Water Infrastructure and Equipment

Abstract

Sustainable water resources management requires extensive infrastructure systems which are normally capital intensive, expensive, and long-lasting. Careful decisions about them are a central task for water managers. The systems divert water, convey it, treat it, and return it to nature. Sustainability requires that they achieve this without excessive impacts on natural systems. The components of infrastructure systems include structures, sensors, controls, and hydraulic equipment to serve water-handling functions for conveyance, storage, treatment, energy conversion, and control. Each category of water infrastructure and equipment has a distinct function, but how the functions are provided differs among types of systems for water supply, wastewater, stormwater, flood control, irrigation, and instream water management.