The Ipswich River watershed has experienced increasing urbanization in recent years. The river, which supplies water to over 300,000 residents (twice the watershed’s population), was considered one of the 10 Most Endangered Rivers in the U.S. in 2003 due to seasonal low-flow and no-flow events. Seasonal outdoor water restrictions have curbed residential demand; however, impervious surfaces and municipal sewer systems direct much of the runoff outside the watershed. Low-impact development (LID) practices, specifically those that infiltrate runoff, have the potential to keep more water in the watershed, and increase baseflows in the river. This study seeks to ascertain the barriers and motivations that exist to LID adoption. A paper survey including Likert-scale questions and a photo preference component was sent to 1,000 homeowners in the watershed. Analysis of responses employed factor analysis and means comparisons to compare responses between concerned homeowners (those who belonged to the local watershed association) and randomly-selected homeowners. Income and educational attainment were significant variables in both aesthetic preferences and willingness to adopt LID practices. Perceived cost of landscape changes and concern about disease-carrying pests also surfaced as barriers to residential adoption. The findings emphasize alternate strategies for land use planners, landscape professionals and environmental organizations to promote behavioral changes in the way residential landscapes are managed, and policies municipalities could adopt to implement more widespread use of LID practices. More widespread understanding and appreciation of the multiple benefits of rain LID landscapes could also serve all three groups.

No description available.

Inelastic price responses, demand hardening, and poor public awareness reduce the effectiveness of demand side strategies on water savings. This project quantified phycological household’s factors of attitudes, peer support, opportunities on water conservation with two social-environmental management strategies of encouragement and peer pressure. An agent-based model was populated with data for Logan, Utah using surveys, municipal billing, aerial imagery, weather monitoring stations, and flow, frequency, and durations of appliance use data. Results indicated those households with higher attitudes, peer support and opportunities saved the most water while peer pressure saved more than encouragement when using small and diverse social networks that could better regulate the behavior of outlier households within the network. Combined peer pressure and encouragement saved the most water as each strategy complimented one other. Managers can use results to identify and target large use households. Managers should recommend opportunities to conserve water through monthly bills and provide platforms for households to share their water use stories and information with each other.

No description available.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2016 / The Newcastle Local Municipality (NLM) has been experiencing water supply interruptions since 2010 due to high demand. Between June 2011 to December 2011, water losses ranged from 49% to 62% (about 23 to 30 megalitres per day) in Madadeni and Osizweni townships (Newcastle East). The suburban areas (i.e. Newcastle West) also experienced water interruptions due to collapsing and/or aging infrastructure. About a thousand households in Madadeni were involved in this study to find the cause of the high water losses. Awareness campaigns, repairing household leaks, installation of intelligent meters and the increase of free basic water in indigent households from 6kℓ to 12kℓ per month reduced water losses from about 246 kℓ to 177kℓ per month. If similar Water Conservation (WC) and Water Demand Management (WDM) could be rolled out to the 35 000 households in the NLM and similar results to those in Madadeni are attained, conservative water saving of about 21Mℓ per day could be achieved. This would reduce the demand on the Ngagane Water Treatment Works (WTW) by 20%. / CK2018

According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the world's population, approximately 4 billion people, experiences water scarcity at least one month per year. To avoid the water quantity crisis experienced in many regions of the world and the United States, a path to sustainability must be forged. My research aims to identify and critique the salient features of the narrative that drives contemporary urban water decisions and practices and to provide a meta-narrative about the role of narratives as invisible lenses through which individuals see, interpret, and interact with the world often without realizing the existence of those frames. The purpose of this problem-oriented dissertation is twofold: to provide a philosophical policy analysis of contemporary water issues in the United States generally and North Central Texas in particular, and to offer a pragmatic and interdisciplinary approach to discovering a sustainable relationship to water. The intent of my research is not to produce a new metaphysical understanding of water, but to provide a pragmatic application of ideas that can be utilized in the field; ideas that can invoke a new narrative, vision, and direction for urban water issues in North Central Texas and in areas far beyond the Lone Star State. I begin my dissertation with an overview of the nature of the problems involved in managing our global and national water problems. To fully understand urban water issues requires more than just scientific knowledge, it also demands a philosophical orientation and grounding. Chapter 2 lays the philosophical foundation of my research by braiding the philosophical streams of thought inherent in Aldo Leopold's concepts of the land ethic and ecological conscience, Alfred North Whitehead and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on relationship, Paulo Freire's pedagogy of critical consciousness, John Dewey's philosophy of experience and his perceived importance of the public and the "Great Community," and Hannah Arendt's theory of action. I argue that these tributaries of philosophical thought provide the foundation for creating a new urban water narrative. In Chapter 3, I provide an in-depth description of the water policy problem by delineating the historical context of water policy, supply, and management, exploring the rise of disciplinarity that resulted from the divergence of the humanities and science, explicating the partnership and dominator models of civilization, and investigating the impact of the cultural narrative on the decision-making process. Chapter 4 consists of my analysis of the current water policy problem through the lens of a case study of water issues in North Central Texas. I describe the key trends that have driven water practices in the region, examine the factors that have fostered those trends, and project what is likely to happen if the status quo approach to water is maintained. Chapter 5 presents my proposed alternative for resolving the current water quantity problem in North Central Texas. I philosophically evaluate the potential of my proposed alternative, a new urban water narrative, for ameliorating the problem and achieving the goal of a sustainable relationship to water. I elucidate the ways in which a new cultural narrative can surface and precipitate a new way of being in relationship with water. The last chapter recaps the previous chapters, acknowledges limitations of my research, and provides recommendations for future philosophical research endeavors into water policy, supply, and management that is relevant on a local, national, and global scale.

The Florida Showcase Green Envirohome (FSGE) incorporates many green technologies. FSGE is built to meet or exceed 12 green building guidelines and obtain 8 green building certificates. The two-story 3292 ft2 home is a "Near Zero-Loss Home", "Near Zero-Energy Home", "Near Zero-Runoff Home", and "Near Zero-Maintenance Home". It is spawned from the consumer-driven necessity to build a home resistant to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fire, mold, termites, impacts, and even earthquakes given up to 500% increase in insurance premiums in natural disaster zones, the dwindling flexibility and coverage of insurance policies, and rising energy, water and maintenance costs (FSGE 2008). The FSGE captures its stormwater runoff from the green roof, metal roof and wood decking area and routes it to the sustainable water cistern. Graywater from the home (after being disinfected using ozone) is also routed to the sustainable water cistern. This water stored in the sustainable water cistern is used for irrigation of the green roof, ground level landscape, and for toilet flushing water. This study was done in two phases. During phase one, only stormwater runoff from the green roof, metal roof and wood decking area is routed to the sustainable water cistern. Then, during phase two, the water from the graywater system is added to the sustainable water cistern. The sustainable water cistern quality is analyzed during both phases to determine if the water is acceptable for irrigation and also if it is suitable for use as toilet flushing water. The water quality of the sustainable cistern is acceptable for irrigation. The intent of the home is to not pollute the environment, so as much nutrients as possible should be removed from the wastewater before it is discharged into the groundwater. Thus, the FSGE design is to evaluate a new on-site sewage treatment and disposal (OSTD) system which consists of a sorption media labeled as Bold and GoldTM filtration media. The Bold and GoldTM filtration media is a mixture of tire crumb and other materials. This new OSTD system has sampling ports through the system to monitor the wastewater quality as it passes through. Also, the effluent wastewater quality is compared to that of a conventional system on the campus of the University of Central Florida. The cost-benefit optimization model focused on designing a residential home which incorporated a green roof, cistern and graywater systems. This model had two forms, the base model and the grey linear model. The base model used current average cost of construction of materials and installation. The grey model used an interval for the cost of construction materials and green roof energy savings. Both models included a probabilistic term to describe the rainfall amount. The cost and energy operation of a typical Florida home was used as a case study for these models. Also, some of the parameters of the model were varied to determine their effect on the results. The modeling showed that the FSGE 4500 gallon cistern design was cost effective in providing irrigation water. Also, the green roof area could have been smaller to be cost effective, because the green roof cost is relatively much higher than the cost of a regular roof.

No description available.

During the last couple of years, Sweden has experienced periods with greatly reduced amount of precipitation, causing decreased groundwater levels. This has affected the drinking water supply. The need to actively prevent water scarcity is strong. Apart from water scarcity, the water available for consumption is also limited by the capacity of wastewater treatment plants, pipelines and waterworks. As a result of this, interests in water conservation measures have grown among municipalities the last few years. Opportunities to save water are good, but there is a lack of incentive to invest in technical solutions. Investment costs are high in relation to the low prices of drinking water. Primary drivers are currently awareness of the issue or local problems with water scarcity. Further incentives are thus needed. The aim of this thesis is to examine what the main drivers are for large property owners to implement measures to save water and what the obstacles are. The aim is also to investigate how water saving measures can help reduce energy use and financial expenses. To fulfil this purpose, interviews with larger property owners, literature search and calculations were carried out.   The results from the interviews showed that the main drivers were resource management and social responsibility. Economy proved to be an increasingly important driver as the price for water and energy are rising. The main obstacles for implementing water saving measures were financing issues and technical difficulties in implementation. Certification proved to be important for commercial property owners but was not considered profitable for the public housing companies. Calculations showed significant theoretical savings with regards to water, energy and economy with the techniques: aerators, water-saving showers and low-flush toilets. Calculations also showed that for more advanced technical solutions like urine-separating toilets and recirculating showers, the potential for water saving is great but it takes a long time for an investment to pay off. Collected data showed a high consumption despite water efficient technology, which implies that technology has to be combined with other measures, for example communication or individual metering and billing for cold water.  Key words: drivers, water conservation measures, large property owners, household water use, drinking water / Under de senaste åren har Sverige upplevt några långa perioder med mycket mindre nederbörd än normalt, med sänkta nivåer i grundvattenmagasin som följd, vilket påverkar dricksvattenförsörjningen. Behovet av att aktivt förebygga vattenbrist är stort. Förutom vattenbrist begränsas mängden vatten som kan användas också av kapaciteten i vattenverk, ledningsnät och reningsverk. Detta har gjort att intresset för vattenbesparande åtgärder ökat från VA-huvudmän de senaste åren. Möjligheterna till vattenbesparing i hushåll och kontor är goda, men det saknas ekonomiska incitament för att investera i de tekniska lösningar som krävs. Investeringskostnaderna bedöms för höga i förhållande till de låga priserna på dricksvatten. Drivkrafter i nuläget handlar främst om medvetenhet i frågan samt vattenbrist i lokalområdet. Därför finns det behov av ytterligare incitament.  Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka de huvudsakliga drivkrafterna är för större fastighetsägare av hyresfastigheter att vidta åtgärder för vattenbesparing och vilka hinder som finns. Syftet var också att titta på hur energibesparing kan uppnås genom vattenbesparande åtgärder samt vilken ekonomisk besparing som kan uppnås genom att vidta åtgärder. För att uppfylla detta syfte användes intervjuer, litteratursökning och beräkningar. Resultaten från intervjuer med fastighetsägare visade att de huvudsakliga drivkrafterna var resurshushållning och samhällsansvar, men att ekonomi blivit en viktigare drivkraft i och med stigande priser på vatten och energi. De huvudsakliga hindren för att vidta åtgärder var problem med finansiering samt tekniska svårigheter kopplat till implementering. Certifiering var viktigt för de kommersiella fastighetsbolagen men ansågs inte lönsamt för de allmännyttiga bostadsbolagen. Resultaten från beräkningar visade på en stor teoretisk besparing med avseende på både vatten, energi och ekonomi med åtgärderna perlatorer, vattensnåla duschar samt snålspolande toaletter. Resultaten visar att för mer avancerade tekniska åtgärder för vattenbesparing såsom urinseparerande toaletter och recirkulerande duschar är vattenbesparingspotentialen stor, men det tar lång tid för en investering att återbetala sig. Insamlad data visade på en hög förbrukning trots vattensnål teknik, vilket talar för att tekniken behöver kombineras med fler åtgärder, som exempelvis kommunikation eller individuell mätning och debitering för kallvatten.

1.1 Background to, and motivation for, the study: The Working for Water programme (WfW) is a public works programme designed to clear South Africa of water-consuming invasive alien tree and plants, and to replace them with low water consuming indigenous species. This would prevent a loss of more than 4000 million cubic metres water per annum from the hydrological cycle (DWAF, 1998). The economic viability of the programme has been established in the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal (van Wilgen, Little, Chapman, Görgens, Willems and Marais, 1997; Gilham and Haynes, 2001), but questioned in the Eastern and Southern Cape (Hosking, du Preez, Campbell, Wooldridge and du Plessis, 2002). Hosking et al. (2002) investigated the economic case for the programme by performing a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), based on increased water yield and livestock potential, on six selected sites in the Eastern and Southern Cape, viz. Albany, Kat River, Pot River, Tsitsikamma, Kouga and Port Elizabeth Driftsands.