Future Water Systems Research Articles

Unveiling Milan’s Navigli and Underground Water Heritage through Integrated Urban (Water) Design

Unveiling Milan’s Navigli and Underground Water Heritage through Integrated Urban (Water) Design

Whole-Community Water Management: Inspiration for Water Utilities from Around the Globe

Changing climate threatens our water systems: Droughts, fires, and floods disrupt access to safe water and no country is immune. The aging infrastructure crisis offers an opportunity to build resiliency into our future water systems with approaches like (non-)potable reuse. Such strategies require participation by end-users, which we propose can be championed by water utilities through: (1) Raising awareness of water challenges, (2) education about current water realities and opportunities, and (3) providing resources to implement and sustain water solutions.

Time and Water

Once a society's water issues are resolved, time becomes its most precious resource. However, water issues are never resolved for long because the world keeps changing and society's capabilities and expectations evolve along with it. As the public's understanding of and engagement with water issues expand, the water industry needs to develop approaches that serve customers today yet keep in mind how water systems should work in the future. AWWA's Water 2050 effort seeks a long-term vision for water, and by anticipating the water industry's future needs, it can also learn to do better now. This issue of Journal AWWA is also forward-looking, starting with an examination of the future of the environmental laboratory workforce. Like many specialty careers in water, this month's cover story highlights how the industry needs creative solutions to recruit and retain skilled staff to address current and future needs. Looking critically at water system operations, another article explores the factors that contribute to water system success and the different channels that should be used to improve performance, including better long-term planning and more coordinated support from stakeholders and regulators. Another feature explores how biofiltration will likely become more widely used as the underlying processes and treatment benefits are better understood, especially in the face of future regulatory changes. These authors highlight how sustainability, resilience, and financial issues are considered in future water systems, as well as how the best ideas from industry and academia cross-pollinate and lead to future breakthroughs. Another article this month describes the Public Protection Classification criteria of communities for home insurance purposes, which is based on the fire flow of the local municipal water system, and the factors that describe the fire flow adequacy of a municipal water system are prone to future changes. Focusing on strategic planning for pipe renewal and replacement, another article provides guidance to water systems using proactive capital improvement that involves scenario analysis to provide systemwide forecasts for planning, budgeting, and optimizing utility assets. And a final article describes how strategically designed and targeted conservation programs can help communities reduce overall water use by employing smart controllers and addressing customers with the most conservation potential. No society's water issues are resolved forever, so for water and wastewater systems, the never-ending cycle of operation, regeneration, and improvement is passed between professionals who must understand the wide reach of current and future water issues. Join AWWA's effort to look forward and consider writing an article for Journal AWWA by contacting me at [email protected].

Research and innovation missions to transform future water systems

The United Nation 2023 Water Conference offers a critical opportunity to catalyse actions and innovations that bring increased water security to vulnerable communities across the globe. Researchers have an important role in supporting the delivery of needed on-the-ground impact, but their work must be informed by the priorities and necessities of Global South implementors.

Assessment of water resources system in Qena governorate, Upper Egypt under different hydrological and agronomic conditions

Abstract This paper assessed the current water resources system and two future scenarios in the Qena Governorate by developing a Water Balance Model (WB Model) and Water Security Quality-based Index (WSQI). The first scenario presented 25% reduction in Nile flow, while the second scenario suggested adaptation measures to comply with flow reduction. The measures included leveling 100,000 feddans, serving 70,000 feddans with sprinkler irrigation, and lining 2,977 km of canals. The WB Model estimated WB components. The WSQI was a new index suitable for Egypt's conditions considering water quality. The water supply from High Aswan Dam (HAD) was predicted by the BlueM model for hydrological simulations of Nasser Lake. The study found that the current water shortage was fulfilled by drainage reuse and shallow groundwater, and the WQSI indicated a low water insecurity. The flow reduction increased the water shortage and reuse quantity. As a result, the WSQI indicated high water insecurity. The suggested measures improved agricultural water use efficiency from 51% to 63%, reduced water shortage, and improved the water insecurity level from high to medium. This study concluded that adaptation measures can improve the future water system and water security in the Qena Governorate. The study recommended upscaling WSQI use for the entire country.

A brief description of domestic water-use data in the city of Rabat-Salé (Morocco)

A small-scale experiment is conducted to estimate domestic water-use rate in the city of Rabat-Salé. Water consumption in 171 households has been closely monitored over a 24-month period. During this survey both the net monthly volume of tap water effectively used in each household and the exact number of people who have lived in the same household are observed. This has resulted in a series of reliable realizations of daily per-capita water rate (denoted q). A usual procedure for data summarizing is presented: It is observed that entity q, interpreted as a random variable, is satisfactorily represented by the log-normal distribution. Estimate for the expected value of q along with the corresponding 95% Cox confidence interval are given. Such estimates are (for instance) essential to future water system extension.

The Energy Trade-Offs of Transitioning to a Locally Sourced Water Supply Portfolio in the City of Los Angeles

Predicting the energy needs of future water systems is important for coordinating long-term energy and water management plans, as both systems are interrelated. We use the case study of the Los Angeles City’s Department of Water and Power (LADWP), located in a densely populated, environmentally progressive, and water-poor region, to highlight the trade-offs and tensions that can occur in balancing priorities related to reliable water supply, energy demand for water and greenhouse gas emissions. The city is on its path to achieving higher fractions of local water supplies through the expansion of conservation, water recycling and stormwater capture to replace supply from imported water. We analyze scenarios to simulate a set of future local water supply adoption pathways under average and dry weather conditions, across business as usual and decarbonized grid scenarios. Our results demonstrate that an aggressive local water supply expansion could impact the geospatial distribution of electricity demand for water services, which could place a greater burden on LADWP’s electricity system over the next two decades, although the total energy consumed for the utility’s water supply might not be significantly changed. A decomposition analysis of the major factors driving electricity demand suggests that in most scenarios, a structural change in LADWP’s portfolio of water supply sources affects the electricity demanded for water more than increases in population or water conservation.

Water-energy nexus-based scenario analysis for sustainable development of Mumbai

The urban water-energy nexus sits at the intersection of the global phenomena of water scarcity, energy transitions and urbanisation. Research found that end use dominates the water-energy nexus and that this component plays an important role in urban dynamics, but focussed on the Global North. We investigate the nexus of Mumbai and its long-term resource demand. Our tool is a novel system dynamics model representing the urban water-energy nexus and takes into account characteristics such as intermittent water supply and the presence of slums. We devised scenarios around the Sustainable Development Goals and the Swachh Bharat Mission. The model shows that both can be achieved while saving on future water system infrastructure investments compared to business-as-usual. We find that also in Mumbai end use dominates the nexus. Representing end-use interactions increases expected water demand. This work indicates that globally, sustainable development of infrastructure must consider the urban water-energy nexus.

The Role of Renewable Energy Resources in Sustainability of Water Desalination as a Potential Fresh-Water Source: An Updated Review

Desalination is becoming a practical option to meet water demand in an increasing number of locations that are facing water scarcity. Currently, more than 150 countries in the world are already using desalination technologies, which account for about one percent of the world’s drinking water. Although for specific regions, desalination is the only feasible solution to close the supply–demand gap (for example the production of desalinated seawater in the Middle East is predicted to rise almost fourteen-fold by 2040), the sustainability of desalination systems is still remarkably under question. This review aims first to investigate the technical and economic trends and environmental and social aspects of desalination systems and then, in the second stage, to give an overview of the role of renewable energy technologies in the sustainability of the future water systems with an increasing share of desalination.

A New Technical Concept for Water Management and Possible Uses in Future Water Systems

A new degree of freedom in water management is presented here. This is obtained by displacing water, and in this paper is conceptually explained by two methods: using an excavated cavern as a container for compressed air to displace water, and using inflatable balloons. The concepts might have a large impact on a variety of water management applications, ranging from mitigating discharge fluctuation in rivers to flood control, energy storage applications and disease-reduction measures. Currently at a low technological readiness level, the concepts require further research and development, but the authors see no technical challenges related to these concepts. The reader is encouraged to use the ideas within this paper to find new applications and to continue the out-of-the-box thinking initiated by the ideas presented in this paper.

Interdisciplinary assessment of complex regional water systems and their future evolution: how socioeconomic drivers can matter more than climate

Modeling of future water systems at the regional scale is a difficult task due to the complexity of current structures (multiple competing water uses, multiple actors, formal and informal rules) both temporally and spatially. Representing this complexity in the modeling process is a challenge that can be addressed by an interdisciplinary and holistic approach. The assessment of the water system of the Crans‐Montana‐Sierre area (Switzerland) and its evolution until 2050 were tackled by combining glaciological, hydrogeological, and hydrological measurements and modeling with the evaluation of water use through documentary, statistical and interview‐based analyses. Four visions of future regional development were co‐produced with a group of stakeholders and were then used as a basis for estimating future water demand. The comparison of the available water resource and the water demand at monthly time scale allowed us to conclude that for the four scenarios socioeconomic factors will impact on the future water systems more than climatic factors. An analysis of the sustainability of the current and future water systems based on four visions of regional development allowed us to identify those scenarios that will be more sustainable and that should be adopted by the decision‐makers. The results were then presented to the stakeholders through five key messages. The challenges of communicating the results in such a way with stakeholders are discussed at the end of the article. WIREs Water 2014, 1:413–426. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1032This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change Human Water > Water Governance

Future Water Systems: How Will They Differ?

The following discussion took place Jun. 26, 1978, at Atlantic City, N.J. Moderated by Paul C. Notari, AWWA director of publications, the panel consisted of Paul D. Haney, Black & Veatch Consulting Engineers, Kansas City, Mo.; Francis M. Middleton, director, drinking water quality research center, Florida International University, Miami, Fla.; and Daniel A. Okun, professor of environmental engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.