trevor hill, global water resources - water & cities

Opportunities for Designing Opportunities for Designing our Water Futureour Water Future

Infrastructure and InformationInfrastructure and InformationTrevor Hill

Global Water Resources

Source: UN FAO (http://www.fao.org/nr/water/art/2008/wateruse.htm) and UN “World at Six Billion”

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Population

By 2025, 1.8 billion of the world’s projected 8.9 billion people will be living in countries or

regions that are experiencing “absolute water scarcity”, and two-thirds of the world population

could be under conditions of water stress

The Reality of Water Pressures

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Water Sustainability

Source: Milly, et al, “Stationarity is Dead: Whither Water Management?”, Science, 1 Feb 2008

“The world today faces the enormous, dual challenges of renewing its decaying water

infrastructure and building new water infrastructure. Now is an opportune moment to

update the analytic strategiesused for planning such grand investments under

an uncertain and changing climate.”

Arid City of the Future

“In the20th century we built this water system and it brings incredibly high quality potable water to our homes,

and we use it to drink and to flush our toilets and to water our lawns. It's a crazy use of a wonderful resource.”

Peter Gleick, Fresh Air, WHYY, November 27, 2007

Arid City of the Future

“…figuring out how to match the quality of the water that we have with the quality of water and the different uses that we need is part of this new

thinking for the 21st century.”

Peter Gleick, Fresh Air, WHYY, November 27, 2007

Arid City of the Future

Source: USEPA

Infrastructure – Dual Reticulation

Water Efficiency of Recycled Water

Power Efficiency of Recycled Water

Source: R.C. Wilkinson, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007

Arid City of the Future

Desalination

Reuse

The Need for Data

“A key to improving efficiency is understanding where, when, and why

we use water.”

Source: P. Gleick, Roadmap for sustainable water resources in southwestern North America, PNAS, 14 Dec 2010

Smart Grid for Water

Utility

Consumers

CMMSCIS

GIS

SCADA

Information

Data

Results

Results

Water Sustainability

“As a species, we have survived knowing very little about our water systems. We have always known where to find it and how to use it, but we never gained an intimate understanding of how to preserve or sustain these systems.

“But we will not have the luxury of this ignorance in the future.”

Source: Water – A Global Innovation Outlook Report, IBM, 24 March 2009