Confronting limitations: New solutions required for urban water management in Kunming City

Despite continuous investment and various efforts to control pollution, urban water environments are worsening in large parts of the developing world. In order to reveal potential constraints and limitations of current practices of urban water management and to stimulate proactive intervention, we c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental management 2007-07, Vol.84 (1), p.49-61
Main Authors: Huang, Dong-Bin, Bader, Hans-Peter, Scheidegger, Ruth, Schertenleib, Roland, Gujer, Willi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Applied ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Cities
Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife
Drainage
Environment
Environmental management
Eutrophication
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Investment
Material flow analysis
Pollution
Scenario planning
Sustainability
Switzerland
Urban areas
Urban Population
Urban water management
Waste Disposal, Fluid - methods
Waste Disposal, Fluid - standards
Waste Management - methods
Water conservation
Water management
Water Movements
Water Pollution - analysis
Water Pollution - prevention & control
Water Purification - methods
Water Purification - standards
Water Supply
Water treatment
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Summary:Despite continuous investment and various efforts to control pollution, urban water environments are worsening in large parts of the developing world. In order to reveal potential constraints and limitations of current practices of urban water management and to stimulate proactive intervention, we conducted a material flow analysis of the urban water system in Kunming City. The results demonstrate that the current efficiency of wastewater treatment is only around 25% and the emission of total phosphorous from the city into its receiving water, Dianchi Lake, is more than 25 times higher than its estimated tolerance. With regard to the crisis of water quantity and quality, the goal of a sustainable urban water environment cannot be attained with the current problem-solving approach in the region due to the technical limitations of the conventional urban drainage and treatment systems. A set of strategies is therefore proposed. The urban drainage system in Zurich is used as a reference for a potential best-available technology for conventional urban water management (BAT) scenario in terms of its low combined frequency of sewer overflow.
ISSN:0301-4797
1095-8630
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2006.05.004