Sustainable Water Use In Europe

Recoge: 1.Introduction - 2.General considerations - 3. Technological approaches - 4. Economic approaches - 5.User education and information - 6.Water reuse -7. Integrated water management approaches - 8.The way forward - 9.Conclusions.

First book to consider citizens playing a role in the science-policy interface to help formulate durable responses to sustainability challenges Discusses all aspects to enhance the connectivity of actors in the sustainable water management field, with three pilot case studies showing how citizens and stakeholders can be engaged early and effectively in the river basins and coastal waters planning processes Provides tips and recommendations for the transferability of the approach in different coastal areas of Europe and beyond. Sustainable Water Ecosystems Management in Europe examines the anthropogenic deterioration of water ecosystems, in particular in coastal areas. It proposes a new approach to enhance connectivity between research and policy-making. The book exploits the concept of integrated adaptive ecosystem management, by engaging scientists, policy makers and the public (the latter including both stakeholders and lay citizens/water users) in comparable case studies. Emphasis is given to the role of the public to enlarge the concept of organisational learning to the wider concept of social learning. The EC 7th Research Framework Program funded project AWARE engaged a panel of randomly selected citizens living in three different coastal areas of Europe – in a pilot experience of knowledge brokerage with water scientists and decision makers focused on coastal waters quality. Results and lessons learned from the project are summarized in this volume, and recommendations are made for this pilot’s replication and transferability to different coastal areas and sustainable water management tasks - and beyond to other sustainability research and policy issues. This book is a must-read for water managers and policy makers looking to effectively organize citizen and stakeholder participation in river basin and coastal water planning, as required by the EU Water Framework Directive. Sustainable Water Ecosystems Management in Europe provides useful recommendations for organising effective participation of citizens in the science and policy dialogue, promoting a collective awareness of the plans and actions needed to protect the water environment and ensure sustainable use of water resources. Editor: Carlo Sessa, AWARE Project Coordinator, Director at ISIS – Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems, Italy

All over the world countries struggle with water stress. Problems vary from water scarcity and a degrading water quality, to floods and a rising sea level due to climate change. The European Union adopted a Water Framework Directive to improve the sustainability of water management in its member states. Water management should be coordinated at the level of river basins as a whole. Interests of various user groups should be better represented. River basin visions should take into account the impact of all human activities on the status of the resource. Water legislation needs streamlining and more focus on its implementation. The European Union advocates regulating water prices by charging the costs of water services on the basis of full cost recovery and the polluter pays principle. This book examines the development of water management in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. It is based on the European research project EUWARENESS. The authors apply a theoretical framework for the analysis of institutional regimes, water governance and property rights. The evolution of national water resource regimes is described over a period of almost 200 years (1800-2000). The long-term perspective enables the reader to see the conditions under which regime transformation and paradigm change are made possible. The book also includes a critical analysis of policy making by the European Union, and a comparative review and analysis of regime development in the six countries involved. This book is followed by another volume published with Kluwer Academic Publishers on "Integrated Governance and Water Basin Management", edited by Hans Bressers and Stefan Kuks.

It is predicted that climate change will result in big changes to the global distribution of rainfall, causing drought and desertification in some regions and floods in others. Already there are signs of such changes occurring, with particularly serious consequences for poorer countries. The need for international cooperation in managing the effects of climate change, and other influences on the hydrological cycle, is becoming urgent. Future wars may well be fought over water. This book is part of a series focusing on key issues in environmental science and technology. Focusing on the sustainability of water supplies to the growing populations throughout the world, this volume consists of articles contributed by a group of experts drawn from around the globe. Issues covered include: policy making in the European Union; rural water supplies in Africa; chemical monitoring and analytical methods; water use in agriculture; social justice in supplying water; potable water recycling, and sustainable water treatment. The book will be useful to those working in the water industry, policy makers and planners, researchers and environmental consultants, and students in environmental science, technology, engineering, and management. There is also much here to interest all concerned with major environmental issues such as climate change and the many other factors which influence the sustainability of water supplies.

This report presents the discussions and conclusions of the OECD workshop on sustainable water consumption. It examines progress made on a range of key water policy issues and examines some of the more innovative attempts to put into practice a wider vision of integration.

This book assesses both the effectiveness and efficiency of implemented Economic Policy Instruments (EPIs) in order to achieve water policy goals and identifies the preconditions under which they outperform alternative (e.g. regulatory) policy instruments and/or can complement them as part of complex policy mixes. The development of a consolidated assessment framework helps clarify (and where possible, quantify) the effectiveness of each EPI on the basis of different criteria. Outcome-oriented criteria describe how the EPIs perform. They include intended and unintended economic and environmental outcomes and the distribution of benefits and costs among the affected parties. These steps consider the application of cost effectiveness and cost benefits analysis, e.g. to assess ex-post performance of the EPI. Process criteria describe the institutional conditions (legislative, political, cultural, etc.) affecting the formation and operation of the EPI studied (particularly relevant for assessing the possible impacts of using economic instruments), the transaction costs involved in implementing and enforcing the instruments and the process of implementation. Case studies from Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as from Australia, Chile, Israel and the USA are presented in this book. A wide variety of EPIs are also covered, including water-pricing schemes (tariffs, environmental taxes, environmental charges or fees, subsidies on products and practices), trading schemes (tradable permits for abstraction and pollution) and cooperation mechanisms.

This book expands the body of scientific knowledge on research and solutions for alternative water systems. It addresses a wide variety of water management issues in buildings, ranging from the technical possibilities, hydraulic and financial efficiency, and public acceptance of decentralized water systems, to their impact on sewage systems. Climate changes, population growth, and progressive urbanization are the main causes of the growing interest in alternative sources of water around the world. Decentralized systems are seen not only as solutions that can effectively save water, but also as systems that can operate partially or completely independently of centralized suppliers. With these aspects in mind, the main focus of this book is on showcasing a new approach to water management at the building scale. The findings and insights presented here will support the development of future technical guidelines for using alternative water systems in urban areas - an aspect that is particularly important since, in many European countries, these systems are only very rarely used.