Urban water management strategies based on a total urban water cycle model and energy aspects – Case study for Tel Aviv

Abstract

Global change pressures such as climate change, water scarcity, population growth, full urbanisation of catchments and rising energy costs may increasingly affect the urban water system of Tel Aviv. These challenges formed the incentive for a multidisciplinary Learning Alliance of water sector institutions to embark on a process to identify ways to improve sustainability of the city's water system. Sustainability indicators were identified and a whole-of-system water balance model (AquaCycle) was used to score the indicators for future scenarios and strategies. Strategies included rainwater harvesting, stormwater use, permeable pavements, and wastewater reuse. The effect of the strategies on total water imported into the city was a reduction of 10% by rainwater harvesting and 32% by wastewater reuse at cluster scale. The latter strategy reduced energy consumption from 2.89 kWh per m³ of volume of water used (import  +  reuse) in the current situation to 2.45 kWh per m³.

Keywords:

• decision support
• integrated modeling
• integrated urban water
• performance indicators
• rainwater harvesting
• urban water planning

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Dutch government for its support through the NPT programme and the European Commission for its support through the SWITCH project (FP6 Global Change and Ecosystems 018530).