New tool for assessing urban water carrying capacity (WCC) in the planning of development programs in the region of Oran, Algeria

Abstract

The assessment of the territorial water carrying capacity (WCC) is now a major challenge for Algeria. The scarcity of resources, combined with an economic crisis, forces the public authorities to show clearly their willingness to make the rationalization of public spending a course of action. In the case of the region of Oran, which suffers particularly from the lack of water resources, we confront the planning of the urban development programs scheduled for 2019 with the water carrying capacity (WCC) of its territory, in order to estimate their feasibility through four scenarios. To get this target, we propose a new tool for assessing the territorial capacity of the region to mobilize, manage and consume water resources in a sustainable way. As a making decision-helping tool for sustainable urban planning (SUP), it is applicable in different urban contexts. Its main objective is to identify the maximal capacity of urban population the region is able to absorb with respective standard of living, beyond which the city and its hinterland would no more be able to attempt the sustainable development targets. The particularity of our tool lies in its ability to combine two decisive factors for the quality of local sustainable development: the maximum threshold for residential occupancy and the optimal income per capita (GDP) predefined by local economic policies. In addition, it balances the supply and demand of water in a context of double crisis, both water stress and economic depression. The identification of the WCC threshold may then call into question the planned development programs and therefore suggest the necessary compensatory actions.