Urban water security assessment in the context of sustainability and urban water management transitions: An empirical study in Shanghai

Abstract

Despite the relevance of urban water security in protecting water resources and supporting sustainable urban development, the literature seldom addresses sustainability and the features of urban water management practices in the assessment. Hence, based on the four sustainability dimensions (environment, society, economy and institution) and the cumulative objectives of urban water management transitions (from facilitating water supply, sewage, drainage, pollution treatment, water utilization, to resilience), this study analyzed the water security condition in Shanghai during 2011–2017 and examined the progress of the sequence of the Three-Year Action Plan on Environmental Protection and Construction implemented in Shanghai. Besides, the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method was performed to determine indicator weights without integration of value choices. The results showed that the water security condition in Shanghai has gently variated during 2011–2013 and distinctly improved from 2013 (the single score as 0.270) to 2017 (the single score as 0.859). The condition of abrupt environmental events, water use, river quality, and pollution discharge has significantly fluctuated during the investigated period. Policy analysis pointed out that river quality improvement, pollutant control, and wastewater treatment advancement have been the focus throughout the urban water policy measures in Shanghai. However, unstable water resource availability leads to a risk of water security deterioration in Shanghai in the long term and sewage infrastructure planning shall be refined to facilitate sufficient sewage collection. Furthermore, Shanghai shall notice incorporating water use and disaster management into water policy planning to better support water utilization efficiency and urban resilience. This study contributes to the framework development and comparative assessment practices in urban water security studies. The application of the suggested framework and assessment approach can allow policymakers to analyze the improvement needs of urban water security and favor policy design.