The post Five cities chosen to develop water resilience framework appeared first on The Source.
]]>Amman, Cape Town, Mexico City, Greater Miami and the Beaches, and Hull were selected because they represent the range of water challenges facing cities around the world. With the exception of Hull, each city is a member of 100 Resilient Cities–pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation.
“More than 60 percent of the applicants to 100 Resilient Cities identified water as a chief risk–either having too much or too little of it,” Andrew Salkin, Senior Vice President of City Solutions at 100 Resilient Cities, told The Source. “We’ve seen the extreme disruption that can accompany a city’s operations. Adding a resilience lens to water management is therefore an essential component of addressing chronic stresses and/or quickly responding to acute shocks. Resilience thinking keeps large threats like hurricanes or sea level rise in mind when planning, zoning, and investing on an ongoing basis.”
The cities were selected because of their diversity in terms of population size, geographic location and economic status, as well as their commitment to taking a strategic approach to resilience.
As part of this partnership, the project will explore each city’s specific water concerns through field research and stakeholder interviews. Data and findings will be used to establish qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure city water resilience, for use in any city anywhere. The resulting City Water Resilience Framework will be a global standard for water resilience, which enables cities to diagnose challenges related to water and utilise that information to inform planning and investment decisions.
“A changing climate coupled with rapid urbanisation is increasing the frequency of water related crises facing cities,” said Mark Fletcher, Arup Global Water Leader. “Increasingly, unpredictable rainfall, flooding and droughts are impacting cities across their water cycle. By understanding a wide range of issues, being played out in different contexts, we will be able to help all cities to understand how to assess the risks they are facing, and how to prioritise action and investments to become more resilient.”
A steering group is overseeing the development framework with representatives from The Rockefeller Foundation, 100 Resilient Cities, the World Bank, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation and The Resilience Shift.
“Having a global framework for water resilience means that any city facing similar challenges can tap into lessons learned and best practices proven effective around the world,” added Salkin. “A framework will allow cities to begin understanding their challenges and systems using a similar language and approach. It allows for common conversations, enabling cities to speak the same language, share ideas, and implement ideas more quickly.”
The post Five cities chosen to develop water resilience framework appeared first on The Source.
]]>The post BlueTech Research and Water Environment Federation partner on innovation appeared first on The Source.
]]>A key component of this initiative will be a visiting scientist fellowship programme, which will see BlueTech water technology market analysts working closely with WEF team members on a number of specific joint initiatives. It is expected that this will drive a cross-pollination of knowledge and sharing of information.
“BlueTech has a long history of working closely with the Water Environment Federation and I am delighted to be able to strengthen this relationship with a formal MoU relating to the visiting fellowship programme,” said Paul O’Callaghan, Chief Executive of BlueTech Research. “There are many synergies in our expertise and the goals we share for the global water industry. Collaboration between BlueTech and WEF on initiatives such as LIFT link and the IR2 Forum will enhance analysis of the data and intelligence provided to all stakeholders.”
BlueTech supported WEF’s Intensification of Resource Recovery (IR2) Forum and expects to work closely to develop innovation-related programming at other global events and help disseminate findings to WEF members and BlueTech clients.
BlueTech’s expertise in market analysis could be leveraged into an initiative undertaken by Water Environment & Reuse Foundation and WEF. The Leaders Innovation Forum for Technology (LIFT) helps bring new water technology to the field quickly and efficiently.
“We will be using our data analytics capability to identify key industry trends by analysing conference papers and proceedings,” added O’Callaghan. “We may also identify opportunities to collaborate on specific technical projects that will advance the missions of both organisations.”
BlueTech Research provides investors, water companies, researchers and regulators with the latest information. The company provides clarity and analysis on emerging water technology market areas.
The post BlueTech Research and Water Environment Federation partner on innovation appeared first on The Source.
]]>The post Water efficiency experts meet in Bath to debate solutions appeared first on The Source.
]]>Waterwise hosted the IWA ‘Efficient 2017’ conference, leveraging new standards, labels, incentives, data, markets and policies
Demand management through conservation and leak reduction is arguably the cleanest, cheapest, fairest and fastest way for any city to achieve water security. It can help the world meet the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s also at the heart of resilience, added Trevor Bishop, Strategy and Policy Director of the UK’s regulatory agency, Ofwat.
“But if water efficiency is so great,” asked Stuart White, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the University of Technology Sydney, “Why isn’t it happening everywhere?”
On 18 July, hundreds of water professionals arrived in the ancient Roman spa town of Bath, England, to answer that rhetorical question. Some said it is happening, and shared experiences about how cities are doing more with less.
Change comes quietly through market pressure. Chris Philpot of Smart Approved WaterMark shared how his expert panel advises and certifies a broad array of goods and services in Europe and Australia, from pool and garden care to car washing and rainwater harvesting. The companies seek exposure and measure up.
Meanwhile Jonah Schein described how 25,000 parts and products–from urinals to dishwashers to irrigation controllers–have since 2006 earned the US federal government’s WaterSense label. These in aggregate have reduced demand by more than 2.1 trillion gallons over the last decade, saving consumers US$43 billion off their water and energy bills.
Yet a lingering problem is that the playing field is not level, limiting real change. Various sessions pointed out that efficiency eats into the bottom line, and cities that pay for new supply infrastructure add assets that count while invisible demand management does not. “We’re doing the economics wrong,” Stuart White suggested in a case study in how to break the Kuznets curve, “unless we can cancel lost revenue as a net benefit. Otherwise there’s no incentive for the utility to invest in savings.”
Others harnessed Big Data in new ways. Andrew Tucker of Thames Water leveraged smart meters to reduce usage through behavioural change, leak detection, home visits, and ‘GreenRedeem’ incentives through a long-term online portal.
Christine Boyle, founder and CEO of Valor Water Analytics, showed how through automation and machine learning, her technology could locate hidden revenue within utility systems through an “apparent loss detection tool.”
“Cluster analysis” tools, combined with real-time metering allowed Rob Lawson of Artesia to explode the very concept of ‘the water customer’ into several behavioural types, each of whom had different levels of engagement and demand at disparate times of day.
Some efficiency veterans have turned inward. Paul Lander of the University of Colorado and Michelle Maddaus revealed “the campus as a living laboratory.” Why? Colleges are needy. The University of California alone uses nearly 20 billion litres per year. They’re also big. Cloistered mini-cities of students, faculty and staff in arid California add up to one-tenth of the population. But despite technical expertise and open minds, colleges had not connected the dots, and were thus ripe for interventions, which revealed dramatic savings.
Wrapping up the conference, host Mary Ann Dickinson, Chair of IWA’s Efficient Urban Water Management Specialist Group described how cities worldwide face the same pressures: reduced water availability, rising energy costs, changing weather patterns, and new supplies becoming more expensive than ever. As head of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, she advocated for “Net Blue” a national ordinance that allows growth but drives water neutrality though “water offsets.”
The post Water efficiency experts meet in Bath to debate solutions appeared first on The Source.
]]>The post To make water systems smarter and available for all, we need to get MAD appeared first on The Source.
]]>When is a water system smart? At a minimum, if it produces an acceptable product while minimising energy and other resource requirements. It’s a system that should respond rapidly to disturbances and recover quickly after a major upset. Instrumentation, control and automation are the key ingredients of a smart system, enabling a simple framework that a control engineer calls the feedback loop. We call it the MAD approach to smart water management: M is for Measure; A for analysis; and D for Decision-making.
To measure is to know and this requires adequate data in space and in time. Data analysis is critical to understand and interpret data in a way that will turn it into useful information. This is the basis for making decisions, manually or automatic.
Measurement
Sensors and instruments that provide adequate data are the basis of “smart”. Measured or observed phenomena are the foundation for all feedback. Flow rates, and a multitude of concentrations and quality parameters, are the foundation for all operations in water systems. Instrumentation must be robust, easy to maintain and cost effective. This is even more important in an unmanned process.
For a long time, instrumentation was considered the bottleneck for control and automation in water systems. This is no longer the case. The development of nutrient sensors in the last two decades has been impressive, and there is an interesting progress towards “smart” sensors with multiple heads, able to be placed anywhere in a process.
Analysis
Unlike humans, computers are infinitely attentive and can detect abnormal patterns in operating data. Monitoring the key parameters and operational state of a process or a machine via online instrumentation reduces the risks for operational problems and other errors. Consistent monitoring of the “product quality” will prevent problems growing too large. By rapidly detecting deviations from “normal”, it’s possible to minimise the costs of abnormal behaviour.
Monitoring the machinery and the plant equipment forms the basic level of diagnosis. Simple indicators can warn if a motor is not running or if pressure is getting too high or too low. Alarms triggered by rapidly changing equipment behaviour or basic physical parameters–like flowrates, pressures, or levels–are essential pieces of information.
At the other extreme, biological parameters will change slowly. For example, floc settling properties depend, among other things, on the species of organisms. It is important to detect early signs of flow settling changes. Once they are apparent we may have sludge bulking, and it‘s too late to make simple corrections. Early warning systems are critical in biological wastewater treatment.
Any monitoring system must determine whether the acquired data are meaningful and correct. Before any analysis can be made it is crucial to rectify or screen the data so that false conclusions are avoided. Irrelevant information–noise or extreme data points–must be removed.
Decision (control)
Having obtained data that is getting screened and analysed, a decision can be made, either automatically or manually. Decisions can then be made based on the defined goal or purpose of the system, before being translated to action via an actuator, typically a motor, a pump, a valve or a compressor.
By adopting MAD thinking it’s possible to make water systems smarter. MAD principles are functional in all timescales, from equipment operation in the time scale of seconds, to the management of a plant in the order to months or longer.
How do we meet the other criteria for a smart system: minimising energy and other resource requirements?
Two parallel developments have the potential to significantly transform water supply and wastewater treatment systems: renewable energy and decentralisation. Renewable energy, primarily solar and wind power, is already revolutionising the availability of affordable clean energy. The growing development of decentralised water systems is accelerating smart solutions, using adequate sensors, control and automation becomes critical.
The water sector is energy intensive, and available, affordable electricity is critical to pump and treat water. Approximately 84 percent of the global population has access to electricity, implying that almost 1.2 billion people are still without it. In many regions with energy poverty there are abundant renewable energy sources. In Africa and Asia particularly, a lot of rural areas are not connected to any grid infrastructure. Here solar and wind power offer huge opportunities, providing energy for pumping, for water re-use and purification using different technologies in decentralised systems.
Smart water supply and treatment systems that take advantage of affordable renewable energy in combination with adequate automation, present a real opportunity to satisfy two of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: clean water and energy for all.
The post To make water systems smarter and available for all, we need to get MAD appeared first on The Source.
]]>The post G7 countries can help farmers access data for building resilience appeared first on The Source.
]]>“There is an urgent need to take the data which is available globally and to translate it to the ground level,” Graziano da Silva said in remarks made during a G7 Agriculture Ministers meeting session entitled Empowering Farmers.
Farmers, especially smallholders and family farmers in developing countries, incur much of the impacts of climate change and other shocks including price volatility. This at a time when, for the first time in over a decade, estimates show that hunger is on the increase with 815 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment.
The FAO Director-General noted that building the resilience of farmers to extreme weather events linked to climate change, including droughts and floods, also requires making better data available to more people, especially those living in poor and often remote rural areas.
FAO is working with the World Meteorological Organization to better respond to climate variability and climate change on the basis of better and more readily accessible data. Some 75 countries mainly in Africa, and many Small Island Developing States, do not have the capacity to translate the weather data, including longer-term forecasts, into information for farmers.
Improved access to quality data plays a key role in combating hunger and poverty by providing farmers with vital information, including on access to food and other agricultural products. Local purchases from family farmers creates markets and helps to improve the quality and supply of food, said the Director-General.
This is also vital for building resilience and strengthening livelihoods by disseminating information on income generation opportunities, in particular to empower poor women. It is something that can be done relatively simply through the use of mobile telephones, working with the private sector in the development of mobile phone apps that provide market information.
The post G7 countries can help farmers access data for building resilience appeared first on The Source.
]]>The post Water science and technology, multiplying research through collaborations appeared first on The Source.
]]>The water crisis remains one of the top five global risks, according to the recently published World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2017. Water is a risk of high likelihood and high impact that is closely linked to the other most serious risks identified in the report, including extreme weather events, major natural disasters and a failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Water professionals, from all areas of the water sector, and in all regions of the world, find themselves at the centre of this crisis, and are increasingly being called upon to deliver solutions to it. The sector’s response is complicated by a disconnect between the leading science and technology research, and water utilities, cities and river basins where it might be applied to solve the challenges facing water resource management.
How do we address the potential risks involved in this disconnect? Firstly, we need to identify the needs of different stakeholders because this is key to guiding development of water science and technologies; secondly, we need to find ways to better connect the research and practice silos within the water sector; and thirdly, we must work with a broader group of stakeholders, inside and outside the sector, including social scientists and citizens groups, to promote the positive value of water.
Current developments in water science and technology are often dependent on what has been evolving in other sectors, such as advanced decision systems, ICT or biotechnologies. These emerging technologies are often disruptive. This requires water professionals to be aware of advances taking place and to learn from other sectors. Collaboration is critical to finding solutions in an increasingly interconnected world.
A recent meeting of science and technology leaders, convened by the IWA, re-confirmed the importance of collaborations. Participants identified six areas on which water professionals must focus to enhance water science and technology:
Optimisation and efficiency gains in current practices
Rebuilding all existing infrastructures is not realistic. Small infrastructural changes that incorporate novel technologies, better instrumentation and automation to improve efficiency, could provide an alternative in many places.
Role of data, information and communication technologies
Data science and communication technologies will increasingly contribute to process design and improvements to consumer engagement, transparency, compliance and to greater efficiency. For this paradigm shift to take place, capacity building and changes to management practices will be necessary.
Building resilience in the face of uncertainty and rapid change
In an era of great climate and hydrological uncertainty, we must build resilience by placing greater emphasis on risk and vulnerability assessments, indices for resilience, embedding natural capital in our systems, and through customer-centric approaches.
Demonstrating the value of water for productivity and economic growth
If the value of water is to be fully appreciated, we need the tools to engage and inform consumers in a way that leads to changed behaviours. The positive value of water has to be promoted by water utilities, but must also reach outside of the water community.
Improving livability through public and environmental health
To improve livability requires good public and environmental health, supported by sound scientific and technical evidence. This needs to be translated into meaningful public discourse. Social science research and financial analysis are important to demonstrate and quantify benefits to customers, the environment and economy.
Influencing policy and regulation through science and technology
Science and technology have an important role to play influencing policy and regulation. This is best achieved through multi-stakeholder and cross-sector collaborations. In order to influence policy, we need a vision, evidence-based approaches, and guidance on how to do it.
Informing different stakeholders in other sectors on the global trends and challenges in water science, technology and management, is a critical first step. IWA Specialist Groups have recently developed a compendium identifying the hot topics, innovations and global water trends that will have impact in solving water challenges.
This is one example of how the IWA is uniquely placed to bring together different stakeholders, and create stronger impact through science and innovation to better influence policy. Multi-stakeholder dialogues on different topics and in different regions can further enhance collaborations, and create stronger research impact through its applications in both policy and practice.
The post Water science and technology, multiplying research through collaborations appeared first on The Source.
]]>