Abstract
Urban Water Systems are dominated by large assets, many of which have design lives of several decades. The impact of climate change and other long term change (eg, societal change and urban development) will only become apparent after many years. Therefore climate change, urban development and societal changes are strong drivers to investigate possible transition pathways from existing (technocratic) urban water management solutions towards novel (predominately) decentralised water systems.
The PREPARED project has sought to identify tools and processes to support water utilities in carrying out the changes needed to effect a transition to systems that are more resilient to climate change. In this work area activity was focussed on two complimentary approaches: one resulted in the development of complex modelling tools combined with a scenario based workshop programme, the other resulted in the development of an adaptive planning process. Each approach was developed with, and validated at the partner water utilities (Melbourne Water and DCWW). It allowed them to explore the future and enhance their capability to produce more adaptive water systems to cope with a range of uncertain futures.
The aim of this area of work in PREPARED was to deliver tools, knowledge and learning material to all stakeholders, thereby allowing them to acquire the adaptive capacity needed to manage integrated urban water infrastructure. The work comprised three packages: (1) developing a framework to characterise Adaptive Water Sensitive Cities and explore their current capacity, (2) a software tool that allows exploration of potential adaptation measures and (3) techniques to enable cities to become more adaptive. In practice the framework (1) and software development (2) both led to techniques to enable cities to become more adaptive (3). In the discussion below we begin by exploring the software and associated techniques (2 & 3) before examining the framework and its associated techniques (1 & 3).
The PREPARED project has sought to identify tools and processes to support water utilities in carrying out the changes needed to effect a transition to systems that are more resilient to climate change. In this work area activity was focussed on two complimentary approaches: one resulted in the development of complex modelling tools combined with a scenario based workshop programme, the other resulted in the development of an adaptive planning process. Each approach was developed with, and validated at the partner water utilities (Melbourne Water and DCWW). It allowed them to explore the future and enhance their capability to produce more adaptive water systems to cope with a range of uncertain futures.
The aim of this area of work in PREPARED was to deliver tools, knowledge and learning material to all stakeholders, thereby allowing them to acquire the adaptive capacity needed to manage integrated urban water infrastructure. The work comprised three packages: (1) developing a framework to characterise Adaptive Water Sensitive Cities and explore their current capacity, (2) a software tool that allows exploration of potential adaptation measures and (3) techniques to enable cities to become more adaptive. In practice the framework (1) and software development (2) both led to techniques to enable cities to become more adaptive (3). In the discussion below we begin by exploring the software and associated techniques (2 & 3) before examining the framework and its associated techniques (1 & 3).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Climate Change, Water Supply and Sanitation |
| Subtitle of host publication | Risk Assessment, Management, Mitigation and Reduction |
| Editors | Wolfgang Rauch, Simon Tait |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | IWA Publishing |
| Chapter | 5 |
| Pages | 355-374 |
| Volume | 14 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781780405001 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781780404998 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2015 |
| Externally published | Yes |