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Water Infrastructure (water + infrastructure)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Quantifying uncertainty using robustness analysis in the application of ORESTE to sewer rehabilitation projects prioritization,Brussels case study

JOURNAL OF MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS, Issue 3-4 2009
Eliseo Ana Jr
Abstract Sewer systems are considered extremely important components of the urban water infrastructure due to their function and capital-intensive nature. These systems, however, have been undergoing aging and deterioration, thus needing repair or rehabilitation. Historically, the budgets for sewer rehabilitation are often scarce and too limited to address the requirements, requiring utility managers to prioritize the competing projects. In this paper, the application of ORESTE to the prioritization of sewer rehabilitation projects for the Brussels, Belgium network was demonstrated. The 43 proposed projects were ranked based on a set of 16 criteria. In addition, a methodology was introduced to investigate the robustness of the ORESTE solution. The inclusion of the robustness analysis into the technique allowed for the quantification of the uncertainties associated with the priority rankings. This type of information is very important in developing confidence among decision makers as to their decision on the priority ranking of sewer rehabilitation projects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Past and future sustainability of water policies in Europe

NATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 3 2003
Bernard Barraqué
The article contributes to a discussion on two global issues on water: water resources management, and water supply and sanitation. Focusing on Europe, it traces the legal roots of current systems in history: as a resource, water is considered as a common property, rather than a market good; while as a public service it is usually a commodity. Public water supply and sanitation technologies and engineering have developed under three main paradigms: quantitative and civil engineering; qualitative and chemical/sanitary engineering (both on the supply side); and the most recent one, environmental engineering and integrated management (on the demand side). The cost of public drinking water is due to rise sharply in view of the two-fold financial challenge of replacing an ageing infrastructure and keeping up with ever-rising environmental and sanitary quality standards. Who will pay? Government subsidies, or water users? The author suggests that apparent successes with privatisation may have relied heavily on hidden government subsidies and/or the healthy state of previously installed water infrastructure: past government subsidies are still felt for as long as the lifetime of the infrastructure. The article stresses the importance of public participation and decentralized local management of water and sanitation services. Informing and involving users in water management decisions is seen as an integral part of the ,ethics' side of the crucial three E's (economics, environment, ethics). The article strongly argues for municipal provision of water services, and hopes that lessons learnt and solutions found in the European experience may serve water services management efforts in other regions of the world. [source]

Urban,agricultural water appropriation: the Hyderabad, India case

THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010
MATTIA CELIO
With the urbanisation drive comes steady growth in urban water demand. Although in the past this new demand could often be met by tapping unclaimed water sources, this option is increasingly untenable in many regions where little if any unclaimed water remains. The result is that urban water capture, and the appropriation of associated physical and institutional infrastructure, now often implies conflict with other existing uses and users. While the urbanisation process has been studied in great depth, the processes and, critically, impacts of urban water capture and appropriation are not well researched or understood. This paper undertakes a critical examination of the specific case of Hyderabad, one of India's fastest growing cities, to shed light more generally on the process of water capture by cities and the resultant impacts on pre-existing claims, particularly agriculture. It does this by examining the history and institutional response to Hyderabad's urban,rural water contest; how the results of that contest are reflected in surface and groundwater hydrology; and the eventual impacts on agriculture. The findings show that the magnitude, and sometimes even direction, of impact from urban water transfer vary in space and time and depend on location-specific rainfall patterns, the nature of existing water infrastructure and institutions, and farmers' adaptive capacities and options, notably recourse to groundwater. Broader consideration of the specific findings provides insights into policy mechanisms to reduce the possible negative impacts from the global, and seemingly inexorable, flow of water to the world's growing cities. [source]

Running the Risks: The Rationalisation of Australia's Water

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2000
Christopher Sheil
This article analyses the categories comprising the relationship between productivity and rate-of-return reporting in the context of water infrastructure. It examines the categories and relations comprising rates of return, showing how each can fail to capture real productivity gains. Theoretically, high returns may be obtained despite low real productivity and vice versa. This has implications for ,corporatisation', since the restructuring of Australia's water systems has entrenched rate-of-return reporting as the pre-eminent measure of performance. The problem is, if water's rate-of-return is continually increased without ensuring commensurate real productivity improvements, eventually Australia's water systems must break down. The issue is acute as neither the theory of corporatisation nor the logic of ,economic rationalism' supplies a means for ensuring profitability does not outrun productivity. I conclude the rationalisation of Australia's water has exposed citizens to new, fundamental and otherwise unprotected social, environmental and economic risks. [source]