harvesting is used to combat water scarcity and compromised water quality in new peri-urban areas. Two case studies in South Africa show how NBS can address the problems of water scarcity in combination with increasingly variable rainfall, frequent drought and floods as well as growing water demand.</p><p>Results from the first assessment of these case study sites will be presented to highlight similarities, differences, challenges, as well as potential synergies for learning from the different case study site contexts.</p>

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