Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain

Potential increases in water demand, alongside uncertainties in water availability due to climate change, mean that Britain’s water supply system could become increasingly stressed over the coming decades. Along with the need for secure water supplies, we must ensure that the supply is affordable an...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ives, M, Simpson, M, Hall, J
Format: Journal article
Published: Wiley 2018
_version_ 1797088986083098624
author Ives, M
Simpson, M
Hall, J
author_facet Ives, M
Simpson, M
Hall, J
author_sort Ives, M
collection OXFORD
description Potential increases in water demand, alongside uncertainties in water availability due to climate change, mean that Britain’s water supply system could become increasingly stressed over the coming decades. Along with the need for secure water supplies, we must ensure that the supply is affordable and that sufficient water is available to safeguard the natural environment. Meeting these three separate goals of security, affordability and sustainability, with their inevitable trade-offs, can been termed the “water trilemma”. In this novel approach we simulate projections of river flows under climate change by using an aggregated national water resource model to test potential policies to manage demand and investments in water supply infrastructure in order to assess Britain’s ability to meet its needs into the future. The results indicate that a balanced approach which allows for some inter-basin water transfers while also engaging local solutions including water re-use, combined with scalable actions for demand management and leakage reduction, will best enable Britain to navigate this water trilemma.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T02:57:58Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:aff89968-d9d8-48de-a3aa-5819c3e4cb15
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T02:57:58Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:aff89968-d9d8-48de-a3aa-5819c3e4cb152022-03-27T03:53:05ZNavigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great BritainJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:aff89968-d9d8-48de-a3aa-5819c3e4cb15Symplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2018Ives, MSimpson, MHall, JPotential increases in water demand, alongside uncertainties in water availability due to climate change, mean that Britain’s water supply system could become increasingly stressed over the coming decades. Along with the need for secure water supplies, we must ensure that the supply is affordable and that sufficient water is available to safeguard the natural environment. Meeting these three separate goals of security, affordability and sustainability, with their inevitable trade-offs, can been termed the “water trilemma”. In this novel approach we simulate projections of river flows under climate change by using an aggregated national water resource model to test potential policies to manage demand and investments in water supply infrastructure in order to assess Britain’s ability to meet its needs into the future. The results indicate that a balanced approach which allows for some inter-basin water transfers while also engaging local solutions including water re-use, combined with scalable actions for demand management and leakage reduction, will best enable Britain to navigate this water trilemma.
spellingShingle Ives, M
Simpson, M
Hall, J
Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title_full Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title_fullStr Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title_full_unstemmed Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title_short Navigating the water trilemma: A strategic assessment of long-term national water resource management options for Great Britain
title_sort navigating the water trilemma a strategic assessment of long term national water resource management options for great britain
work_keys_str_mv AT ivesm navigatingthewatertrilemmaastrategicassessmentoflongtermnationalwaterresourcemanagementoptionsforgreatbritain
AT simpsonm navigatingthewatertrilemmaastrategicassessmentoflongtermnationalwaterresourcemanagementoptionsforgreatbritain
AT hallj navigatingthewatertrilemmaastrategicassessmentoflongtermnationalwaterresourcemanagementoptionsforgreatbritain