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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 September 2019) | Viewed by 47166

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Dafang Fu

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Guest Editor

Department of Municipal Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: sponge city; urban hydrology; water resource management; water environment and aquatic ecosystem restoration
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Prof. Dr. Rajendra Prasad Singh

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Guest Editor

School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: sustainable urban water development; sustainable urban water systems; planning and design; low-impact development techniques; climate change; urban water management; eco-restoration
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Prof. Dr. Chris Zevenbergen

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Guest Editor

IHE Delft, Flood Resilience Chair Group, Westvest 7, Delft, Netherlands
Interests: climate adaptation; strategic planning; water finance; flood resilience; cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Urban water management remains an acute challenge for local authorities and urban planners, with one in four cities worldwide currently experiencing water insecurity due to geographical and economic factors, which is exacerbated by increasing urbanization, demographic growth, water scarcity, and climatic variability. Local authorities often lack the information and capacity to act.

At the same time, advances in hydrological modelling and remote sensing techniques and the development of cheaper and more robust sensors supporting new information services such as citizen observatories drive the development of numerous new applications in urban water management. These applications have the potential to provide data allowing to quantify water budgets in urban areas at high spatial and temporal resolution, referred to as urban water accounting. This information is needed, for instance, to assess the urban water footprint and the impact of blue-green infrastructure on local rainfall patterns and hydrology and to address many more urban water challenges that impact the overall liveability of cities often captured by the term sustainable urban water management.

Urban water accounting aims to improve our understanding of the urban water cycle. It pulls together information obtained from various sources including hydrological modelling, field measurements, and advanced remote sensing. The ultimate aim is to provide a new framework for designing and implementing options for urban water resource-efficiency and security. Hence, urban water accounting is not restricted to quantifying water budgets in urban areas; it also targets the expression of benefits, services, and risks from water in tangible terms.

This Special Issue is open to papers advancing the field or showing innovative applications in urban water accounting. We welcome papers that analyze the urban water cycle and/or address urban water scarcity and urban water excess in an integrated way and using the information sources mentioned above. We are also interested in papers that provide new insights into urban water footprint assessments and how to create and sustain efficient and sustainable urban water systems that incorporate multiple benefits across sectors (e.g., drinking water, wastewater, and surface water) into account.

Prof. Dr. Dafang Fu
Prof. Dr. Rajendra Prasad Singh
Prof. Dr. Chris Zevenbergen
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

urban water accounting
urban water cycle
urban water footprint
low impact development
sponge cities
water-sensitive cities
sustainable urban water systems
urban flooding and stormwater management
resilience
eco-restoration

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1985 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Rainwater Harvesting Accounting Tool for Water Supply Availability in Colorado

by Ryan L. Gilliom, Colin D. Bell, Terri S. Hogue and John E. McCray

Water 2019, 11(11), 2205; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11112205 - 23 Oct 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4937

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is a renewable water supply option for nonpotable use, most commonly used for landscaping irrigation. Water rights in Colorado prohibit all RWH except residential rain barrels and a pilot project program that allows centralized rainwater harvesting for new development. Development of a natural catchment creates impervious surfaces, thereby increasing runoff, with a subsequent decrease in infiltration and losses to evapotranspiration; pilot projects are allowed to harvest a volume equal to the predevelopment runoff losses that would have occurred on new impervious areas at the site. To support this administrative policy, a tool was developed for the efficient calculation of daily allowable harvest at nearly any project site in Colorado. A reliable and useful policy tool requires the incorporation of hydrologic science with widely applicable, user-friendly design, a challenging balance of rigor and accessibility that is welcomed by engineers and policymakers alike. The daily allowable harvest is determined for each soil group as a percentage of infiltrated rainfall less the groundwater return. Horton’s infiltration method is used to model rainfall‒runoff for a range of soil parameters (NRCS hydrologic soil groups) and precipitation events (0.25- to 25-year return periods and 15-min to 24-h durations). For most events, the percent infiltration is 90% of the precipitation depth; this ratio decreases when precipitation exceeds the infiltration rate. Results are simplified in a spreadsheet tool for policy application, with allowable harvest rules binned by event duration and frequency. Simulations using the tool for a 2010‒2017 precipitation record from Colorado’s Front Range showed that RWH can supply up to 50% of the annual demand for traditional landscaping and over 100% of the water-smart landscaping demand. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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31 pages, 12673 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modified Approach to Reduce GCM Bias in Downscaled Precipitation: A Study in Ganga River Basin

by Chetan Sharma, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha, Anoop Kumar Shukla, Quoc Bao Pham, Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, Chow Ming Fai, Ho Huu Loc and Tran Duc Dung

Water 2019, 11(10), 2097; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102097 - 8 Oct 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4195

Abstract

Reanalysis data is widely used to develop predictor-predictand models, which are further used to downscale coarse gridded general circulation models (GCM) data at a local scale. However, large variability in the downscaled product using different GCMs is still a big challenge. The first objective of this study was to assess the performance of reanalysis data to downscale precipitation using different GCMs. High bias in downscaled precipitation was observed using different GCMs, so a different downscaling approach is proposed in which historical data of GCM was used to develop a predictor-predictand model. The earlier approach is termed “Re-Obs” and the proposed approach as “GCM-Obs”. Both models were assessed using mathematical derivation and generated synthetic series. The intermodal bias in different GCMs downscaled precipitation using Re-Obs and GCM-Obs model was also checked. Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project-5 (CMIP5) data of ten different GCMs was used to downscale precipitation in different urbanized, rural, and forest regions in the Ganga river basin. Different measures were used to represent the relative performances of one downscaling approach over other approach in terms of closeness of downscaled precipitation with observed precipitation and reduction of bias using different GCMs. The effect of GCM spatial resolution in downscaling was also checked. The model performance, convergence, and skill score were computed to assess the ability of GCM-Obs and Re-Obs models. The proposed GCM-Obs model was found better than Re-Obs model to statistically downscale GCM. It was observed that GCM-Obs model was able to reduce GCM-Observed and GCM-GCM bias in the downscaled precipitation in the Ganga river basin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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21 pages, 3455 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Changes of Annual Precipitation and Probability Distributions for Different Climate Types of the World

by Chetan Sharma and Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha

Water 2019, 11(10), 2092; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102092 - 8 Oct 2019

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4157

Abstract

Analysis of Spatio-temporal changes in precipitation (Pre) on the land surface of the earth was the focus of this study. Thiel-Sen median slopes and Modified Mann-Kendall (MMK) test were utilized to draw inferences. Majority of the regions were identified to show an increasing trend of annual precipitation except some of the low to mid-latitude regions in Northern hemisphere. The trends of wet-day frequency (Wet) were found in agreement with precipitation for most of the regions, but the inverse relationship was found for the subtropical regions of Northern hemisphere. These changes were examined for the world climate types based on Koppen-Gieger climate classes. Also, it was tried to find the probability distribution, which best describes the annual precipitation pattern in different climate types of the world among 21 commonly assumed probability distributions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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18 pages, 3176 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Assessing the Potential for Potable Water Savings in the Residential Sector of a City: A Case Study of Joinville City

by Diego Antônio Custódio and Enedir Ghisi

Water 2019, 11(10), 2074; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102074 - 4 Oct 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4121

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential for potable water savings by using rainwater in the residential sector of Joinville, a city located in southern Brazil. Data on roof areas of residential buildings were obtained from the Joinville city council. By considering the roof areas and typologies of residential buildings, representative models were created. The following parameters were used to determine the rainwater tank capacity: the number of dwellers; the total daily water demand per capita; and the rainwater demand. To carry out the simulations for determining the optimal rainwater tank sizes and potential for potable water savings, the computer program Netuno was used to run 33,720 different scenarios. By considering the occurrence percentage for each representative building model (weighted average), the average potential for potable water savings by using rainwater was calculated. The average potential in the central region of Joinville was 18.5% when there is rainwater use only in toilets, and 40.8% when there is rainwater use in toilets and washing machines. The rainwater harvesting system showed a better performance for a rainwater demand equal to 20% of the total daily water demand. The results indicate the necessity to properly size rainwater tank capacities to meet water demands, thereby encouraging more people to adopt rainwater harvesting as an alternative source for non-potable water in buildings. The demand for rainwater should be carefully evaluated, especially in multi-story residential buildings, due to the low availability of roof areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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21 pages, 7053 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preferable Adsorption of Nitrogen and Phosphorus from Agricultural Wastewater Using Thermally Modified Zeolite–Diatomite Composite Adsorbent

by Boyang Zhang, Xiaoling Wang, Songmin Li, Yuyang Liu, Yucheng An and Xiaotong Zheng

Water 2019, 11(10), 2053; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102053 - 30 Sep 2019

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4644

Abstract

Nitrogen and phosphorus adsorbents are widely used to mitigate agricultural non-point source pollution. However, research on adsorbents mainly involves studying chemical adsorption properties, and analyzes of the effects of adsorbent on pollutant removal has not considered the surface morphology of the adsorbent or the surface distribution of pollutants. In this study, we focus on the surface morphology of the adsorbent and the surface distribution of contaminants while examining chemical adsorption properties. The crystal composition of the adsorbent was evaluated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization. Kinetic adsorption data and adsorption isotherms demonstrated that thermally modified zeolite exhibits better nitrogen adsorption. The optimal removal of nitrogen and phosphorus by thermally modified zeolite and diatomite occurred at a 3:2 ratio, reaching a removal rate of 92.07% and 84.61%, respectively. The potential adsorption mechanism of a composite adsorbent for nitrogen and phosphorus capture was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy mapping, grey image recognition, and gradient recognition confirmed a relationship between the surface morphology of the adsorbent and the distribution of surface pollutants. The larger the surface of the gradient, the more uneven it is, the more nitrogen and phosphorus sites are adsorbed on the surface, and the more nitrogen and phosphorus are adsorbed. These results suggest that thermally modified zeolite/diatomite can serve as a promising adsorbent for nitrogen and phosphorus removal in practical applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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23 pages, 7028 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hydrologic Response in an Urban Watershed as Affected by Climate and Land-Use Change

by Mohamed Aboelnour, Margaret W. Gitau and Bernard A. Engel

Water 2019, 11(8), 1603; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11081603 - 2 Aug 2019

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 5006

Abstract

The change in both streamflow and baseflow in urban catchments has received significant attention in recent decades as a result of their drastic variability. In this research, effects of climate variation and dynamics of land use are measured separately and in combination with streamflow and baseflow in the Little Eagle Creek (LEC) watershed (Indianapolis, Indiana). These effects are examined using land-use maps, statistical tests, and hydrological modeling. Transition matrix analysis was used to investigate the change in land use between 1992 and 2011. Temporal trends and changes in meteorological data were evaluated from 1980–2017 using the Mann–Kendall test. Changes in streamflow and baseflow were assessed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model using multiple scenarios that varied in land use and climate change. Evaluation of the model outputs showed streamflow and baseflow in LEC are well represented using SWAT. During 1992–2011, roughly 30% of the watershed experienced change, typically cultivated agricultural areas became urbanized. Baseflow is significantly affected by the observed urbanization; however, the combination of land and climate variability has a larger effect on the baseflow in LEC. Generally, the variability in the baseflow and streamflow appears to be heavily driven by the response to climate change in comparison to variability due to altered land use. The results reported herein expand the current understanding of variation in hydrological components, and provide useful information for management planning regarding water resources, as well as water and soil conservation in urban watersheds in Indiana and beyond. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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11 pages, 1489 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimization of Pressurized Tree-Type Water Distribution Network Using the Improved Decomposition–Dynamic Programming Aggregation Algorithm

by Haomiao Cheng, Yuru Chen, Jilin Cheng, Wenfen Wang, Yi Gong, Liang Wang and Yulin Wang

Water 2019, 11(7), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071391 - 6 Jul 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3450

Abstract

Pressurized tree-type water distribution network (WDN) is widely used in rural water supply projects. Optimization of this network has direct practical significance to reduce the capital cost. This paper developed a discrete nonlinear model to obtain the minimum equivalent annual cost (EAC) of pressurized tree-type WDN. The pump head and pipe diameter were taken into account as the double decision variables, while the pipe head loss and flow velocity were the constraint conditions. The model was solved by using the improved decomposition–dynamic programming aggregation (DDPA) algorithm and applied to a real case. The optimization results showed that the annual investment, depreciation and maintenance cost (W₁) were reduced by 22.5%; however, the pumps’ operational cost (p) increased by 17.9% compared to the actual layout. Overall, the optimal EAC was reduced by 15.2% with the optimized pump head and optimal diameter distribution of the network. This method demonstrated an intrinsic trade-off between investment and operational cost, and provided an efficient decision support tool for least-cost design of pressurized tree-type WDN. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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14 pages, 2726 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In Situ Nutrient Removal from Rural Runoff by A New Type Aerobic/Anaerobic/Aerobic Water Spinach Wetlands

by Ya-Wen Wang, Hua Li, You Wu, Yun Cai, Hai-Liang Song, Zhi-Dong Zhai and Xiao-Li Yang

Water 2019, 11(5), 1100; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11051100 - 26 May 2019

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3954

Abstract

Rural runoff with abundant nutrients has become a great threat to aquatic environment. Hence, more and more attention has been focused on nutrients removal. In this study, an improved aerobic/anaerobic/aerobic three-stage water spinach constructed wetland (O-A-O-CW) was used to improve the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus of rural runoff. The removal rate of the target pollutants in O-A-O-CW was compared with the common matrix flow wetland as well as the no-plant wetland. The results showed that the O-A-O-CW significantly increased the chemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus, ammonium-nitrogen, nitrate, and total nitrogen removal rate, and the corresponding removal rate was 55.85%, 81.70%, 76.64%, 89.78%, and 67.68%, respectively. Moreover, the best hydraulic condition of the wetland, including hydraulic retention time and hydraulic loading, was determined, which were 2 days and 0.45 m³·m⁻²·day⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, the removal mechanism of the constructed wetland was thoroughly studied, which included the adsorption of nitrogen and phosphorus by the matrix and water spinach, and the nitrification and denitrification by the bacteria. The results demonstrated that the mechanisms of nitrogen removal in the new type wetland were principally by the nitrification and denitrification process. Additionally, adsorption and precipitation by the matrix are mainly responsible for phosphorus removal. These results suggested that the new O-A-O-CW can efficiently removal nutrients and enhance the water quality of the rural runoff. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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13 pages, 2380 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Screening and Immobilizing the Denitrifying Microbes in Sediment for Bioremediation

by Yixin Yan, Dafang Fu and Jiayuan Shi

Water 2019, 11(3), 614; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11030614 - 25 Mar 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4915

Abstract

In this study, immobilized microbial beads were proposed as a solution for excessive nitrogen concentration of the river sediment. The predominant denitrifying microbes were screened from the river sediment. The optimized production of immobilized microbial beads and long-term nitrogen removal efficiency were investigated. 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis showed that denitrifying bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Alcaligenes, Proteiniclasticum, Achromobacter and Methylobacillus were dominant microflora in the enriched microbial agent, which accounted for 94.43% of the total microbes. Pseudomonas belongs to Gammaproteo bacteria, accounting for 49.22% and functioned as the most predominant denitrifying bacteria. The material concentration of 8% polyvinyl alcohol, 0.5% sodium alginate and 12.5% microbial biomass were found to be the optimal immobilizing conditions. The NH₄⁺-N and total nitrogen (TN) removal rates in sediment with dosing immobilized microbial beads were estimated as 68.1% and 67.8%, respectively, when compared to the dosing liquid microbial agent were 50.5% and 49.3%. Meanwhile, the NH₄⁺-N and TN removal rates in overlying water went up from 53.14% to 59.69% and from 68.03% to 78.13%, respectively, by using immobilized microbial beads. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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25 pages, 5159 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of TRMM Precipitation Dataset over Himalayan Catchment: The Upper Ganga Basin, India

by Anoop Kumar Shukla, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha, Rajendra Prasad Singh, Lalit Pal and Dafang Fu

Water 2019, 11(3), 613; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11030613 - 25 Mar 2019

Cited by 46 | Viewed by 6881

Abstract

Satellite based rainfall estimation techniques have emerged as a potential alternative to ground based rainfall measurements. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation, in particular, has been used in various climate and hydrology based studies around the world. While having wide possibilities, TRMM rainfall estimates are found to be inconsistent with the ground based rainfall measurements at various locations such as the southwest coast and Himalayan region of India, northeast parts of USA, Lake Victoria in Africa, La Plata basin in South America, etc. In this study, the applicability of TRMM estimates is evaluated over the Upper Ganga Basin (Himalayan catchment) by comparing against gauge-based India Meteorological Department (IMD) gridded precipitation records. Apart from temporal evaluation, the ability of TRMM in capturing spatial distribution is also examined using three statistical parameters namely correlation coefficient (r), mean absolute error (MAE) and relative bias (RBIAS). In the results, the dual nature of bias is evident in TRMM precipitation with rainfall magnitude falling in the range from 100 to 370 mm representing positive bias, whereas, rainfall magnitude above 400 mm, approximately, representing negative bias. The Quantile Mapping (QM) approach has been used to correct the TRMM dataset from these biases. The raw TRMM precipitation is found to be fairly correlated with IMD rainfall for post-monsoon and winter season with R² values of 0.65 and 0.57, respectively. The R² value of 0.41 is obtained for the monsoon season, whereas least correlation is found for the pre-monsoon season with an R² value of 0.24. Moreover, spatial distribution of rainfall during post-monsoon and winter season is captured adequately; however, the limited efficiency of TRMM is reflected for pre-monsoon and monsoon season. Bias correction has satisfactorily enhanced the spatial distribution of rainfall obtained from TRMM for almost all the seasons except for monsoon. Overall, the corrected TRMM precipitation dataset can be used for various climate analyses and hydrological water balance based studies in the Himalayan river basins. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Urban Water Accounting)

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