The Water Sensitive City

This book sets out a path for a sustainable relationship between cities and water and brings together theory, practical application and case studies. Water is essential for life but is taken for granted. It's now becoming clear that the Victorian approach to urban water will not solve problems associated with growing population, migration of people to cities and climate change. The current use of water by cities is unsustainable. Cities in particular need to change the existing linear model of water consumption and use to a more circular one in order to survive. Aquifers all over the world, including some that have taken millions of years to form, are predicted to dry up in the coming decades. Reservoirs like Lake Mead near Las Vegas, once believed to have permanently solved water supply problems, are falling to dangerously low levels. In The Water Sensitive City, the author advocates a more thoughtful approach to urban water management, including for example, exponents of the Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) approach in Australia and Low Impact Development in the US. This new approach involves reducing water consumption, harvesting rainwater, recycling rainwater and adopting Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) where surface water is not sent straight to drains but is intercepted by features like green roofs, rain gardens, swales and ponds. This conserves water, reduces flooding, cleans water - and therefore streams, rivers and seas and is compatible with the greener city and green infrastructure agendas, developed by policy makers worldwide to make cities more liveable. Urban water management can no longer be left to the specialists; it must be addressed by today's designers (engineers, architects and landscape architects); urban planners and managers; as well as by environmental managers and policymakers.