Urban Water Metabolism, an Efficient Tool for Evaluating Urban Water Management Performance (Case study: Isfahan City)

Document Type : Applied Article

Authors

1 PhD in Environmental Engineering , Department of Water, Wastewater and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Water, Wastewater and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran Iran

3 Professor, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Institute of Environment, University of Tabriz and Policy Research Institute, Sharif University of Technology, Iran

Abstract

With the increase in climate and social change, the issue of water security in cities is becoming more highlighted and urban decision makers are paying attention to issues such as water productivity and reuse of sewage to achieve sustainable municipal water management. In this study, a framework of urban water metabolism was developed based on the water balance. The water flow patterns in the urban areas examined and the performance of water management in Isfahan was evaluated. In this article, previous equations of urban water metabolism reviewed and new relationships were defined by adding parameters such as Non-revenue water, taking into account the conditions of urban water management in developing countries such as Iran. The developed water metabolism model was first used on Isfahan city as a real sample for 2019 and the pattern of water use and urban water performance of Isfahan were analyzed. The city of Isfahan is largely dependent on surface water (water of the Zayandeh-Rud Dam and River), While having a lot of domestic consumer, it has a high potential in terms of gray water and treated wastewater. Studies showed that more than 80% of Isfahan's water requirement is provided from foreign sources, and this indicates that Isfahan's sustainable water supply is weak and there is severe dependence on the surrounding areas for water supply. These results show that the water metabolism framework helps to facilitate more comprehensive understanding and evaluations of city water performance.

Keywords

Main Subjects


شهرداری اصفهان، 1396. سالنامه آماری سال ۱۳۹۶ شهر اصفهان. اصفهان.
شهرداری اصفهان، 1399. سالنامه آماری سال ۱۳۹۹ شهر اصفهان. اصفهان.
مرکز آمار ایران، 1395. سرشماری نفوس و مسکن سال ۱۳۹۵. اصفهان.
Agudelo-Vera C. M., Leduc W. R., Mels A. R. and Rijnaarts H. H. 2012. Harvesting urban resources towards more resilient cities. Resources, conservation and recyclingm, 64: 3-12.
Bach P. M., Rauch W., Mikkelsen P. S., Mccarthy D. T. and Deletic A. 2014. A critical review of integrated urban water modelling–Urban drainage and beyond." Environmental modelling & software, 54: 88-107.
Baker L. A. 2009. New concepts for managing urban pollution. The water environment of cities, Springer: New York, USA.
Barles S. 2009. Urban metabolism of Paris and its region. Journal of industrial ecology, 13(6): 898-913.
Binder C., Schertenleib R., Diaz J., Bader H.-P. and Baccini P. 1997. Regional water balance as a tool for water management in developing countries. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 13(1): 5-20.
Browne D., Regan B. O’. and Moles R. 2009. Assessment of total urban metabolism and metabolic inefficiency in an Irish city-region. Waste Management, 29(10): 2765-2771.
Farooqui T. A., Renouf M. A. and Kenway S. J. 2016. A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance. Water research, 106: 415-428.
Ffion Atkins J., Flügel T. and Hugman R. 2021. The urban water metabolism of Cape Town: Towards becoming a water sensitive city. South African Journal of Science, 117(5-6): 1-11.
Fischer‐Kowalski M. 1998. Society's metabolism: the intellectual history of materials flow analysis, Part I, 1860–1970. Journal of industrial ecology, 2(1): 61-78.
Forkes J. 2007. Nitrogen balance for the urban food metabolism of Toronto, Canada. Resources, conservation and recycling, 52(1): 74-94.
Gandy M. 2004. Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the modern city. City, 8(3): 363-379.
Ghosh R., Kansal A. and Venkatesh G. 2019. Urban Water Security Assessment Using an Integrated Metabolism Approach—Case Study of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in India. Resources, 8(2): 62.
Hendriks C., Obernosterer R., Müller D., Kytzia S., Baccini P. and Brunner P. H. 2000. Material flow analysis: a tool to support environmental policy decision making. Case-studies on the city of Vienna and the Swiss lowlands. Local Environment, 5(3): 311-328.
Hermanowicz S. W. and Asano T. 1999. Abel Wolman's “The Metabolism of Cities” revisited: a case for water recycling and reuse. Water Science and Technology, 40(4-5): 29-36.
Jakrawatana N., Ngammuangtueng P. and Gheewala S. H. 2017. Linking substance flow analysis and soil and water assessment tool for nutrient management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142: 1158-1168.
Jeong S. and Park J. 2020. Evaluating urban water management using a water metabolism framework: A comparative analysis of three regions in Korea. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 155: 104597.
Kennedy C., Cuddihy J. and Engel‐Yan J. 2007. The changing metabolism of cities. Journal of industrial ecology, 11(2): 43-59.
Kennedy C., Pincetl S. and Bunje P. 2011. The study of urban metabolism and its applications to urban planning and design. Environmental pollution, 159(8-9): 1965-1973.
Kenway S., Gregory A. and McMahon J. 2011. Urban water mass balance analysis. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 15(5): 693-706.
Laner D., Feketitsch J., Rechberger H. and Fellner J. 2016. A novel approach to characterize data uncertainty in material flow analysis and its application to plastics flows in Austria. Journal of industrial ecology, 20(5): 1050-1063.
Larsen T. A., Hoffmann S., Lüthi C., Truffer B. and Maurer M. 2016. Emerging solutions to the water challenges of an urbanizing world. Science, 352(6288): 928-933.
Madrid‐López C. and Giampietro M. 2015. The water metabolism of socio‐ecological systems: Reflections and a conceptual framework. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 19(5): 853-865.
Mehta V. K., Goswami R., Kemp-Benedict E., Muddu S. and Malghan D. 2014. Metabolic urbanism and environmental justice: the water conundrum in Bangalore, India. Environmental Justice, 7(5): 130-137.
Mitchell V. G., McMahon T. A. and Mein R. G. 2003. Components of the total water balance of an urban catchment. Environmental Management, 32(6): 735-746.
Paul R., Kenway S., McIntosh B. and Mukheibir P. 2018. Urban metabolism of Bangalore city: a water mass balance analysis. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 22(6): 1413-1424.
Renouf M., Kenway S., Serrao-Neumann S. and Low Choy D. 2016. Urban metabolism for planning water sensitive cities: Concept for an urban water metabolism evaluation framework, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. Clayton, VIC, Australia.
Renouf M., Serrao-Neumann S., Kenway S., Morgan E. and Choy D. L. 2017. Urban water metabolism indicators derived from a water mass balance–bridging the gap between visions and performance assessment of urban water resource management. Water research, 122: 669-677.
Renouf M. A. and Kenway S. J. 2017. Evaluation approaches for advancing urban water goals. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(4): 995-1009.
Renouf M. A., Kenway S. J., Lam K. L., Weber T., Roux E., Serrao-Neumann S., Choy D. L. and Morgan E. A. 2018. Understanding urban water performance at the city-region scale using an urban water metabolism evaluation framework. Water research, 137: 395-406.
Safavi H. R., Golmohammadi M. H. and Sandoval-Solis S. 2015. Expert knowledge based modeling for integrated water resources planning and management in the Zayandehrud River Basin. Journal of hydrology, 528: 773-789.
Sahely H. R., Dudding S. and Kennedy C. A. 2003. Estimating the urban metabolism of Canadian cities: Greater Toronto Area case study. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 30(2): 468-483.
Seoul Metropolitan Government. 2013. Seoul’s Management Plan for Water Reuse. Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seoul, Korea.
Singkran N. 2017. Water budget analysis and management for Bangkok Metropolis, Thailand. Water Science and Technology, 76(6): 1545-1554.
United Nations. 2014. World urbanization prospects: The 2014 revision, highlights. , United Nations, Department of economic and social affairs. New York, USA.
United Nations. 2018. Progress on Level of Water Stress: Global baseline for SDG indicator 6.4. 2., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome, Italy.
United Nations. 2018. World Urbanisation Prospects: The 2018 Revision (Key Facts). United Nations, Department of International Economic and Social Affairs. New York,  USA.
Warren-Rhodes K. and Koenig A. 2001. Escalating trends in the urban metabolism of Hong Kong: 1971–1997. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 30(7): 429-438.
Wolman A. 1965. The metabolism of cities. Scientific American, 213(3): 178-193.
Zhang Y., Yang Z. and Yu X. 2009. Evaluation of urban metabolism based on emergy synthesis: A case study for Beijing (China). Ecological modelling, 220(13-14): 1690-1696.
CAPTCHA Image