Frequentemente, moradores da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo veem obras hidráulicas serem implantadas em seus bairros sem que tenham qualquer participação ou mesmo conhecimento sobre as mesmas. Sentem-se totalmente alheios à obra e podem passar a rejeitá-la ou a não usá-la corretamente, limitando a universalização de um atendimento eficaz. Por outro lado, são os mesmos moradores que tomam decisões importantes. Decidem como descartar o lixo doméstico e outros resíduos sólidos; como se desfazer do esgoto; como usar a infra-estrutura de água urbana, aqui entendida como o abastecimento, o esgotamento e a drenagem. Dada a importância das decisões dos moradores, com este trabalho se pretendeu analisar a possibilidade de incluí-los no processo de gestão compartilhada da água urbana, uma estratégia da governança, por meio do Monitoramento por Moradores em seu Domicílio e Arredores. O trabalho baseou-se em referencial sobre o potencial do morador como agente de mudanças e em documentação teórico-metodológica para o seu envolvimento no monitoramento. A principal conclusão a que se chegou é sobre a importância da interação morador-técnico das agências provedoras de serviços de água urbana, com apoio de autoridades locais, para o engajamento dos moradores no monitoramento e em ações corretivas no local onde os problemas acontecem: o domicílio e seus arredores. Assim, o morador assume a responsabilidade por melhorias que contribuam para a durabilidade da obra e a sustentabilidade dos serviços que oferece, como contrapartida do trabalho das agências provedoras de serviços e de autoridades locais. O trabalho de campo, realizado em algumas áreas da RMSP, revelou, em um dos bairros estudados que, em interação com técnicos, os moradores se engajam no planejamento do monitoramento. Uma vez implantada a obra demandada como prioridade, os moradores tenderão a assumir a implantação do monitoramento no seu domicílio e arredores para maximizar os benefícios da solução técnica. / In the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, city dwellers frequently see hydraulic works being implemented in their neighbourhoods without having any information about them, let alone participating in its planning. They feel strange to the works and may reject them or not use them properly, hindering the universal access to an effective service. On the other hand, the residents themselves take important decisions at the household level. They decide how to dispose of domestic and other waste; how to dispose of domestic sewage; how to use the available urban water infra-structure: water supply, sanitation and drainage. Due to the importance of the decisions taken by city dwellers, this study aims at analysing the possibility of including them in urban water shared-management, a strategy of governance, through Monitoring by City Dwellers at the Household Level. The study was based on relevant literature to understand the city dweller as an agent of changes and on theoretical-methodological documentation on how to involve them on the monitoring activity. The study concluded on the importance of the interaction between city dwellers and the technicians of agencys providing urban water services, with support of local authorities, to engage them in the monitoring activity. This includes taking corrective action where the problems tend to occur: the household. Through monitoring, the city dweller engages in improvements to preserve the works and the sustainability of the services they provide, in collaboration with the agencies and local authorities. The field work carried out in some areas of Metro São Paulo, showed, in one of the neighbourhoods, that residents, in interaction with technicians, will engage in planning the monitoring activity. Once their priority demand is met, they will tend to engage in monitoring to maximize the benefits of the technical solution.

A cidade de São Paulo, assim como diversas cidades do mundo, enfrenta hoje sérios desafios no manejo de seus recursos hídricos, efeitos do processo de urbanização e desenvolvimento urbano que não considera as potencialidades das bases biofísicas de suas paisagens naturais, dentre eles, o tratamento da poluição das águas urbanas. Na natureza, a vegetação e a água são indissociáveis, as plantas participam da regulação do ciclo hidrológico e da manutenção da qualidade das águas através de mecanismos naturais, reconhecidos como mecanismos de fitorremediação, além de estarem diretamente relacionadas ao fornecimento de outros serviços ambientais que sustentam a vida na biosfera. Infraestrutura Verde é um conceito de rede de paisagens multifuncionais que realizam o manejo das águas das chuvas na fonte, ao mesmo tempo em que proporcionam melhorado microclima, proteção da biodiversidade, áreas de lazer e contato com a natureza, proteção contra desastres e enchentes e tratamento da poluição sem, contudo, excluir o desenvolvimento urbano. Em Berlim, Alemanha, desde o final dos anos 1980, é realizado o tratamento das águas urbanas a partir de alternativas de Infraestrutura Verde em substituição às práticas convencionais, ao passo que, em São Paulo o uso de tais alternativas é bem mais recente, integrando o Plano Diretor de Drenagem e Manejo de Águas Pluviais do município em 2010. Esta dissertação investiga o papel das plantas no tratamento das águas urbanas por tipologias de Infraestrutura Verde, sob o olhar da fitorremediação e identifica os critérios de seleção das espécies de plantas para projetos de Infraestrutura Verde na cidade de São Paulo, observando-se o estudo de caso do córrego Água Podre, bairro do Rio Pequeno, zona oeste do município. / The city of São Paulo, as many other cities around the world, is been facing serious challenges regarding their water supply management due to the urban development. The potential of the biophysical bases of their landscapes is overcome by urbanization, including the treatment of urban water. In nature, water and vegetation are indissociable. Plants participate in the regulation of the water cycle and maintenance of the water quality through natural mechanisms identified as phytoremediation processes. They are also directly related to other ecosystem services that sustain life on the biosphere. Green Infrastructure is a concept of multifunctional landscapes that manage the rainwater at the source. It also improves the microclimate, the protection to the biodiversity, provides leisure areas, protection against natural disasters and treatment of pollution, without excluding thepossibility of the development. Since the end of the 1980s, urban water treatment is used in Berlin as an alternative of Green Infrastructure, replacing conventional practices. In São Paulo the use of such alternatives is much more recent; it was integrated by the Water Management Plan in 2010. In this dissertation I investigate the role of plants in the treatment of urban waters through Green Infrastructure typologies, observing the phytoremediation processes and identifying the selection criteria of plant species for Green Infrastructure projects in the city of São Paulo. A case study of the Água Podre stream is observed; west zone of the city in Rio Pequeno district.

Despite years of investment in urban water infrastructure, and the state-a supposedly benign public entity-being the major actor in governing water, many poor residents in global south cities such as Blantyre experience unprecedented water-related problems. The neoliberal narrative unequivocally advocates privatising water; it frames the water problem as symptomatic of the unravelling of non-economic means of distributing this basic necessity of life while revering the free market as a panacea to this long-standing challenge. This thesis draws from the production/urbanisation of nature/space literature to contribute towards framing an alternative and more just political ecological water narrative. Through a radical critique of capitalist urbanisation, it argues that the contemporary urban water condition is the outcome and symptomatic of the unjust historical geographical legacies of modernist/capitalist means of producing water. It problematises the neo-liberal "tragedy of the commons" discourse that attributes these problems to the non-commodity nature of water. Through a case study of Blantyre City, the thesis frames this critique through two claims (1) that there is no such a thing as non-commodified produced water in contemporary Blantyre; (2) that the commodification of water is nothing new, it is a histo-geographical process deeply rooted in logics and contradictions of capitalist production of nature and space. It traces a critical moment in the capitalist remaking of hydro-social relations to colonial modernisation. British colonisation (late 1850s-early 1960s) inserted money and modern techniques at the heart of human-water interactions thereby significantly transforming traditional modes of accessing water. During this period, water began to change from being a common good to an economic resource that could privately be enclosed and harnessed as a means to economic/private ends through modern techniques. Institutions created to mediate this emergent modernist water architecture were dominated by vested private settler interests, depended heavily on external financing and revenue generated from exchanging water through money. British colonisations then sow first seeds in inserting monetary exchange, class and social power as mediators of the human-water interchange thereby entrenching social inequalities in Blantyre's waterscape. The post-colonial political transition in 1964 did little to radically reconfigure these colonial logics and their contradictions; in fact, albeit in qualitatively different ways, these dynamics intensified. The thesis establishes that these historical geographical dynamics continue to reproduce conditions through which underprivileged residents are alienated from water, and this basic need is commodified in contemporary Blantyre. In locating alienation and commodification within the wider historical geographical context of capitalist urbanisation, this thesis aims to critically engage with debates on neo-liberalisation of water. It takes issue with a particular ahistorical manner commodification of water is read and the failure of these debates to engage critically with the historical/colonial genesis of the present urban water condition in global south cities. The thesis hopes to contribute to academic and practical projects concerned with generating alternative understandings and finding just solutions to persistent water problems in the global south.

Guarulhos, o segundo município paulista em população, tem tentado aumentar sua importância no Estado e no país também nos aspectos sócio-econômicos. Como parte das necessidades inerentes a essa mudança de patamar, por sua alta taxa de crescimento, e devido à crônica e histórica deficiência no planejamento da cidade, nos últimos anos vários planos diretores setoriais foram lançados, todos relacionados direta ou indiretamente aos recursos hídricos. Ora por questões orçamentárias, ora por conveniência administrativa, foram executados separadamente o plano diretor de desenvolvimento do município apenas com diretrizes -, e os planos diretores de abastecimento de água, de esgoto sanitário e de drenagem, além do novo plano de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário, este atendendo à Lei 11.445/2007. O plano diretor de resíduos sólidos encontra-se em elaboração. A fragmentação desses planos diretores, apesar de justificada em função das condições em que surgiram e pelas demandas que visavam a atender, pode não ser a mais adequada do ponto de vista dos conceitos mais modernos de gestão da água urbana. Assim, após uma análise crítica desses planos, é avaliada a proposta de elaboração de um Plano Integrado de Águas Urbanas pelo município. Como sugestão de ferramenta de apoio à decisão, é apresentado o emprego de metodologia de análise multicritério para hierarquização de ações, especificamente obras de saneamento de grande porte previstas nos planos diretores de Guarulhos ou em seus desenvolvimentos, buscando também catalisar as interações entre gestores de diferentes setores. / Guarulhos, the second most populous city in the São Paulo State, has tried to increase its importance in that State and in the country also in socioeconomic factors. As part of the needs associated with that step change, for its high growth rate, and due to chronic and historical lack of city planning, in recent years several sectoral master plans have been launched, all directly or indirectly related to water resources. Sometimes by budget issues, or by administrative convenience, these plans were executed separately from the master plan of the city - this, with only guidelines - and the master plans for water supply, waste water, drainage, and the new plan of water and waste water (required by the federal law 11.445/2007). The master plan for solid waste is under preparation. The fragmentation of these master plans, though justified in light of conditions in which they emerged and by the demands aimed at answering, is not adequate from the standpoint of modern concepts of management of water resources. So, after a review of these plans, is assessed the proposed development of an Integrated Urban Water Master Plan by the city. As a suggestion of a decision support tool, is presented the use of multicriteria analysis methodology for prioritization of actions, specifically huge works of sanitation contained in these master plans or in its developments, also seeking to promote interactions between managers from different sectors.

Na cidade de São Paulo, as inundações, consideradas a consequência das chuvas intensas e da impermeabilização do solo urbano, têm causado impactos consideráveis. As contínuas e frequentes inundações e as intervenções para contê-las, de alto custo para o Poder Público, justificam a busca de uma abordagem complementar à puramente técnica-hidráulica, que dê atenção aos aspectos sociopolíticos inerentes à drenagem urbana e ao manejo de águas pluviais, o foco principal desta pesquisa. Seus objetivos são: uma análise crítica sobre a incorporação do sociopolítico na malha de disciplinas do curso de Engenharia Civil; uma análise crítica da visão dos profissionais envolvidos, direta ou indiretamente, com a gestão urbana sobre a incorporação de aspectos sociais no planejamento e na implantação de obras de drenagem urbana; e se estes aspectos são incorporados aos projetos de obras de drenagem e se atores sociais localizados na área de uma bacia hidrográfica valorizam esta incorporação. A pesquisa concluiu que, ainda que aspectos sociopolíticos estejam incorporados na malha de disciplinas dos cursos de Graduação em Engenharia Civil e ainda que os profissionais da gestão urbana valorizem os aspectos sociais tanto quanto os aspectos técnicos das obras de drenagem, o planejamento e a implantação de obras de drenagem em construção na área da bacia hidrográfica, foco geográfico desta pesquisa, não incorporam os aspectos relativos ao sociopolítico. A bibliografia consultada e os exemplos concretos apresentados mostram a importância da incorporação dos aspectos sociopolíticos nas intervenções. Os conceitos discutidos ajudaram a formular recomendações para a incorporação do sociopolítico na malha das disciplinas e nos projetos de obras hidráulicas. São recomendações que visam, além da preservação ambiental e do atendimento ao interesse público, maximizar os benefícios da solução técnica. / In the city of São Paulo, intensive rains and urban impervious cover are being held responsible for flooding events which have been causing increase in runoff volume and in peak discharge. The high costs of technical hydraulic interventions to contain the frequent flooding impacts justify the search for an alternative approach: the incorporation of the sociopolitical complexities of urban stormwater drainage, the main theme of this research. Its objectives are: understand if and how sociopolitical complexities are being incorporated to Civil Engineering education; how professionals directly or indirectly involved in urban stormwater management see the incorporation of sociopolitical complexities in planning and implementation of stormwater drainage construction works and, finally, if these complexities are integrated in the projects being planned and being implemented in an urban watershed area. The research concluded that Civil Engineering education incorporate courses which open space for the discussion of sociopolitical aspects; that professionals involved in urban management value the incorporation of sociopolitical aspects in planning and implementation of storm water construction projects, but that in the watershed area where projects are being implemented such aspects are not taken into account. The bibliography and the concrete examples examined show the importance of incorporating sociopolitical aspects in drainage construction projects. The concepts brought forward help identify recommendations for the incorporation of sociopolitical aspects in Civil Engineering education and in the planning and implementation of stormwater constructions projects. These are recommendations which aim at increasing environmental preservation, meeting the public interest and maximizing the benefits of the technical solution.

Physically decentralised water management systems may contribute to improving the sustainability of urban water management. Any shift toward decentralised systems needs to consider not just physical system design but also social values, knowledge frames, and organisations, and their interconnections to the physical technology. Four cases of recent Australian urban water management improvement projects were researched using qualitative methods. Three cases were of decentralised water management innovation. The other was of a centralised system, although decentralised options had been considered. These cases were studied to identify institutional barriers and enablers for the uptake of decentralised systems, and to better understand how emerging environmental engineering knowledge might be applied to overcome an implementation gap for decentralised urban water technologies. Analysis of each case focused on the institutional elements of urban water management, namely: the values, knowledge frames and organisational structures. These elements were identified through in-depth interviews, document review, and an on-line survey. The alignment of these elements was identified as being a significant contributor to the stability of centralised systems, or to change toward decentralised systems. A new organisational home for innovative knowledge was found to be common to each case where decentralised innovation occurred. ??Institutional entrepreneurs??, strong stakeholder engagement, and inter-organisational networks were all found to be linked to the creation of shared meaning and legitimacy for organisational and technological change. Existing planning frameworks focus on expert justification for change rather than institutional support for change. Institutional factors include shared understandings, values and organisational frameworks, and the alignment of each factor. Principles for, and examples of, appropriate organisational design for enabling and managing decentralised technological innovation for urban water management are proposed. This research contributes to the understanding of the institutional basis and dynamics of urban water management, particularly in relation to physical centralisation and decentralisation of urban water management technologies and, to a lesser extent, in relation to user involvement in urban water management. Understanding of factors that contribute to enabling and constraining decentralised technologies is extended to include institutional and organisational factors. New and practical pathways for change for the implementation of decentralised urban water systems are provided.

All living things mostly the humans, as builders of civilizations, have always been in intrinsic bonds with water. This interaction between water (oceans, seas, lakes, rivers etc.) and settlements has existed since ancient civilizations. Among water resources, &lsquo / flowing waters&rsquo / such as rivers, streams, creeks, etc. have a prominent role as they are the lifeblood of most cities in terms of providing transportation, security, energy, irrigation, commerce, and recreation. By the late 19th century, developments of terrestrial transportation modes diminished the magnetism of rivers and riverfronts, and growing industries led to the deterioration of rivers. Owing to these reasons, along with many others, they turned into sewage channels, were covered up, and became water scopes detached from the urban life. Particularly since the 1970s, with more attention given to sustainability of resources, a greater awareness has grown of the vital role of urban rivers as a resource for humans and a lifeline for cities. After being neglected for decades, urban rivers have started to be rehabilitated to solve the related problems. The new approach to urban river rehabilitation beyond classical practices that aim at recovering the physical conditions of rivers has come to the fore to address the problems comprehensively. Instead of independent and one-dimensional practices, the urban rivers have become to be seen as a vital part of urban water system and of the city itself. While rehabilitating urban rivers, recovering river health can be ensured provided that the entire urban water ecosystem is taken into consideration. The ecocity approach is one of the major new approaches that geared toward achieving a healthy city, and sustainability of water system is the significant goal within this approach. In this regard, the thesis first asserts that the ecocity criteria are likely to give way to a more sustainable future for urban rivers. Besides being a part of the ecosystem, urban rivers have transformed together with the surrounding built environment throughout the history of cities. Significant focal elements of the urban pattern, urban rivers should be dealt with other urban focal points, with the introduced concept of river-city integration, which is proposed as the second assertion of the thesis. In this respect, the study attempts to investigate urban rivers and their rehabilitation in relation with both the ecocity approach, and the river-city integration concept. The research methodology in the present study involves comparative anaysis of best practices and case study analysis. Porsuk River and the city of Eskisehir, which the river passes through, were selected as a case for empirical study. Criteria sets that determined within the frames of ecocity and river-city integration, and the testing of the criteria in the case area offers an opportunity to contribute to literature of river and city coexistence.

<p>This licentiate thesis describes and analyses the modern history of the socio-technical systems for urban water supply and sanitation in East Africa with focus on Uganda and Kenya. The key objective of the thesis is to evaluate to what extent the historic processes frame and influence the water and sanitation services sectors in these countries today. The theoretical approach combines the Large Technical Systems approach from the discipline of History of Technology with New Institutional Economics. Throughout, urban water and sanitation service systems are regarded as socio-technical systems, where institutions, organisation and technology all interact. The thesis consists of three separate articles and a synthesis in the form of a framework narrative. The first article provides a discussion of the theoretical framework with special focus on the application of Public Goods theory to urban water and sanitation. The second article describes the establishment of the large-scale systems for water supply and sanitation in Kampala, Uganda in the period 1920-1950. The third article focuses on the politics of urban water supply in Kenya with emphasis on the period 1900-1990.</p><p>The main findings in this thesis are that the socio-technical systems for urban water and sanitation evolve over long periods of time and are associated with inertia that makes these systems change slowly. The systems were established in the colonial period to mainly respond to the needs and preferences of a wealthy minority and a technological paradigm evolved based on capital-intensive and large-scale technology. Attempts to expand services to all citizens in the post-colonial period under this paradigm were not sustainable due to changes in the social, political and economic environment while incentives for technological change were largely absent. History thus frames decisions in the public sphere even today, through technological and institutional inertia. Knowing the history of these socio-technical systems is therefore important, in order to understand key sector constraints, and for developing more sustainable service provision.</p>

The overall goal of this research is to develop an integrated system dynamics framework for sustainable management of municipal water and wastewater systems. Canadian municipalities have traditionally relied on grants received from senior levels of government to finance construction of water supply and wastewater collection infrastructure. User fees for water and wastewater services were determined so as to recover only the operating expenditures with no allowance to recoup the capital costs of infrastructure. As the infrastructure assets started approaching the end of their service life, investments needed to rehabilitate these assets were deferred in the expectation of receiving further grants for this purpose. Hence, a significant backlog of deteriorated infrastructure has accumulated over the years. Recently enacted regulations require that all expenditures incurred on provision of water and wastewater services should ultimately be financed from user fee based revenues. Another piece of legislation provides for establishment of service performance standards. Urban water and wastewater systems involve interconnections among physical infrastructure, financial, and socio-political factors. Several interacting feedback loops are formed due to these interconnections and render the management of water and wastewater infrastructure as a complex, dynamic problem. Existing asset management tools in the literature are found inadequate to capture the influence of feedback loops. A novel system dynamics approach is used to develop a demonstration model for water and wastewater network management. Model results for a case study show significance of feedback loops for financial sustainability of the system. For example, user fees have to be substantially increased to achieve financial sustainability, especially when price elasticity of water demand is considered. A detailed causal loop diagram for management of wastewater collection networks is presented. The causal loop diagram lays out qualitative causal relationships among system components and identifies multiple interacting feedback loops. Based on this causal loop diagram, a system dynamics model comprised of a wastewater pipes sector, a finance sector, and a consumers sector, is developed. Policy levers are included in the model to facilitate formulation of different financing and rehabilitation strategies for the wastewater collection network. Financial and service performance indicators included in the model allow comparison of different financing and rehabilitation strategies. Data requirements for implementation of the model are discussed. The wastewater collection network model is implemented for a case study of a medium-sized Canadian municipality with a substantial backlog of deteriorated pipes. A methodology for parameterization of the model using existing data sources is presented. Simulation results indicate that different financing strategies ranging from no borrowing to full utilization of debt capacity can achieve similar total life-cycle costs but with significantly varying impacts for consumers in terms of service performance and financial burden. A detailed causal loop diagram for management of a watermain distribution network is employed to identify feedback loops. The causal loop diagram is then developed into a system dynamics model comprised of watermain pipes, financial, and consumer sectors. Data requirements for implementation of the model are discussed.

Physically decentralised water management systems may contribute to improving the sustainability of urban water management. Any shift toward decentralised systems needs to consider not just physical system design but also social values, knowledge frames, and organisations, and their interconnections to the physical technology. Four cases of recent Australian urban water management improvement projects were researched using qualitative methods. Three cases were of decentralised water management innovation. The other was of a centralised system, although decentralised options had been considered. These cases were studied to identify institutional barriers and enablers for the uptake of decentralised systems, and to better understand how emerging environmental engineering knowledge might be applied to overcome an implementation gap for decentralised urban water technologies. Analysis of each case focused on the institutional elements of urban water management, namely: the values, knowledge frames and organisational structures. These elements were identified through in-depth interviews, document review, and an on-line survey. The alignment of these elements was identified as being a significant contributor to the stability of centralised systems, or to change toward decentralised systems. A new organisational home for innovative knowledge was found to be common to each case where decentralised innovation occurred. ??Institutional entrepreneurs??, strong stakeholder engagement, and inter-organisational networks were all found to be linked to the creation of shared meaning and legitimacy for organisational and technological change. Existing planning frameworks focus on expert justification for change rather than institutional support for change. Institutional factors include shared understandings, values and organisational frameworks, and the alignment of each factor. Principles for, and examples of, appropriate organisational design for enabling and managing decentralised technological innovation for urban water management are proposed. This research contributes to the understanding of the institutional basis and dynamics of urban water management, particularly in relation to physical centralisation and decentralisation of urban water management technologies and, to a lesser extent, in relation to user involvement in urban water management. Understanding of factors that contribute to enabling and constraining decentralised technologies is extended to include institutional and organisational factors. New and practical pathways for change for the implementation of decentralised urban water systems are provided.