Urban Water Governance for the Twenty-First Century: A Portfolio-Based Approach to Planning and Management

Abstract

Rapid urbanisation, growing urban populations, environmental issues and climate change all represent signifi cant challenges for water resource management, the delivery of essential water and sanitation services and environmental protection. As a result, traditional approaches that have relied heavily on large-scale infrastructure development are making way for new approaches such as the portfolio-based approach to planning and management. In an urban context, this includes integration of all components of the urban water cycle, and most state governments in Australia have embarked on implementing this integrated approach by having a mix of water supply sources including demand management and conservation measures. However, effective implementation of this approach depends on policies and regulations and encounters various impediments. Accordingly this chapter focuses on the City of Adelaide in South Australia and explores the legal and policy challenges for implementing an integrated urban water management plan in Metropolitan Adelaide. Drawing on the results of governance studies carried out in Australia that included a literature review, stakeholder and community surveys, the chapter attempts to better understand the barriers to transitioning Adelaide to a water-sensitive city.

Lessons learned from water-scarce cities: Proposed policies toward an integrated urban water management in Egypt

“…SAWater is the only water service provider. Some private firms have been assigned the operation and maintenance of infrastructure by long-term contracts (Keremane et al, 2017). SAWater frequently uses surveys and phone calls, focus groups and one-on-one interviews to measure customer satisfaction with their services provided and find out about their perception and opinions of its performance (SAWater, 2019b).…”

Responding to change: lessons from water management for metropolitan governance

“…There has been a call for better integration of the urban water sector and engagement of the community (van de Meene, Brown, and Farrelly 2009); however, there are still significant institutional barriers to implementation including lack of institutional capacity, fragmentation of roles and responsibilities, lack of political will, and limited regulatory incentives (Brown, Sharp, and Ashley 2006;Keremane, McKay, and Wu 2017). Considering the increasing importance of liveability and the role of water as a vital element of health and wellbeing, there is a need for effective and accountable regional governance mechanisms for better environmental and social impact monitoring and control not only for metropolitan areas, but also regional water catchments (Spiller 2018).…”

A New Integrated Portfolio Based Water-Energy-Environment Nexus in Wetland Catchments

“…Performance of different alternatives would be assessed by developing scenarios including a portfolio of solutions based on some aggregated evaluation tools (Grigg 2016). To supply requisite water, provide wastewater services and protect the environment, conventional approaches based on planning, analyzing and optimization have given way to holistic portfolio based approaches (Keremane, Keremane et al 2017). Table 1 presents a brief information of modern portfolio theory applications.…”