City Blueprints: baseline assessments of water management and climate change in 45 cities

Abstract

Climate change and urbanization are among the most significant trends of the twenty-first century, affecting global natural resources such as water, economic development and human well-being. The growth of the world population will be absorbed by the cities. The necessity of cities adapting to these trends calls for radical changes in urban water management. In this paper, baseline assessments, i.e., City Blueprints, have been carried out for 45 municipalities and regions in 27 countries, mainly in Europe. The assessments showed that cities vary considerably with regard to their water management. This is also captured in the Blue City Index Ò (BCI), the arithmetic mean of 24 indicators comprising the City Blueprint Ò . Theoretically, the BCI has a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 10. The actual BCIs in the 45 cities and regions varied from 3.5 (Kilamba Kiaxi in Angola) to 8.5 (Helsingborg in Sweden). The BCI was positively and significantly correlated with the gross domestic product per person, the ambitions of the local authorities regarding water management, the voluntary participation index and governance indicators according to the World Bank (2013). The study also demonstrated a very significant correlation between the BCI and the University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index. The impacts of water scarcity and floods in cities are discussed. It is concluded that cities in transitional and developing countries are particularly at risk.

Re-Thinking Urban Flood Management—Time for a Regime Shift

“…Long-term strategies are needed to facilitate cost-effective and rapid implementation of integrated flood management [31]. The aim is fast recovery from flooding and restoration to good living conditions.…”

Urban Water Security Dashboard: Systems Approach to Characterizing the Water Security of Cities

“…Pressures (tier 3) were defined as the basic factors, root causes, and trends that influence and determine the state of the urban water system (Pires et al 2016;citing EEA 1999;WWAP 2006). We distinguished between environmental (natural resource) and socioeconomic pressures (Hoekstra 1998;OECD 2016;Van Leeuwen and Chandy 2013). The two main environmental pressure categories (tier 2) were water scarcity and flooding ( Fig.…”

“…There are a large number of water (security) indicators, although few of them specifically focus on urban water security. Examples of dedicated indicators for urban water management are the sustainable cities water index by Arcadis (2015) and the city blueprint by Van Leeuwen et al (2016). However, these rankings either seem to lack a sound theoretical foundation (e.g., the sustainable city water index) or have a predominantly performance-oriented approach (e.g., the city blueprint).…”

The scientist, the politician, the artist and the citizen: how water united them

“…A main focus is on the integration of water, waste and climate adaptation in cities. Uses mostly data from International organisations [45–47]Urban Water BlueprintDefines the watershed conservation potential for 534 cities evaluating five conservation activities: reforestation, agricultural best management practices; Riparian restoration, Forest protection, Forest fuel reduction [48]Water Sensitive Cities IndexThe WSCI is designed to benchmark and rank cities based on water sensitivity performance. It also set targets and inform management responses to improve water-sensitive practices.…”