Stuart White

Vinita Chanan, Institute for Sustainable Futures, [email protected] White, Institute for Sustainable Futures, [email protected] Howe, Sydney Water Corporation, Carol.Howe@sydneywater. om.auMeenakshi Jha, Institute for Sustainable Futures, [email protected] SUMMARY

The non-potable reuse of treated sewage in urban areas provides significant conservation of potable supplies beyond that available through water use efficiency. Effluent reuse is also an inevitable requirement in novel decentralised wastewater systems. At present, urban water reuse, where pursued, usually involves large-scale schemes based on new or existing centralised sewage treatment plants. This is despite the diseconomy of scale inherent in pipe networks that balances economies of scale in sewage treatment and negates any cost advantage for wastewater systems with more than around 1,000 connections. In light of this, the theoretical relationship between effluent reuse system scale and pathogen risks was examined at various effluent qualities. Waterborne disease was seen to be a significant factor when reusing effluent in urban areas and smaller systems were found to pose a lower risk of waterborne infection, all other things being equal. Pathogen risks were then included within...

The impact of global phosphorus scarcity on food security has increasingly been the focus of scientific studies over the past decade. However, systematic analyses of alternative futures for phosphorus supply and demand throughout the food system are still rare and provide limited inclusion of key stakeholders. Addressing global phosphorus scarcity requires an integrated approach exploring potential demand reduction as well as recycling opportunities. This implies recovering phosphorus from multiple sources, such as food waste, manure, and excreta, as well as exploring novel opportunities to reduce the long-term demand for phosphorus in food production such as changing diets. Presently, there is a lack of stakeholder and scientific consensus around priority measures. To therefore enable exploration of multiple pathways and facilitate a stakeholder dialog on the technical, behavioral, and institutional changes required to meet long-term future phosphorus demand, this paper introduces ...

Potable water demand in the Canberra area is expected to rise from the current 63,000 ML/a to 84,000 ML/a over the next 50 years as the population in Canberra and the adjacent Queanbeyan grow. This population rise together with other issues associated with drought security, climate change and catchment regeneration after the 2002/03 bush fires are indicating that another supply source may be required before 2020. However, as part of the World Environment Day Assembly Motion, the ACT Government passed a motion, which agreed that: ‘as far as possible the building of further water supply dams in the ACT should be avoided’. To assist in achieving this goal, demand management and other targets (based on the base year of 2003) have been set by the ACT Government as indicated below: • by 2013 reduce per capita potable demand by 12%; • by 2023 reduce per capita potable demand by 25%; • by 2013 increase effluent reuse from 5% to 20%; and • limit stormwater flow in new developed areas to the ...

ABSTRACT Even though millions of dollars have been spent on demand management (DM) over the last decade across Australia, there is still very little evaluation of implemented DM/water efficiency programs. This paper brings together some of the limited examples of evaluation studies undertaken, providing details of both the statistical analysis method used and the findings of such studies undertaken by the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) on behalf of water utilities. The studies include measurement of water savings in the residential and non-residential sectors and economic assessment of implemented programs. The paper highlights the importance of evaluation and need for embedding evaluation into the water planning process. It also highlights additional research currently being undertaken in this field associated with pressure reduction and energy usage when implementing DM programs. This paper will be of interest to a broad spectrum of practitioners beginning or currently involved in the development of DM programs or implementing and evaluating existing DM programs.

© Oxford University Press 2013. All rights reserved. This chapter identifies a vision for a sustainable future for phosphorous use. It describes a range of measures or actions that would move us toward that vision. It discusses several obstacles to the implementation of these measures, and enumerates a range of policy tools that would help to overcome those barriers. It presents a "way forward" for such as: identifying key stakeholders who should participate, implementing collaborative visioning of sustainable future states, and utilizing backcasting scenarios to determine transitions and interventions necessary to define the current state to envisioned sustainable future states

In Australia, household rainwater tanks have come to be considered as one of the broad potential supply options for meeting household water demands. It has been viewed as an effective way of reducing the supply requirements by water businesses and can potentially defer future capital supply investments. With likely variability of future supplies and demands due to climate change impacts, rainwater tanks also have an important role in building future resilience to shifts in historical trends, and also can potentially play a role in mitigating stormwater damage. The substitution of mains supplied water by rainwater can vary significantly, with the major factors influencing yields being the roof size to capture the rain, water usage regime (having some level of internal water use) and tank size. Tank performance, with respect to reduced substitution as a result of functionality failure, is seldom included in yield calculations however. A review of a number of studies in Australia has i...

ABSTRACT In response to one of the most severe and extensive droughts in recent history, water restrictions h ave been imposed across an unprecedented number of urban areas across Australia. Both in terms of drought responses and longer-term planning, in some situations the decision space has been portrayed as a polarised "restrictions vs infrastructure" trade-off, with restrictions of any nature widely portrayed as inherently limiting personal freedom and rights. Yet th is apparently libertarian rhetoric not been matched by the reality of decision-making during th is drought. Drawing on extensive work conducted across Austra li a by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, th is paper critica lly examines the influence of the following issues on decisions and the direct, indirect and externality costs of water supply: • Community engagement strategies • Publicly ava ilable and transparently communicated information • Reliance and emphasis on quantita tive dollar estimates of impacts and risks Th is paper also discusses practical applications of an emerging deliberative framework for involving the community in decision-making processes wh ich h ave profound implications for sustainable urban water futures.