WATER CENTRIC
SUSTAINABLE
COMMUNITIES
WATER CENTRIC
SUSTAINABLE
COMMUNITIES
Planning, Retrofitting, and Building
the Next Urban Environment
Vladimir Novotny,
Jack Ahern, and
Paul Brown
JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.
Cover picture credit Malena Karlsson, GlashusETT, Stockholm (Sweden)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Novotny, Vladimir, 1938Water centric sustainable communities: planning, retrofitting,and building the next urban
environment / Vladimir Novotny, John Ahern, Paul Brown.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-47608-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-0-470-64282-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-64283-2 (ebk);
ISBN 978-0-470-64284-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-94996-2 (ebk); ISBN 978-0-470-95169-9 (ebk);
ISBN 978-0-470-95193-4 (ebk)
1. Municipal water supply. 2. Water resources development. 3. Sustainable development.
4. Urban runoff – Management. 5. Watershed management. I. Ahern, John, 1949–
II. Brown, Paul, 1944– III. Title.
TD346.N68 2010
628.109173 2 – dc22
2010005121
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I
xii
HISTORIC PARADIGMS OF URBAN WATER/STORMWATER/
WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT AND DRIVERS FOR CHANGE
1
I.1 Introduction / 1
I.2 Historic Paradigms: From Ancient Cities to the 20th Century / 5
I.2.1 First Paradigm / 8
I.2.2 Second Paradigm / 9
I.2.3 Third Paradigm / 15
I.2.4 Fourth Paradigm / 25
I.2.5 The Impact of Automobile Use / 32
I.2.6 Urban Sprawl / 38
I.2.7 The Rise of New Great Powers Competing for Resources / 40
I.3 Drivers for Change towards Sustainability / 42
I.3.1 Population Increases and Pressures / 44
I.3.2 Water Scarcity Problems and Flooding Challenges
of Large Cities / 49
I.3.3 Greenhouse Emissions and Global Warming Effects / 51
I.3.4 Aging Infrastructure and the Need to Rebuild and Retrofit / 59
I.3.5 The Impossibility of Maintaining the Status Quo and
Business as Usual / 60
I.4 The 21st Century and Beyond / 65
References / 68
II
URBAN SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS
72
II.1 The Vision of Sustainability / 72
II.2 The Sustainability Concept and Definitions / 73
II.2.1 A New (Fifth) Paradigm Is Needed / 73
II.2.2 Definition of Pollution / 76
II.2.3 Sustainability Definitions / 80
II.2.4 Economic versus Resources Preservation Sustainability / 82
v
vi
CONTENTS
II.2.5 Sustainability Components / 85
II.2.6 The Environment and Ecology / 87
II.2.7 Living within the Limits in the Urban Landscape / 90
II.2.8 The Economy / 94
II.3 Towards the Fifth Paradigm of Sustainability / 97
II.3.1 Emerging Sustainable Urban Water/Stormwater/Used
Water Systems / 99
II.3.2 Triple Bottom Line—Life Cycle Assessment
(TBL—LCA) / 104
II.3.3 Water Reclamation and Reuse / 106
II.3.4 Restoring Urban Streams / 108
II.3.5 Stormwater Pollution and Flood Abatement / 110
II.3.6 Urban Landscape / 113
II.4 Cities of the Future—Water Centric Ecocities / 114
II.4.1 Drainage and Water Management / 114
II.4.2 Microscale Measures and Macroscale
Watershed Goals / 116
II.4.3 Integrated Resource Management Clusters—Ecoblocks
of the Cities of the Future / 120
II.4.4 Interconnectivity of Clusters—Spatial Integration / 123
II.5 Ecocity/Ecovillage Concepts / 124
References / 129
III PLANNING AND DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE AND
RESILIENT CITIES: THEORIES, STRATEGIES, AND BEST
PRACTICES FOR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
III.1 Introduction / 135
III.1.1 Achieving Sustainability / 135
III.1.2 Sustainability through Urban Planning and Design / 137
III.2 Ecosystem Services / 138
III.2.1 Concepts / 138
III.2.2 The Non-Equilibrium Paradigm / 141
III.3 Planning for Resilient and Sustainable Cities / 143
III.3.1 Ecosystem Service Goals and Assessments / 143
III.3.2 Resilience Strategies / 144
III.3.3 Scenario Planning / 155
III.3.4 Transdisciplinary Process / 157
III.3.5 Adaptive Planning / 157
III.4 Best Practices for Green Infrastructure / 158
III.4.1 SEA Street Seattle / 159
III.4.2 Westergasfabriek Park, Amsterdam / 162
III.4.3 Staten Island Blue Belt, New York / 162
135
CONTENTS
vii
III.4.4 Ecostaden (Ecocities): Augustenborg Neighborhood
and Western Harbor, Malmö, Sweden / 164
III.5 Discussion / 170
References / 171
IV
STORMWATER POLLUTION ABATEMENT AND FLOOD
CONTROL—STORMWATER AS A RESOURCE
177
IV.1 Urban Stormwater—A Problem or an Asset? / 177
IV.1.1 Problems with Urban Stormwater / 177
IV.1.2 Current Urban Drainage / 182
IV.1.3 Urban Stormwater Is an Asset and a Resource / 184
IV.1.4 Low Impact Development (LID) / 186
IV.2 Best Management Practices to Control Urban Runoff for Reuse / 189
IV.2.1 Soft Surface Approaches / 190
IV.2.2 Ponds and Wetlands / 201
IV.2.3 Winter Limitations on Stormwater Management
and Use / 212
IV.2.4 Hard Infrastructure / 216
IV.2.5 ID Urban Drainage—A Step to the Cities of the Future / 218
References / 222
V
WATER DEMAND AND CONSERVATION
228
V.1 Water Use / 228
V.1.1 Water on Earth / 228
V.1.2 Water Use Fundamentals / 232
V.1.3 Municipal Water Use in the U.S. and Worldwide / 235
V.1.4 Components of Municipal Water Use / 239
V.1.5 Virtual Water / 240
V.2 Water Conservation / 241
V.2.1 Definition of Water Conservation / 241
V.2.2 Residential Water Use / 241
V.2.3 Commercial and Public Water Use and Conservation / 249
V.2.4 Leaks and Other Losses / 251
V.3 Substitute and Supplemental Water Sources / 252
V.3.1 Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) / 252
V.3.2 Gray Water Reclamation and Reuse as a Source
of New Water / 256
V.3.3 Desalination of Seawater and Brackish Water / 260
V.3.4 Urban Stormwater and Other Freshwater Flows as
Sources of Water / 266
References / 268
viii
VI
CONTENTS
WATER RECLAMATION AND REUSE
272
VI.1 Introduction / 272
VI.2 Water Reclamation and Reuse / 274
VI.2.1 The Concept / 274
VI.2.2 Reclaiming Rainwater and Stormwater / 279
VI.2.3 Water-Sewage-Water Cycle—Unintended
Reuse / 280
VI.2.4 Centralized versus Decentralized Reclamation / 281
VI.2.5 Cluster Water Reclamation Units / 282
VI.3 Water Quality Goals and Limits for Selecting
Technologies / 286
VI.3.1 Concepts / 286
VI.3.2 Landscape and Agricultural Irrigation / 289
VI.3.3 Urban Uses Other Than Irrigation and Potable
Water Supply / 293
VI.3.4 Potable Reuse / 297
VI.3.5 Groundwater Recharge / 300
VI.3.6 Integrated Reclamation and Reuse—Singapore / 304
References / 308
VII
TREATMENT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY
UNIT PROCESSES
VII.1 Brief Description of Traditional Water and Resource
Reclamation Technologies / 311
VII.1.1 Basic Requirements / 311
VII.1.2 Considering Source Separation / 312
VII.1.3 Low-Energy Secondary Treatment / 315
VII.1.4 New Developments in Biological Treatment / 324
VII.2 Sludge Handling and Resource Recovery / 329
VII.2.1 Types of Solids Produced in the Water Reclamation
Process / 331
VII.2.2 A New Look at Residual Solids (Sludge) as a
Resource / 334
VII.3 Nutrient Recovery / 336
VII.4 Membrane Filtration and Reverse Osmosis / 339
VII.5 Disinfection / 340
VII.6 Energy and GHG Emission Issues in Water
Reclamation Plants / 346
VII.7 Evaluation and Selection of Decentralized Water Reclamation
Technologies / 348
VII.7.1 Closed Cycle Water Reclamation / 348
References / 354
311
CONTENTS
VIII
ENERGY AND URBAN WATER SYSTEMS—TOWARDS NET
ZERO CARBON FOOTPRINT
ix
358
VIII.1 Interconnection of Water and Energy / 358
VIII.1.1 Use of Water and Disposal of Used Water Require
Energy and Emit GHGs / 358
VIII.1.2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Urban Areas / 360
VIII.1.3 The Water-Energy Nexus on the Regional and
Cluster Scale / 362
VIII.1.4 Net Zero Carbon Footprint Goal for
High-Performance Buildings and Developments / 365
VIII.2 Energy Conservation in Buildings and Ecoblocks / 371
VIII.2.1 Energy Considerations Related to Water / 371
VIII.2.2 Heat Recovery from Used Water / 379
VIII.3 Energy from Renewable Sources / 380
VIII.3.1 Solar Energy / 380
VIII.3.2 Wind Power / 387
VIII.4 Energy from Used Water and Waste Organic Solids / 392
VIII.4.1 Fundamentals / 392
VIII.4.2 Biogas Production, Composition, and Energy
Content / 394
VIII.4.3 Small and Medium Biogas Production Operations / 397
VIII.4.4 Anaerobic Upflow Reactor / 398
VIII.5 Direct Electric Energy Production from Biogas
and Used Water / 399
VIII.5.1 Hydrogen Fuel Cells / 400
VIII.5.2 Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) / 403
VIII.5.3 Harnessing the Hydraulic Energy of Water/Used
Water Systems / 406
VIII.6 Summary and a Look into the Future / 408
VIII.6.1 A New Look at the Used Water Reclamation
Processes / 408
VIII.6.2 Integrated Resource Recovery Facilities / 411
VIII.7 Overall Energy Outlook—Anticipating the Future / 416
VIII.7.1 A Look into the Future 20 or More Years Ahead / 416
VIII.7.2 Is Storage a Problem? / 421
References / 422
IX
RESTORING URBAN STREAMS
IX.1 Introduction / 427
IX.1.1 Rediscovering Urban Streams / 427
IX.1.2 Definitions / 437
427
x
CONTENTS
IX.2 Adverse Impacts of Urbanization to Be Remedied / 438
IX.2.1 Types of Pollution / 438
IX.2.2 Determining Main Impact Stressors to Be Fixed by
Restoration / 443
IX.2.3 Effluent Dominated and Effluent Dependent Urban Water
Bodies / 447
IX.3 Water Body Restoration in the Context of Future Water Centric
(Eco)Cities / 453
IX.3.1 Goals / 453
IX.3.2 Regionalized versus Cluster-Based Distributed Systems / 455
IX.3.3 New Developments and Retrofitting Older Cities / 457
IX.4 Summary and Conclusions / 476
References / 479
X
PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE
FUTURE COMMUNITIES
X.1 Integrated Planning and Management / 482
X.1.1 Introduction / 482
X.1.2 Footprints / 484
X.2 Urban Planning / 487
X.2.1 Ecocity Parameters and Demographics—Population
Density Matters / 488
X.3 Integrated Resources Management (IRM) / 493
X.3.1 Sustainability / 493
X.4 Clusters and Ecoblocks—Distributed Systems / 497
X.4.1 The Need to Decentralize Urban Water/Stormwater/Used
Water Management / 497
X.4.2 Distribution of Resource Recovery, Reclamation and
Management Tasks / 499
X.4.3 Cluster Creation and Size / 503
X.4.4 Types of Water/Energy Reclamations and Creation of a
Sustainable Urban Area / 505
X.5 System Analysis and Modeling of Sustainable Cities / 514
X.5.1 Complexity of the System and Modeling / 514
X.5.2 Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Assessment / 518
X.6 Institutions / 525
X.6.1 Institutions for Integrated Resource Management / 526
X.6.2 Enhanced Private Sector / 532
X.6.3 Achieving Multibenefit System Objectives / 533
References / 535
482
CONTENTS
XI
ECOCITIES: EVALUATION AND SYNTHESIS
xi
539
XI.1 Introduction / 539
XI.2 Case Studies / 542
XI.2.1 Hammarby Sjöstad, Sweden / 542
XI.2.2 Dongtan, China / 549
XI.2.3 Qingdao (China) Ecoblock and Ecocity / 556
XI.2.4 Tianjin (China) / 560
XI.2.5 Masdar (UAE) / 566
XI.2.6 Treasure Island (California, U.S.) / 573
XI.2.7 Sonoma Mountain Village (California, U.S.) / 579
XI.2.8 Dockside Green / 585
XI.3 Brief Summary / 588
References / 590
APPENDIX
595
INDEX
597
PREFACE
There is a growing belief among engineers, planners, and scientists that the function
and purpose of our urban water infrastructure needs a radical redefinition. The conceptual models employed in most cities have not changed much since Roman times.
They comprise rapid-conveyance piped systems that keep land relatively dry most of
the time, provide a supply of potable water, and use water to carry away human and
industrial wastes for disposal. Managing water quality, both for potable and disposal
purposes, is generally accomplished by removing contaminants at the beginning or
end of the pipe. Periodic flooding is controlled with additional structural barriers
that rapidly drain urbanized areas towards downstream locations. Importantly, these
systems have always been integrated into the built environment of buildings and
streets—and largely taken for granted in terms of their functional role.
The calls for “Water centric sustainable communities,” “Cities of the Future,”
“Sustainable Future Communities” may sound today more like futuristic dreams
than a potential reality. But the future is always an extension of history and change
is forced, and guided, by new incremental discoveries and stresses. Now is the time
when serious stresses such as population increase and migration into cities and global
climatic changes have emerged as serious issues of global concern. Infrastructure in
old cities has deteriorated, and the U.S. is beginning to understand, and confront,
the consequences of suburban sprawl in terms of infrastructure requirements, energy
costs and pollution. The time has come to look for and implement new concepts for
urban planning and design.
Historically, cities started as walled villages or settlements on or near a water
source. Without water, life in the cities could not be sustained. Water also provides
for cleaning and hygiene, transportation, irrigation of crops and gardens, defense,
and transportation. In the “Cities of the Future” context, one has to look to, and
learn from, the past about the importance of water in cities. Past successes can
provide inspiration and continuity for the future and also can reveal what happens
when water management is abused and/or water is lost. The first integrated, modern
water/used water and stormwater management system can be dated to the second millennium B.C. in the Minoan civilization on the Mediterranean island of Crete. The
Minoan cities had stone paved roads and offered water and sewage disposal to the
upper-class. Water was brought to the cities from wells and clean mountain waters by
aqueducts, rainwater was collected and stored in underground cisterns, and water was
xii
PREFACE
xiii
distributed to the fountains and upper class villas by advanced water systems using clay pipes. There is archeological evidence of Minoan use of flushed bathrooms. Wastewater and storm water were collected in sanitary and storm sewers.
Many of these technologies were then adopted by Greek and Roman civilizations
(see Chapter I) who improved the systems. One could call this a semi-sustainable linear system with rain water reclamation and reuse. Water was stored in underground
cisterns and flowed by gravity to the users. The achievements in water collection,
transport, distribution, public health aspects (flushing toilets, public baths) of these
ancient civilizations were so advanced that they can only be compared to the water
management systems in the developed countries at the end of the nineteenth century.
Hence, the future builds on the past and, as will be shown throughout this book, many
“new” and proposed technologies of the future such as rainwater and stormwater recycling are technologies of the distant past that were forgotten.
The fast-conveyance drainage infrastructure conceived by Minoans and Romans
and reintroduced into the growing cities of Europe during the industrial revolution
and into the U.S. cities in the second half of the nineteen century has produced great
gains in protecting public health and safety—by “eliminating” unwanted, highlypolluted runoff and sewage. However, the acceptance of fast drainage conveyance
systems caused disruption of urban hydrology and polluted most surface waters.
Many urban surface waters such as lakes and wetlands were drained or filled for
urban uses. In the middle of the twentieth century, surface water quality in cities
became unbearable, magnified by introduction of industrial chemicals and fertilizers into the environment. The pollution and disappearance of urban water bodies
eliminated all possibilities of on-site reuse but uncontrolled reuse of untreated and
later partially treated wastewater continued in cities located downstream. Deteriorating water quality, diminishing flows and population increase led most cities to rely
on long transfers of water and regional linear wastewater disposal without reuse.
Even after passing groundbreaking water pollution control regulations in the developed countries such as the Clean Water Act in the U.S. and the Water Framework
Directive in the European Community countries at the end of the last millennium
and billions spent on costly “hard” solutions like sewers and treatment plants, water
supplies and water quality remain a major concern in most urbanized areas worldwide. A large portion of the pollution is caused by the predominant elements of the
built urban landscape: a preference for impervious over porous surfaces; fast “hard”
conveyance infrastructure rather than “softer” approaches like ponds and vegetation;
and rigid stream channelization instead of natural stream courses, buffers and floodplains. Because the hard conveyance and treatment infrastructure were designed to
provide protection for a five to ten year storm, these systems are often unable to
safely deal with the extreme events and sometimes fail with serious or catastrophic
consequences.
In the second half of the last century, the world witnessed a rapid emergence
and growth of megacities. According to the United Nations, in 1950 there were eight
cities in the world that had population of more than 5 million and the terms “megapolis” or “megalopolis” were added to the dictionary. In 2000 the number of megalopoli
increased to thirty three and soon (in 2015) we may count close to fifty megalopoli,
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PREFACE
most of them in the developing world. And this trend will continue. Many of the
large urban areas in developing countries lack adequate infrastructure for providing
clean potable water and safe disposal of waste. Water and food safety and shortages
are major problems which, if the current trends continue, will magnify in the future. China alone will build urban habitats for 300 million people in the next twenty
five to thirty years! The Twenty-first century will see the most extensive building
and rebuilding of urban settlements driven by population increase and in-migration
from rural areas to the cities. At the same time, in developed countries, the water
infrastructure, mostly underground, is crumbling, leaking, and being overloaded by
undesirable inflows of polluted and “clean” water. Cities are running out of landfill
space for solid waste and disposal sites for sludge from treatment plants. At the beginning of this century, in Naples (Italy) garbage and solid waste stayed on the streets
for months because no landfills were suitable for the disposal! People in large cities
in the developing world have to rely on bottled or boiled water because of insufficient
and contaminated water supply.
Awareness of the effects of the excessive atmospheric emissions of green house
gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitric oxides, and other gases) on global
climatic changes has became a major concern. The consequences of the expected
global climatic changes have been scientifically proven. The global community must
both reduce GHG emissions and adapt to the changes that cannot be avoided. The
expected global climatic changes include increased global warming that will cause
more extreme weather, terrestrial glacier and polar ice melting, and melting of permafrost in arctic (tundra) forests. Melting of terrestrial glaciers will increase sea
levels and impact coastal communities. Providing water, electric energy, and fuel
for transportation and heating has a major impact on global climatic change. The
water-energy nexus and its impact on water availability and global climatic change
is considered as a major footprint of urbanization along with water and food security, hydrological and ecological effects, nutrient (phosphate) management and future
availability for growing crops safely and without severe impacts on water quality.
Excessive nutrient losses into receiving waters cause eutrophication and hypertrophy exemplified by massive algal bloom rendering surface water supplies unusable.
The microorganisms forming the massive algal blooms prefer warmer temperatures;
hence, the emergence of algal blooms may increase with global warming.
Today, the demands of rapid urbanization and depleted or degraded resources
drive us to look for totally new systems where used water is recycled, rainwater
is harvested, peak stormwater flows slowed down, and discharges of pollutants to
remote receiving waters from both pipes and land use are significantly reduced or
eliminated entirely. These objectives alter the fundamental functions of the system.
This system is intertwined with built environment, transporation, urban landscape,
ecology, and living.
Broadly stated, the natural and built environment within urban watersheds is being
reconfigured to restore hydrological and ecological functions, provide for the water
needs of the community, and maintain the health of people and habitat—with less
reliance on energy-intensive, ecologically damaging imported supplies or exported
surpluses and waste products that use water for carriage. These system-level changes,
PREFACE
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which entail significantly greater levels of integration, are emerging in various forms
throughout the world.
This book documents the wide spectrum of technological advances that will contribute to that new paradigm. It calls for the integration of technological advances
with a radically reformed vision of what constitutes a healthy urban environment. It
is premised on the notion that a city’s relationship with the natural world is more
complex than simply importing needed resources and disposing of its waste, while
accomplishing the multiple transformations, both economic and social, that constitute a city’s primary functions.
The concepts of the new paradigm of sustainable water centric ecocities have been
emerging for the last fifteen years in environmental research and landscape design
laboratories in several countries of Europe (Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom,
Netherlands), Asia (Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan and Korea),
Australia, USA (Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco) and Canada
(British Columbia, Great Lakes). This paradigm is based on the premise that urban
waters are both the lifeline of cities and the focus of the sustainable cities movement. The evolution of the new paradigm of urbanization ranges from the microscale
“green” buildings, subdivisions or “ecoblock” to macroscale ecocities and ecologically reengineered urban watersheds, incorporating transportation, food production
and consumption and neighborhood urban living. Defining an urban ecoregion concept, focusing on the entire sustainable water cycle, starting with the water supply
sources and ending with the wastewater and solid waste recycle and reuse, is becoming a necessity since a city and its water and waste management cannot be separated
from its potable water sources and cannot have an unsustainable adverse impact on
downstream users, and cities.
Under the new paradigm, used water and discarded solids become a resource that
can provide energy in a form of electricity, biogas, hydrogen, fertilizer, raw materials for reuse, and heat. Under this new paradigm, the terms “wastewater” or “waste”
become misnomers and are replaced with “used water,” “reclaimed water,” and
“resource recovery.” This change can be accomplished by a hybrid (partially decentralized) or even fully decentralized water/storm water/used water system leading to
on-site water reclamation and reuse, energy and nutrient recovery and other benefits. The future of sustainable urbanization, arguably, is to switch from heavy energy
use and large GHG emissions to “carbon neutrality” or “net zero” carbon effects.
The integrated systems do not just include water and used water, integration also
includes urban and suburban transportation, heating and cooling, ecology, protection and rediscovery of urban surface and ground water systems, leisure, culture and
recreation of citizens. The core concepts of integration of urban water, resources,
and energy management are: (a) there are no wastes—only resources, and (b) optimization of resource value requires an integration of water and energy in addition
to ecological and social resilience. This change will lead to revitalization of older
cities and retrofitting them with sustainable energy, frugal water infrastructure and
developing ecologically-healthy water systems. Integrated designs should be based
upon maximizing economic, ecological and social equity value and also restoring
and protecting ecosystem function damaged by past economic development. Public
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PREFACE
health benefits would also be considerable. Changing the city environment by laying
sidewalks connecting residential areas to schools and shopping, building recreational
paths along clean streams and impoundments, making surface water suitable for canoeing, kayaking and swimming, and providing plots for community gardens could
change urban life styles to more healthy living. When sidewalks are built and roads
are made narrower, people start walking. In one community in Minnesota which
implemented such changes people increased their life expectancy by several years
(Newsweek, February 15, 2010).
At one level this book attempts to pull together and document all of the component parts and approaches that can contribute to the new paradigm. Ultimately, to
be successful however, the authors believe readers must be moved to see the new
potential and possibilities that fundamentally different design objectives offer. It is
intended for professionals and practitioners in all of the institutions and communities
that influence the slow transformation of urban form and function.
Because engineers, scientists, and planners are always constrained by the expectations and requirements imposed by legal, economic, and social institutions, it is
important that any new model of urban water management be widely understood and
embraced by the citizens, elected officials, local authorities, regulators, developers,
businesses, and many others who influence the urban process in every community.
When those of us who have a hand on the controls of urban development agree upon
and work towards the achievement of new fundamental objectives, it will allow the
next generation of practitioners to apply the creative energy, innovation, and integrated solutions needed for a sustainable future. We hope this book contributes to a
better understanding of tomorrow’s design objectives, as well as providing insights
into the emerging tools available to accomplish them.
These topics are both complex and difficult. They take us out of our professional
comfort zone and sit us down with new faces from new communities. But as Thomas
Kuhn wrote in his groundbreaking book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (The
University of Chicago Press, 1996), the change will not be easy. He defined the
concept of “paradigm shifts” as
Because it demands large-scale paradigm destruction . . . the emergence of new theories
is generally preceded by a period of pronounced professional insecurity . . . Failure of
existing rules is the prelude to a search for new ones. (Kuhn 1996, pp. 67–68)
Our mission is to promote and foster that search for new approaches and new
rules. If this book contributes to the understanding of what exists, what is being
explored, and what can be achieved in the future, the authors will have achieved
their objectives.
This book is interdisciplinary, covering the water:energy nexus with its effects
on urban development, water supply, drainage, ecology, GHG emissions and system
integration. It presents an analysis of the comprehensive problem of unsustainable
past urbanization practices and offers hopeful solutions for the sustainable cities of
the future. It covers the history of water/stormwater/used water paradigms and driving forces for change (Chapter I) followed by the development of the new (fifth)
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sustainable ecocity paradigm in Chapter II. Chapters III and IV deal with the old/new
urban drainage and best management practices in the context of urban planning and
design. The “old/new” term refers to the fact that some drainage concepts call for
change from the underground piping infrastructure and impervious urban surfaces,
to systems resembling the historic surface drainage and previous hydrology. They are
based on switching from fast conveyance drainage employing underground sewers
and surface concrete lined channels to storage and infiltration-oriented naturallylooking drainage systems. Chapters V and VI present water conservation, reclamation and reuse systems. In the U.S., the key is to significantly reduce wasting
water which in large portions of the country leads to water shortages, and implementing costly and environmentally unsustainable water transfers or high cost desalination. The switch from traditional energy demanding used water and management of residual solids to energy producing and less water demanding new concepts are described in Chapters VII and VIII. Chapter VIII covers energy saving
technologies and producing alternate/renewable energy that complement integrated
water/resources management. It also presents a proposal for integrated resource recovery facilities converting used water and solids into reclaimed water, biogas, hydrogen, heat and electric energy and recovers nutrients and residual organic solids
that can be reused. Stream restoration and daylighting are highlighted in Chapter IX.
Clean urban streams and lakes, even small ones, are a dominant part of the urban
landscape to which people seem to gravitate, to live on or near, and to use for recreation and enjoyment. They are the backbone of the integrated urban water systems,
recipients of clean and highly treated water flows and sources of water for reuse. In
the future, clean urban streams could even become a source of energy. Chapter X
integrates all the pieces and defines the ecocity, i.e., a water centric sustainable carbon neutral community that balances social, and economical aspects, and at the same
time restores or recreates healthy terrestrial and aquatic urban ecology. The ecocity
is a place where it is good to live, work and walk around, and to enjoy culture and
recreation. Chapter XI presents the goals, unifying concepts and parameters of several built or planned ecocity developments in Sweden, China, United Arab Emirates,
and the U.S.
Acknowledgments
This book was conceived as a follow-up of the proceedings of the Wingspread
Workshop on the Cities of the Future held in 2006 at “Wingspread” the Frank L.
Wright-designed conference center operated by The Johnson Foundation (Cities of
the Future, Novotny and Brown, IWA publishing, 2007). This was one of the first
instances where the notion of Cities of the Future was discussed extensively by a
group of international experts. The discussion continued and COF has now become
the major international initiative sponsored by UNESCO and several international
professional organizations and associations. At the beginning of this century, several ecocity projects were conceived and some are now being realized. The idea of
producing a textbook that could be used in classrooms and as a manual for landscape architects, urban planners, ecologists, civil and environmental engineers and
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PREFACE
graduate students in these specializations became a logical outcome of this fast
spreading worldwide initiative.
A grant provided by CDM (Cambridge, Massachusetts) to the primary author
which enabled the bulk of writing and collecting the materials for the book is acknowledged and appreciated. CDM also provided materials and photos of their
project sites in the U.S. and Singapore. The authors are also in debt to many contributors to the book who provided materials for the book and permission to use
and quote their figures, photos and writing. Dr. Glen Daigger, Senior Vice-president
and Chief technology officer of CH2M-Hill Corporation (Denver, Colorado) provided comments, text and graphic materials for the book. Extensive writing and
graphic materials were also provided by Patrick Lucey and Cori Baraclough of the
Aqua-Tex Scientific Consulting in Victoria (British Columbia) and Herbert Dreiseitl,
Principal of Atelier Dreiseitl in Uberlingen (Germany). Numerous other companies
and agencies such as Siemens, Arup, Public Utility Board (Singapore), Masdar Development Co. (UAE), Sonoma Mountain Village, City of San Francisco, Sunwize
Technologies, GlashusEtt and City of Stockholm (Sweden), Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District and UNESCO’s SWITCH project provided graphic art and information on their ideas, projects and products.
The authors also greatly appreciate the international cooperation with many colleagues interested and involved in COF research and implementation who are now
working together in the International COF Steering Committee established and
appointed by the leadership of the International Water Association (Paul Reiter,
Executive Director and Dr. Glen Daigger, IWA President). The committee leaders
are Paul Brown (CDM) and Professor Kala Vairavamoorthy (University of Birmingham, UK) who also directs the UNESCO sponsored SWITCH project on the Cities
of the Future.