Managing Water for the City of the Future

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Planners and decision makers working for local government or water utilities, as well as other interested stakeholders may benefit from the SWITCH suite of decision support tools. The tools are directed at integrated assessment of different options for urban water management.

Focus 1: City Water – A comprehensive DSS designed to assess the urban water cycle as a whole
The City Water tools is an information and knowledge sharing platform to support collaborative groups, such as Learning Alliances, in a planning process based on scenario analysis and strategy development.

• City Water Information System – includes a system viewer, a system documentation module, GIS, an import/export module, and more
• City Water Balance – a scoping model for assessing the dynamic balances of water, energy and pollutants at the city scale
• City Water Economics – explores the potential economic implications of future strategies on urban water management by analysing scenarios for cost recovery & economic drivers for change (financing, pricing and subsidies)
• City Water Drain – provides decision makers with information on the performance of the existing urban drainage system, its impact on the receiving water, and how this performance would be affected by different strategic options and scenarios including climate change and increasing urban population
• City Water Future – allows evaluation of stakeholder responses to alternative strategies for coping with different scenarios. This system uses an Agent-Based Model, adopting concepts from artificial intelligent technology

Focus 2: Additional SWITCH DSS tools for more detailed investigation of urban water cycle components
More detailed investigations as follow-up or support to strategic planning require tools that are able to perform detailed evaluations of infrastructure components or management approaches.

• SUDSloc – GIS based approach to selecting stormwater management solutions
• Eco.SWM – Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) tool: Calculation tool to carry out life cycle cost assessments of stormwater management solutions
• COFAS – Comparing the Flexibility of alternative Solutions: Tool to calculate the flexibility of different water management solutions
• "Jericho" Decision Support System – evaluates options of water resources allocation under conditions of scarcity and potential for wastewater reuse, using sustainability indicators
• SETNAWWAT – Selection tool for natural wastewater treatment systems
• SOMA – the "SWITCH Organic Micropollutants Assessment" tool facilitates the design and operation of Bank Filtration systems in the reduction of selected groups of OMPs

Focus 3: Case-studies on selecting approaches and technologies for urban water cycle management
The suite of tools has been applied to a number of case studies, bringing out the practical relevance of the tools for urban water managers.

• City Water Balance applied to Birmingham
• City Water Future applied to Birmingham
• City Water Drain (Coupled 1D-2D flood modelling) applied in Belo Horizonte
• A case study on water allocation and reuse options in Jericho
• Optimising Sewer System Rehabilitation Strategies in Belo Horizonte
• Urban water management strategies based on a total urban water cycle model and energy aspects – Case study for Tel Aviv
• Tools and case studies on innovative water demand management – VENSIM applied to Zaragosa

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