The water flow diagram
IntroductionThe Water Flow Diagram (WFD) is a novel advocacy and communication tool that presents urban water supply and management in a simple visualization. Rapid urbanization, growing populations, and the climate crisis increase the pressure on water resources, particularly in urbanized areas. Th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2024.1360515/full |
| _version_ | 1797257105399349248 |
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| author | Lukas Bouman Dorothee Spuhler Marc-André Bünzli Amancio Melad Amancio Melad Lamine Diop Osmar Coelho Regula Meierhofer |
| author_facet | Lukas Bouman Dorothee Spuhler Marc-André Bünzli Amancio Melad Amancio Melad Lamine Diop Osmar Coelho Regula Meierhofer |
| author_sort | Lukas Bouman |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionThe Water Flow Diagram (WFD) is a novel advocacy and communication tool that presents urban water supply and management in a simple visualization. Rapid urbanization, growing populations, and the climate crisis increase the pressure on water resources, particularly in urbanized areas. The WFD aims to foster a dialogue around conflict of interests and opportunities among different stakeholders, and trigger actions toward more sustainable urban water management (UWM), as well as a water secure future.MethodThe WFD is produced from data on water abstraction, water use of different sectors, water treatment, water recycling and contamination risks. The data were obtained from government services, wastewater and water utilities, large industries, universities and reports of intergovernmental organizations. If these sources did not have data, reports from NGOs or consultants, comparable contexts, default values or expert judgements were considered. The annual water flows are presented in a Sankey Diagram. An intuitive color code highlights the flows as “problematic” or “appropriate” and points to areas where UWM practices should be improved.Results and conclusionsThe final diagrams are a concise instrument that identifies challenges of UWM in the four application cases presented in this article. Key challenges that became evident included: pollution from agricultural production, the lack of wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, high water losses in the distribution networks, water exports leading to a lack in local supply and sewer overflows during heavy rainfalls. Opportunities identified were the need to: invest in sanitation and wastewater to protect resources, create coordination bodies to align conflict of interests, and/or invest in blue-green infrastructure for rainwater retention. The WFD triggered local actions, such as in-depth discussions between relevant actors, the formation of integrated water use committees and the interest of the national ministry in Senegal to replicate the diagram for other locations. This article presents the methodology, discusses the four case studies and deliberates on the prospective use of the WFD. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:43:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2888c9d8f2a2458cbd197dcf5c8edb9d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-9375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:32:21Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-2888c9d8f2a2458cbd197dcf5c8edb9d2024-03-19T14:57:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Water2624-93752024-02-01610.3389/frwa.2024.13605151360515The water flow diagramLukas Bouman0Dorothee Spuhler1Marc-André Bünzli2Amancio Melad3Amancio Melad4Lamine Diop5Osmar Coelho6Regula Meierhofer7Department of Sanitation, Water and Waste for Development, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Duebendorf, SwitzerlandUMTEC Institut für Umwelt- und Verfahrenstechnik, University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST), Rapperswil, SwitzerlandThematic Cooperation Water, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Bern, SwitzerlandUNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, NetherlandsDe La Salle University (DLSU), Manila, PhilippinesGaston Berger University, Saint-Louis, SenegalCenter for Sustainable Development, Brasilia Federal University, Brasilia, BrazilDepartment of Sanitation, Water and Waste for Development, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Duebendorf, SwitzerlandIntroductionThe Water Flow Diagram (WFD) is a novel advocacy and communication tool that presents urban water supply and management in a simple visualization. Rapid urbanization, growing populations, and the climate crisis increase the pressure on water resources, particularly in urbanized areas. The WFD aims to foster a dialogue around conflict of interests and opportunities among different stakeholders, and trigger actions toward more sustainable urban water management (UWM), as well as a water secure future.MethodThe WFD is produced from data on water abstraction, water use of different sectors, water treatment, water recycling and contamination risks. The data were obtained from government services, wastewater and water utilities, large industries, universities and reports of intergovernmental organizations. If these sources did not have data, reports from NGOs or consultants, comparable contexts, default values or expert judgements were considered. The annual water flows are presented in a Sankey Diagram. An intuitive color code highlights the flows as “problematic” or “appropriate” and points to areas where UWM practices should be improved.Results and conclusionsThe final diagrams are a concise instrument that identifies challenges of UWM in the four application cases presented in this article. Key challenges that became evident included: pollution from agricultural production, the lack of wastewater and sanitation infrastructure, high water losses in the distribution networks, water exports leading to a lack in local supply and sewer overflows during heavy rainfalls. Opportunities identified were the need to: invest in sanitation and wastewater to protect resources, create coordination bodies to align conflict of interests, and/or invest in blue-green infrastructure for rainwater retention. The WFD triggered local actions, such as in-depth discussions between relevant actors, the formation of integrated water use committees and the interest of the national ministry in Senegal to replicate the diagram for other locations. This article presents the methodology, discusses the four case studies and deliberates on the prospective use of the WFD.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2024.1360515/fullintegrated water resource managementhuman right to water and sanitationcommunity engagementdecision supportadvocacy |
| spellingShingle | Lukas Bouman Dorothee Spuhler Marc-André Bünzli Amancio Melad Amancio Melad Lamine Diop Osmar Coelho Regula Meierhofer The water flow diagram Frontiers in Water integrated water resource management human right to water and sanitation community engagement decision support advocacy |
| title | The water flow diagram |
| title_full | The water flow diagram |
| title_fullStr | The water flow diagram |
| title_full_unstemmed | The water flow diagram |
| title_short | The water flow diagram |
| title_sort | water flow diagram |
| topic | integrated water resource management human right to water and sanitation community engagement decision support advocacy |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2024.1360515/full |
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