“The water crisis is a crisis in governance.
We will promote better water governance arrangements and transparency, building on stronger partnerships between governments, civil society and the private sector.”
Former Commission President Romano Prodi at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable
Development

“The world is walking towards a crisis that it barely recognises.
In scale and significance, it dwarfs all the others it is intricately connected with. This issue is water. As unbelievable as it sounds, we are running out of it and the window we have to solve this issue is narrow and rapidly closing. We will fail to feed the world until we fix the water crisis”
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe,
Chairman of the Board at Nestlé S.A.

2030 Water Resources Group (2009) Charting our water future.
Economic framework to inform decision-making. West Perth, USA.
http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/Water/Charting_Our
_Water_Future_Full_Report_001.pdf.

Cities are concentrated centers of production, consumption, and waste disposal that drive land change and a host of global environmental problems and are highly dependent on other cities and hinterlands to supply materials (including water), energy, and to dispose waste.
Grimm et al., 2008. Science 319 (5864), 756-760.
Bai, 2007. Journal of Industrial Ecology 11, 1-6.
Engel et al., 2011. World Wildlife Fund, Germany.

URBANISATION
Urban areas of the world are expected to absorb all the population growth expected over the next four decades.
By 2050, urban dwellers will likely account for 86 % of the population in the more developed regions and for 64
% of that in the less developed regions
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change may worsen water services and quality of life in cities.
WATER USE AND WATER SCARCITY
Water withdrawals have tripled over the last 50 years. In 2030, there will be a 40% supply shortage of water.
SANITATION
Currently, 2.5 billion people are without improved sanitation facilities.
HUMAN HEALTH
Currently, 3.4 million people - mostly children – die from water-borne diseases every year.
HAZARDS
Water-related hazards account for
90% of all natural hazards.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (2013)
Recently, the World Economic Forum identified the water supply crisis as one of the top five global risks for both the impact and likelihood. This is caused by the decline in the quality and quantity of fresh water combined with increased competition among resource-intensive systems, such as food and energy production (World Economic Forum
2013).

MAKE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURES MORE SUSTAINABLE TO
HELP DRIVE A GREEN ECONOMY
An estimated US$ 41 trillion is required to refurbish the old and build new urban infrastructures over the period 2005–
2030:
• $22.6 trillion for water systems
• $9 trillion for energy
• $7.8 trillion for road and rail infrastructure
• $1.6 trillion for air- and sea-ports
1 trillion means 1 thousand billions (1012)
(Source: UNEP City-level decoupling, 2013)

GOVERNANCE: PEOPLE MATTER
Governance has emerged as a concept in political science, sustainability science and other fields as a response to the growing awareness that governments are no longer the
only relevant actors when it comes to the management of societal issues (Lange et al.,
2013)
As stated in the report of the European Green City Index (2009) about three-quarters of the existing technological changes that would help London to meet its long-term carbon reduction targets depended on the decisions of citizens or companies, not of governments.
Public participation, i.e. the engagement of individuals with societies around them — or the strength of civil society in a city — has a strong link to environmental
performance (see next slide).

SOURCE: EUROPEAN GREEN CITY INDEX 2009

EARLY INVOLVEMENT OF STAKEHOLDERS
SOURCE: ICLEI/SWITCH

WHY CITIES? THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY
1. Cities are the major problem holders
2. Active civil societies incl. the private sector with visionary local government can cope with water challenges
3. It requires a bottom-up approach and collaboration among cities and regions by sharing best practices (communication on implementation)

TOWARDS TRANSITIONS OF CITIES
URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT TRANSITIONS FRAMEWORK (SOURCE: BROWN ET AL. 2009)

PLANNING CYCLE ACCORDING TO SWITCH
(MANAGING WATER IN THE CITY OF THE FUTURE)
ICLEI/SWITCH

PROPOSED EIP WATER ACTION: FACILITATE STRATEGIC
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
1. Baseline assessment (City Blueprint)
2. Inventory of best practices of cities
3. Blue City Website for sharing best practices and state-of-the art technologies applied in cities
4. Blue City Award (annual ceremony hosted by the European
Commission)
5. Blue Friend labels for industries and their products contributing to cost-effective improvements in UWCS

ENERGY NEUTRAL WASTE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY IN THE CITY OF
HAMBURG (GERMANY)

Dar es Salaam (4.01)

Bucharest (5.18)

Reggio Emilia (6.60)

Hamburg (7.72)

RESULTS FOR 11 CITIES/REGIONS
There is a positive relation between the Blue City Index
(BCI) and the:
• Voluntary Participation Index (r = 0.727)
• UWCS ambitions and measures (r = 0.904)
• GDP according to IMF (r = 0.927)
• Government effectiveness – World Bank (r = 0.927)
• Number of Happy Life Years - Erasmus Univ. (r = 0.950)
Where, r is the Pearson correlation coefficient

15 CITIES HAVE PARTICIPATED SO FAR (1ST OF JULY, 2013)
Algarve (ALG; Portugal)
Amsterdam (AMS; the Netherlands)
Athens (ATH; Greece)
Bucharest (BUC; Romania)
Dar es Salaam (DAR;Tanzania)
Hamburg (HAM; Germany)
Kilamba Kiaxi (KIL; Angola)
Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
Oslo (OSL; Norway)
Rotterdam (ROT; theNetherlands)
Reggio Emilia (REG; Italy)
Cities of Scotland (SCO;United Kingdom)
Venlo (NL)
Maastricht (NL)
Melbourne (Australia)

IMPLEMENTATION MATTERS: THE RESULT OF COMBINING
BEST PRACTICES IN 11 CITIES – BLUE CITIES

CONCLUSIONS
1. Megatrends (e.g. population growth, pollution, climate change) pose urgent water challenges in cities.
2. The City Blueprint is a quick scan to benchmark UWCS.
3. City Blueprints can be used to communicate a city’s UWCS and select:
• appropriate supply and sanitation strategies.
• (non) technological options as future alternatives.
• measures for short-term and long-term investments.
4. The BCI correlates positively with the VPI, GDP, UWCS ambitions in cities, Government Effectiveness and Happy Life Years.
5. Cities are problem holders; they can learn from each other and become part of the UWCS solutions.
6. Blue friend labels for industries and their technologies and products that contribute to the improvement of UWCS.
7. Need for an EIP Action on Cities

NEXT STEPS
1. EIP-Water action on governance (City Blueprints)
2. Extension of work on European Cities (assessment of least another 10 cities in 2013)
3. Sharing best practices among cities
4. Workshop with EIP stakeholders (November)
5. Setting up a Blue City Website

CITY BLUEPRINTS
Improving Implementation Capacities of Cities and Regions by sharing best practices on
Urban Water Cycle Services
EIP WATER ACTION GROUP PARTNERS
NETWERC H2O (EU) – KWR WATER CYCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (THE NETHERLANDS) –
FUNDACIÓ CTM CENTRE TECNOLÒGIC (SPAIN) - ADVENTECH (PORTUGAL) – COPERNICUS
INSTITUTE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT) – SIEMENS (THE
NETHERLANDS) – ERRIN (EU) – RED ARAGON 7 PM (SPAIN) – ZINNAE (SPAIN) – AMGA (ITALY)
– PARAGON EUROPE (MALTA) – USBMA (MOROCCO) – REGIONE PUGLIA (ITALY) –
ACQUEDOTTO PUGLIESE (ITALY) – AUTORITA’ IDRICA PUGLIESE (ITALY) – DE MONTFORT
UNIVERSITY (UNITED KINGDOM) –WITTEVEEN EN BOS (THE NETHERLANDS) – DELTARES (THE
NETHERLANDS) – ENEA (ITALY) – REDINN (ITALY) - LEITAT (SPAIN) – DEMOWARE CONSORTIUM
(EU) – WORLD BANK (THE USA) – REGIONE TOSCANA (ITALY) – MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND
WATER (STATE OF ISRAEL) – EASTON WATER CONSULTING (BELGIUM)
PLEASE PARTICIPATE AND CONTACT US

CITY BLUEPRINTS
Improving Implementation Capacities of Cities and Regions by sharing best practices on Urban Water Cycle Services
POLITICAL COORDINATOR TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Richard Elelman
Head of Public Administrations at Fundació CTM
Centre Tecnològic and Administrative Director of
NETWERC H2O
Av. Bases de Manresa, 1. 08242 Manresa,
Spain
T +34 93 877 7373
F +34 93 877 73 74
M +34 608 54 55 28
E richard.elelman@ctm.com.es
W www.ctm.com.es
/ www.netwerch2o.eu
Skype: richardelelman
Cornelis Johannes (Kees) van Leeuwen
Chair Water Management and Urban Development
Principal Scientist at KWR Watercycle Research
Institute
P.O. Box 1072, 3430 BB Nieuwegein
The Netherlands
T +31 30 6069617
F +31 30 6061165
M +31 652041795
E kees.van.leeuwen@kwrwater.nl
W www.kwrwater.nl
Skype: leeuwke47

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Most of the work has been carried out within the EU Research Project TRUST
(Transitions to the Urban Water Services of Tomorrow). We would like to thank all collaborative teams involved the assessment of cities by completing the questionnaire for the baseline assessment and their feedback on earlier versions of this document: Helena Lucas, José Gascão, Joaquim Freire, Maria João
Freitas, António Jorge Monteiro, Christos Makropoulos, Vittorio Di Federico,
Thomas Giese, Kim Augustin, Niles-Peter Bertram,Ingrid Heemskerk, Paulien
Hartog, Brian Sewbaks, Jadranka Milina, Rita Ugarelli, Paul Jeffrey, Heather
Smith, George Ponton, Colin O’Neill,Gabriela Mercore, Daniel Goedbloed,
António Jorge Monteiro and Philipo Chandy. I would also like to thank Marielle van de Zouwen, Jos Frijns, Theo van de Hoven, Peter Dane, Merijn Schriks,
Nicoline Scholman, Rui Cunha Marques, Sveinung Sagrov, and the project leader of TRUST, i.e. David Schwesig for their major contributions to the work described in this manuscript. The European Commission is acknowledged for funding TRUST in the 7th Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No.
265122.

REFERENCES
• Brown, R.R., Keath, N., Wong, T.H.F. ,2009. Urban water management in cities: historical, current and future regimes. Water Sci. Technol. 59,847–855.
• European Green City Index 2009., Assessing the environmental impact of Europe’s major cities. A research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Siemens München, Germany.
• Fleming, N., 2008. Understanding ‘what’s really going on’ as a basis for transforming thinking, action and our cities. Paper presented at Enviro 08 Australasia’s Environmental & Sustainability
Conference & Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia.
• Lange et al., 2013. Governing towards sustainability—Conceptualizing modes of Governance. J.
Environmental Policy & Planning 15.3:403-425.
• TRUST: http://www.trust-i.net/ and http://www.trust-i.net/downloads/index.php?iddesc=68
• SWITCH: http://www.switchurbanwater.eu/
• Van Leeuwen, C.J., Frijns, J., van Wezel, A., van de Ven, F.H.M. 2012. Water Resources
Management 26:2177-2197.
• Van Leeuwen, C.J., Chandy, P.C. 2013. The city blueprint: experiences with the implementation of
24 indicators to assess the sustainability of the urban water cycle Water Sci. Technol.: Water
Supply 13.3: 769-781.
PHOTOGRAPHS: Philip, R. et al., Module 1 - Strategic Planning & Anton, B. et al., Module 2 -
Stakeholders, SWITCH Training Kit: IUWM in the City of the Future, published by ICLEI
European Secretariat (2011) - www. switchtraining.eu.