Exploring wastewater system performance under future threats: Does enhancing resilience increase sustainability?
Chris Sweetapple1, Guangtao Fu1, Raziyeh Farmani1
1Centre for Water Systems, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QF, United Kingdom.
Water Research
|November 26, 2018
Summary
Enhancing wastewater system resilience does not automatically improve sustainability. A new framework reveals that resilience interventions can have varied sustainability impacts, highlighting the need for careful consideration of future conditions and potential trade-offs.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Engineering
- Urban Water Management
- System Resilience
Background:
- Wastewater systems require both sustainability and resilience.
- The relationship between resilience and sustainability is not well understood.
- Impacts of resilience enhancement on sustainability are unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a framework for analyzing resilience interventions' effects on wastewater system sustainability.
- To apply this framework to an urban wastewater system case study.
- To identify tipping points and trade-offs between resilience and sustainability.
Main Methods:
- Developed a novel sustainability assessment approach.
- Captured a continuum of potential future conditions.
- Identified tipping points for system sustainability.
- Applied the framework to an urban wastewater system, assessing pump capacity increase.
Main Results:
- Resilience-enhancing interventions do not guarantee universal sustainability improvements.
- Negative sustainability effects vary with future conditions (e.g., rainfall, imperviousness).
- Trade-offs between sustainability indicators exist regardless of future conditions.
- Tipping points exist where resilience interventions cease to be sustainable.
Conclusions:
- Proposing resilience measures requires evaluating potential sustainability impacts.
- System sustainability is sensitive to future conditions and threat magnitudes.
- Interventions must be assessed for long-term sustainability under various future scenarios.
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