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Development of the Integrated Urban Water Management Tool (WERF Report INFR4SG09c)
Citation:
Reichel, B. I., S. Sharvelle, AND L. A. Roesner. Development of the Integrated Urban Water Management Tool (WERF Report INFR4SG09c). Water Environment Research Foundation, Alexandria, VA, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Reviews available water management practices for conservation, reuse, and wastewater production. Introduces the Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) tool and provides instruction for its use. Demonstrates the application of IUWM to five cities in different hydrologic regions.
Description:
The challenges of addressing the needs of aging water and wastewater infrastructure require new management approaches. Benefits including water savings, cost savings, and reduced wastewater production may be realized through the adoption of new integrated water management concepts such as treated wastewater effluent and/or graywater reuse, rainfall harvesting, and other similar techniques. Determining which water management practices are best suited to a particular urban area can be a difficult task as costs, climate, and population characteristics vary across regions. Consequently, WERF researchers have developed a tool. The Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) tool has been developed by the Urban Water Center at Colorado State University to aid urban planners and utility managers in the assessment of which water management practices may prove most beneficial to their communities. These practices include: indoor conservation, irrigation conservation, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) reuse for irrigation, graywater reuse for toilet flushing and irrigation,and stormwater capture reuse for irrigation. The model is native to the Windows operating environment and includes a graphical user interface through which the user can easily add information about their region and assess the potential benefits of the included water management practices. IUWM was applied to five cities in different climatological regions of the United States with some simplifying assumptions and results are included in the report. The example applications serve as both an example of how IUWM may be used and demonstrates its capabilities. The results of the study reveal that hydrologic conditions impact the effectiveness of selected water management practices. [NOTE: The link below connects to a WERF site where the Final Report can be downloaded for free, after registering at the WERF site. For some projects the Executive Summary is available and can be downloaded for free without registering on the WERF site.]
