Puchol-Salort, P;
Boskovic, S;
Dobson, B;
van Reeuwijk, M;
Mijic, A;
(2022)
Water neutrality framework for systemic design of new urban developments.
Water Research
, 219
, Article 118583. 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118583.
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Puchol-Salort et al (2022) CityPlan-Water_Water Neutrality Framework_WR_1-s2.0-S004313542200536X.pdf - Published Version Download (17MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The climate emergency and population growth threaten urban water security in cities worldwide. Growth, urbanisation, and changes to way of life have increased housing demand, requiring cities such as London to increase their housing stock by more than 15% over the next 10 years. These new urban developments will increase water demand, urban flood risk, and river water pollution levels; therefore, an integrated systems-based approach to development and water management is needed. Water Neutrality (WN) has emerged as a concept to frame the concerns about escalating water stresses in cities. We frame WN as a planning process for new urban developments that aims to minimise impacts on urban water security and offset any remaining stresses by retrofitting existing housing stock. In this work, we present a novel systemic design framework for future urban planning called CityPlan-Water, which guides how WN might be achieved to tackle current and future water pressures at a city scale. CityPlan-Water integrates spatial data with an integrated urban water management model, enabling urban design at a systems level and systematic assessment of future scenarios. We define a Water Neutrality Index that captures how successful a given urban planning scenario is in achieving WN and how multiple interventions could be combined at a city scale to improve WN. Results from CityPlan-Water suggest that it will be necessary to retrofit almost the same number of existing homes with WN design options to completely offset the impact imposed by proposed new developments. Combining options such as water efficient appliances, water reuse systems, and social awareness campaigns can offset the impact of new development on water demand by 70%, while to neutralise potential flood risk and water pollution at a city scale, interventions such as rainwater harvesting and Blue Green Infrastructure need to be added both in new urban developments and 432,000 existing London households. We see CityPlan-Water as a tool that can support the transition of urban planning towards using data-driven analysis to effectively design water neutral housing and drive sustainable development.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Water neutrality framework for systemic design of new urban developments |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118583 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118583 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | CityPlan-Water, Systemic design, Urban planning, Urban sustainability, Urban water security, Water neutrality, Cities, City Planning, Urban Renewal, Urbanization, Water, Water Supply |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10165583 |
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