The Innovation Deficit in Urban Water: The Need for an Integrated Perspective on Institutions, Organizations, and Technology

Kiparsky, Michael; Sedlak, David L.; Thompson, Bruce; Truffer, Bernhard

doi:10.1089/ees.2012.0427

Cited by 134 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 84 publications

(93 reference statements)

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“…[12] provide a methodology for ranking companies' water performance by gathering information from the overall supply chain. This method is based on checklists drawing information from sustainability reports.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scoring and benchmarking systems and the content analysis techniques obtain quantitative information from the sustainability reports of water utilities regarding sustainability issues aiming to measure the kind, quality, and quantity of the sustainability disclosure, while interviews and surveys focus on the motivations to report [8][9][10][11]. However, a basic problem in this field is the limited number of studies which focus on water utilities accountability and legitimacy strategy for sustainability issues [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

2018

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Sustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services' context and mainly when supplying a fundamental public resource, like water utilities. While the literature on sustainability reporting in the water sector is scant, there is an increasing need to study the usefulness and quality of its sustainability disclosures to adequately inform the stakeholders about the activities of water utilities to protect this fundamental resource and general sustainable development. This article presents a novel assessment framework based on a scoring technique and an empirical analysis on the sustainability reports of Italian water utilities carried out through it. The results highlight a low level of disclosure on the sustainability indicators suggested by the main sustainability reporting guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative, (GRI), and Sustainability Accounting Standard Board, (SASB)); most companies tend to disclose only qualitative information and fail to inform about some material aspects of water management, such as water recycled, network resilience, water sources, and effluent quality. These findings indicate that sustainability reporting is mainly considered as a communication tool, rather than a performance measurement and an accountability tool, but also suggest the need for a new and international industry-specific sustainability reporting standard.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

2018

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“…Similarly, the transformation of urban infrastructure systems, most of which were designed under the premise of long-lasting, stable demographic, political, and economic conditions, needs to take into account the wider societal context (Kiparsky et al 2013). Inflexible, pipe-dependent water supply and disposal systems are increasingly exposed to changing conditions such as climate change or alteration in population numbers; these influence the number of users, as well as increasing the requirements regarding efficiency.…”

Section: Resource Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Transformations

2018

Future City

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Future City DescriptionAs of 2008, for the first time in human history, half of the world's population now live in cities. And with concerns about issues such as climate change, energy supply and environmental health receiving increasing political attention, interest in the sustainable development of our future cities has grown dramatically.Yet despite a wealth of literature on green architecture, evidence-based design and sustainable planning, only a fraction of the current literature successfully integrates the necessary theory and practice from across the full range of relevant disciplines.Springer's Future City series combines expertise from designers, and from natural and social scientists, to discuss the wide range of issues facing the architects, planners, developers and inhabitants of the world's future cities. Its aim is to encourage the integration of ecological theory into the aesthetic, social and practical realities of contemporary urban development. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.Printed on acid-free paper ForewordThis volume is dedicated to the topic "Urban Transformations: Sustainable Urban Development Through Resource Efficiency, Quality of Life and Resilience". After the Habitat III conference and the adoption of the New Urban Agenda, the question of how to tackle the challenges in terms of transforming our cities in a sustainable direction is more urgent than ever. We need to think about appropriate instruments, strategies and mechanisms and have to consider adequate governance patterns, existing power constellations and the inclusion of the civil society.Our responsibility, as scientists, is to provide an interdisciplinary framework for understanding urban transformations that can serve as a reference not only for professionals in many of the disciplines involved in this volume but also for those involved in policymaking...

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“…However, most climate models do not accurately represent risk since they are often based upscaling of scenarios or historical events [49,50]. Edwards (2003) identiies a scale of force that runs through the human body into the geo-physical sphere.…”

Section: Societal Challenges To Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wicked Water Systems: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities

Tamara¹,

Krozer²

2018

Urban Agglomeration

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The contemporary urban water system is under extreme pressure due to growing demand, climate change, and social inequality. Conventional methods to mitigating extreme water events have proven to be insuicient to safeguard our growing urban centers. Unless the competing demands and pressures of the urban water system are addressed in holistic manners, we will soon lack of access to good-quality water, and extreme water events will increasingly afect our metropoles, with most severe consequences for communities already living in marginal conditions. This chapter takes as point of departure that the future urban waterscape is a wicked problem in which actions taken to mitigate the problems are often inadequate and temporary, even when they are the result of the public debate and shared concern. The current urban water system has reached a critical threshold, but how can innovative urban water design or planning solutions be implemented when there is so much at stake? The chapter will address the urban waterscape, its contemporary challenges and what we can expect in future climate conditions. Furthermore, we will discuss contemporary solutions as well as highlight the sociopolitical, economic, and ecological barriers to their implementation. To illustrate the challenges as well as the range of solutions, we will present the algal blooms in Lake Erie, USA, as a case study. We will end with an elaboration on how to innovate in the case of wicked problems.

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The Innovation Deficit in Urban Water: The Need for an Integrated Perspective on Institutions, Organizations, and Technology

Cited by 134 publications

References 84 publications

A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

Urban Transformations

Wicked Water Systems: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities

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