Water Conservation: Practices, Challenges & Future Implications

Adverse impacts of climate change are evident in many regions of the world and are likely to get worse in the future. Ever increasing urbanisation is also adding to the magnitude of severity in regards to both quantity and quality. Urban water resources and components of water cycles are likely to be affected severely. To minimise consequences on world water resources, a sustainable water resources management strategy is inevitable. Water conservation in general is a salient part of sustainable water resources management. This book describes several water conservation and recycling options, practices, consequences and future implications showing case studies in different countries around the world. Among all the water recycling options, stormwater and greywater recycling is easily achievable. Initial chapters of the book deal with stormwater harvesting options through rainwater tanks in household scale; design optimisation, and water savings and reliability of such systems around different cities of the world. A review of traditional design practice and future efficient design methodology is also outlined. Also, a scientific approach for selecting an appropriate stormwater system at the authority/institutional level has been proposed. Later chapters describe public acceptance, reuse potentials and benefits of greywater recycling options. In addition, non-structural measures (water pricing and restrictions on water usage) of water conservation have been investigated through a case study. Moving downward, to look at water quality issues, impacts of land-use and land-cover changes on lake water conservation have been presented. Eventually, to be able achieve the final goal, real-life challenges in the transition towards adaptive water governance have been presented with a case study in the USA. See more