Water Centric Sustainable Communities: Planning, Retrofitting, and Building the Next Urban Environment [Hardcover]

The current literature compartmentalizes the complex issue of water and wastewater into its discrete components; technology, planning, policy, construction, economics, etc.? Considered from the perspective of sustainability, however, water in the urban environment must be approached as a single resource that can be continuously reused and recycled.? This book will be the first to capture all of the current work on this idea in a single, integrated, plan for designing the water-centric cities of the future.? From new construction to the retrofitting of existing systems, this book presents the case for a new urban relationship to water, one with a more sustainable?connection to?the environment and the hydrological cycle.? Through case studies of successfully planned and built systems around the world, the book will educate the reader about the need for a new approach to urban water management, and make the case that these changes are not only possible but imperative.

Preface xii

I Historic Paradigms of Urban Waterstormwater Wastewater Management and Drivers for Change 1

I.1 Introduction 1

I.2 Historic Paradigms: From Ancient Cities to the 20th Century 5

I.2.1 First Paradigm 8

I.2 Second Paradigm 9

I.2.3 Third Paradigm 15

I.2.4 Fourth Paradigm 25

I.2.5 The Impact of Automobile Use 32

I.2.6 Urban Sprawl 38

I.2.7 The Rise of New Great Powers Competing for Resources 40

I.3 Drivers for Change towards Sustainability 42

I.3.1 Population Increases and Pressures 44

I.3.2 Water Scarcity Problems and Flooding Challenges of Large Cities 49

I.3 Greenhouse Emissions and Global Warming Effects 51

I.3.4 Aging Infrastructure and the Need to Rebuild and Retrofit 59