Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/hessd-12-11291-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/hessd-12-11291-2015
03 Nov 2015
 | 03 Nov 2015
Status: this preprint was under review for the journal HESS but the revision was not accepted.

Urban water sustainability: an integrative framework for regional water management

P. Gonzales and N. K. Ajami

Abstract. Traditional urban water supply portfolios have proven to be unsustainable under the uncertainties associated with growth and long-term climate variability. Introducing alternative water supplies such as recycled water, captured runoff, desalination, as well as demand management strategies such as conservation and efficiency measures, has been widely proposed to address the long-term sustainability of urban water resources. Collaborative efforts have the potential to achieve this goal through more efficient use of common pool resources and access to funding opportunities for supply diversification projects. However, this requires a paradigm shift towards holistic solutions that address the complexity of hydrologic, socio-economic and governance dynamics surrounding water management issues. The objective of this work is to develop a regional integrative framework for the assessment of water resource sustainability under current management practices, as well as to identify opportunities for sustainability improvement in coupled socio-hydrologic systems. We define the sustainability of a water utility as the ability to access reliable supplies to consistently satisfy current needs, make responsible use of supplies, and have the capacity to adapt to future scenarios. To compute a quantitative measure of sustainability, we develop a numerical index comprised of supply, demand, and adaptive capacity indicators, including an innovative way to account for the importance of having diverse supply sources. We demonstrate the application of this framework to the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Our analyses demonstrate that water agencies that share common water supplies are in a good position to establish integrative regional management partnerships in order to achieve individual and collective short-term and long-term benefits.

P. Gonzales and N. K. Ajami
 
Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
 
Status: closed
Status: closed
AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
Printer-friendly Version - Printer-friendly version Supplement - Supplement
P. Gonzales and N. K. Ajami
P. Gonzales and N. K. Ajami

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Short summary
This paper introduces a regional integrative framework that enables water managers to systematically identify opportunities for water reliability enhancement, taking advantage of local characteristics to design regional water supply solutions. We compute a numerical sustainability index, including an innovative way to measure the realiability benefits of having diverse supply sources. The framework is applied to the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.