TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrated Water Resources Management in Cities in the World: Global Solutions
AU - Koop, Stef
AU - Grison, Chloé
AU - Eisenreich, Steven
AU - Hofman, Jan
AU - Leeuwen, Kees van
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank all master students from Utrecht University, the young professionals from UNESCO, and all other volunteers in cities for their efforts to participate in the analysis of cities. We also thank the European Commission for funding previous projects to assess water management and governance of cities. Last but not least we want to thank the management board of KWR who has supported and financed most of this research as part of the global Watershare® activities.
Funding Information:
The authors declare that all the data supporting the findings of this study are included in the Supplementary Information. We would like to thank all master students from Utrecht University, the young professionals from UNESCO, and all other volunteers in cities for their efforts to participate in the analysis of cities. We also thank the European Commission for funding previous projects to assess water management and governance of cities. Last but not least we want to thank the management board of KWR who has supported and financed most of this research as part of the global Watershare® activities.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Population growth, urbanisation, climate change, biodiversity loss, energy use, water security and ageing infrastructures for water supply and treatment require a thorough understanding of the options available for moving towards sustainable cities. The present study provides an analysis of transformation patterns regarding integrated water resources management (IWRM) of cities across the globe. We evaluate IWRM in 125 cities with 48 mostly quantitative indicators collected for each city by performing a cluster analysis of 6,000 indicator scores following the City Blueprint Approach. We distinguish five clusters of cities which show a pattern of problem-shifting, i.e., the shifting of largely preventable water resources problems often in the following sequence: drinking water insecurity, pollution caused by inadequate wastewater treatment, inadequate solid waste management, inaction on climate change adaptation, and resource depletion. A city that can address and solve all these problems can be classified as water-wise. Based on the cluster analysis, seven principles are defined to enable urban areas to become water-wise. Because water takes a central position in the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), and is linked, directly or indirectly, to nearly all SDGs, success in IWRM is an important enabler for the other SDGs.
AB - Population growth, urbanisation, climate change, biodiversity loss, energy use, water security and ageing infrastructures for water supply and treatment require a thorough understanding of the options available for moving towards sustainable cities. The present study provides an analysis of transformation patterns regarding integrated water resources management (IWRM) of cities across the globe. We evaluate IWRM in 125 cities with 48 mostly quantitative indicators collected for each city by performing a cluster analysis of 6,000 indicator scores following the City Blueprint Approach. We distinguish five clusters of cities which show a pattern of problem-shifting, i.e., the shifting of largely preventable water resources problems often in the following sequence: drinking water insecurity, pollution caused by inadequate wastewater treatment, inadequate solid waste management, inaction on climate change adaptation, and resource depletion. A city that can address and solve all these problems can be classified as water-wise. Based on the cluster analysis, seven principles are defined to enable urban areas to become water-wise. Because water takes a central position in the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), and is linked, directly or indirectly, to nearly all SDGs, success in IWRM is an important enabler for the other SDGs.
KW - City blueprint
KW - Climate adaptation
KW - Environmental governance
KW - Urban sustainability
KW - Water management
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137152108&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104137
DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104137
M3 - Article
SN - 2210-6707
VL - 86
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Sustainable Cities and Society
JF - Sustainable Cities and Society
M1 - 104137
ER -