Water Infrastructure For Sustainable Communities

Water Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities presents an understanding of past successes and failures of efforts to control pollution and reduce floods and offers promising alternatives to provide adequate amounts of clean water for all beneficial uses, water and energy reclamation, and reduction of the carbon footprint. A new model for water management is emerging worldwide in response to water shortages, polluted waterways, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Cities and towns are questioning the ecological and financial sustainability of big-pipe water, stormwater, and sewer systems and are searching for “lighter footprint” more sustainable solutions. Pilot projects are being built that use, treat, store, and reuse water locally and that build distributed designs into restorative hydrology. This book has been developed from the conference on Sustainable Water Infrastructure for Villages and Cities of the Future (SWIF2009) held in November 2009 in Beijing (China) that brought together an international gathering of experts in urban water and drainage infrastructure, landscape architecture, economics, environmental law, citizen participation, utility management, green building, and science and technology development. Water Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities China and the World reveals how imaginative concepts are being developed and implemented to ensure that cities, towns, and villages and their water resources can become ecologically sustainable and provide clean water. With both urban and rural waters as a focal point, the links between water quality and hydrology, landscape, and the broader concepts of green cities/villages and smart development are explored. The book focuses on decentralized concepts of potable water, stormwater, and wastewater…