Making more sustainable decisions for asset investment in the water industry-Sustainable Water industry Asset Resource Decisions- The SWARD Project

摘要

Effective Integrated Water Management (IWM) is an aspiration for all those engaged in water servicernprovision, and is a key component of the World Water Vision. Part of this includes the sustainability ofrnwater systems and their interaction with other urban systems. In the urban drainage field, there arernmany examples of attempts to establish effective integrated systems. A major problem, however, is thernelusive nature of the concept of sustainability and how to translate what is known in terms ofrnsustainability principles and objectives into action within the IWM perspective. Case studies arernpresented that illustrate how urban drainage problems can be approached in a way that takes duernaccount of sustainability considerations. These studies utilise a new Guidebook that presents multicriteriarndecision support systems to assist Water Service Providers (WSPs) to assess the relativernsustainability of water/wastewater system asset development decisions. The Guidebook was developedrnas part of a UK government and industry funded multi-partner project over the past 4 years. Anrnessential feature of the Guidebook is its transparency, as it is intended to be accessible to allrnstakeholders affected by a proposed development.