The state of Texas is facing critical decisions that will greatly impact the preparedness of the state to meet future water demand. Consequently, during the 83rd Texas Legislative Session, state legislators proposed House Bill 4 (HB 4), a bill that if funded will provide an additional two billion dollars of funding for Texas water planning projects. Objectively evaluating and prioritizing projects would enable the efficient distribution of funding and minimize conflicts between water users. This project uses multi-criteria decision modeling to compare various evaluation criteria and decision preferences and prioritize proposed water management strategies in the 2012 State Water Plan. Combinations of project, regional, and legislative criteria are considered in eight decision scenarios. Projects are evaluated using Logical Decisions software and Microsoft Excel to calculate project utility and identify distribution strategies for funding. Results of this study provide insight into regional and strategy funding biases. Additionally, the decision model analyses highlight the effects of project prioritization on urban vs. rural and arid vs. humid Texas water conflicts. / text

In Sweden, the access to drinking water is something that often is taken for granted. But several incidents where regions have found themselves without drinking water shows that we should be more concerned about crisis management concerning drinking water. Regulations state that even in a situation with drinking water disturbance the municipality is responsible for providing all citizens with drinking water of acceptable quality. When drinking water is not delivered in regular pipelines it is called emergency water, which is an alternative way to distribute drinking water within the region. During a crisis it is important that the authorities can act quickly in order to minimize the consequences that will occur if a region is without drinking water. The National Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) have therefore developed a guide for municipalities how to make an emergency water plan. It contains information of how to map and prioritize water users. This is a case study of Nordmaling Municipality that investigates how and why water users should be prioritized during a disturbance in drinking water. The aim has also been to locate emergency water containers for citizens and study the accessibility of these locations and the level of justice within the society connected to citizens (in)accessibility. In order to do this study, the guide from the National Food Agency have been studied along with consultation with the municipal administration. Then a quantitative Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) in GIS has been performed in order to find “optimal” locations for emergency water resources. Recommendations from the National Food Agency have been followed within the frame, ability and visions of Nordmaling Municipality. The study displays the functions that will obtain emergency water, and recommendations and regulations behind the decisions. Along with 12 different locations which have been decided based on results from the MCA. Water users (with extra consideration to vulnerable water users) living outside of the geographical “catchment-area” of a location with emergency water have been studied. This has shown that the locations are not accessible for everyone within the municipality. Constrained accessibility can be seen especially for elderly and those living in the sparsely parts of Nordmaling, which displays an unjust society.

The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan promotes the ideology of integrating green infrastructure into the City’s water management strategy to cultivate resiliency. In order to develop enough green infrastructure to have a significant impact on the hydrological functioning of the area, New Orleans officials are investigating different options for encouraging property owners to manage their stormwater on-site. Philadelphia Water Department’s parcel-based stormwater utility fee has been offered as a model for working within the constraints of the municipal government’s regulatory authority to increase the water retention capacity of individual properties. This thesis provides an analysis of Philadelphia Water Department’s stormwater utility policy and offers recommendations to other cities, like New Orleans, that are considering adopting a similar policy in their jurisdiction.

To what degree are water managers in different regions in the United States thinking about and planning for climate change? To answer this question we reviewed water plans and climate change plans in all the cities with populations over 50,000 in the Northeastern and Southwestern regions of the United States. By locating and reviewing water and climate change plans in the described cities in the two regions, we found that of the 101 cities with over 50,000 people in the Northeast, 83 cities had water plans and/or climate change plans that could be found online; only 20 had plans that discussed climate change in the context of water. Of the 56 cities with over 50,000 people in the Southwest, 42 cities had water plans and climate change plans that could be found online; 22 cities had plans that discussed climate change in the context of water. Our initial analysis shows that in the Northeast population and whether a city is on the coast may be the main factors driving whether a city considers water and climate change jointly and in the Southwest population and political leaning may be the main factors, while the median income of the city, and average rainfall level appear to be irrelevant. We compare the current status of water-related climate change decision making in these regions before summarizing the types of water-related climate change mitigation and adaptation actions that these cities are currently undertaking or considering. Many of these plans mention both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation actions, indicating that water managers who are thinking about and planning for climate change are approaching this issue broadly. These results provide a foundation for understanding the impacts of climate change on water-related decision-making.

Sustainable development is achieved through the equal promotion of environmental protection, economic development and social equity. Urban planners play a key role in sustainable development through the mediation of tensions inherent between these priorities. Using urban planning theory that focuses on the conflicts between the priorities of sustainable development and lessons learned from planning practice provides a basis from which to evaluate the claims of sustainability present in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. Outreach initiatives, policy frameworks and ecosystem co-management are suggested to make the planning and implementation processes of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan more feasible in terms of its ability to foster sustainability. Additionally, conceptualizing integrated stormwater management for Greater New Orleans within the context of the Louisiana coastal crisis can help to make the goals of the Urban Water Plan more realistic in the long term and boost institutional capacity to promote regional resilience.