A study into the supply, demand, economic, social and institutional aspects of optimising water supply to metropolitan Adelaide - preliminary research findings: Summary report from Project U2.2

Urban and Regional Planning not elsewhere classified;Environmental Management

Cuddy, Susan ; Maheepala, Shiroma ; Dandy, Graeme ; Thyer, Mark ; Hatton Macdonald, Darla ; McKay, Jennifer ; Leonard, Rosemary ; Bellette, Kathryn ; Arbon, Nicole ; Marchi, Angela ; Kandulu, John ; Wu, Wenyan ; Keremane, Ganesh ; Wu, Zhifang ; Mirza, Fareed ; Daly, Robert ; Kotz, Steve ; Thomas, Shaun

Goyder Institute for Water Research

RP-ID  :  EP147604

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

澳大利亚|英语

来源: CSIRO Research Publications Repository

【 摘 要 】

In November 2012, the Goyder Institute for Water Research funded a research programme as a contribution to the building of a strong information base to inform debate on how best to underpin an efficient and sustainable water supply for metropolitan Adelaide, now and into the future, due to the likely impacts of a drying climate and population growth. Metropolitan Adelaide has multiple sources of water - surface water, groundwater, desalinated water, stormwater, roof or rain water, recycled water and the River Murray - that can be utilised and managed for supplying the city’s water needs. Using those sources in combination requires consideration of an appropriate balance across objectives such as supply security, economic cost, social preferences and environmental impacts. The research programme, project U2.2 within the Goyder Institute for Water Research’s urban water portfolio, was designed to explore these considerations through:- engaging with stakeholders to provide an effective communication pathway and an agreed basis for evaluating alternative water supply mixes- providing a model that simulates the supply, demand and stormwater and wastewater discharge dynamics of Metropolitan Adelaide water supply system- developing a multi‐objective optimisation methodology to assess trade‐offs- monitoring household water use to better predict demand- performing legal and governance analysis in delivering water solutions- conducting economic analysis of the direct and indirect costs of supplying water from the multiple sources- improving understanding of social values and preferences regarding water solutions.The project team was drawn from researchers at the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia, Flinders University, CSIRO and SA Water, with contributions from EPA, the SA Departments of Environment, Water and Natural Resources; and Planning, and the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management (AMLRNRMB). The project concluded in early 2014.The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of this research and its preliminary research findings, and how those findings may be used to inform discussion about managing the city’s water now and into the future. The contents of this report are drawn from the suite of material written by the project team to report the details of their investigations.1.1 Water sourcesThe project considered seven water sources and demand management (water efficiency and reduced demand) for a range of potable and non‐potable purposes:- supply from the Mount Lofty Ranges catchments- pumping from the River Murray- desalinated seawater- groundwater- harvested stormwater- recycled wastewater- roof or rainwater captured in rainwater tanks- demand management, including various household appliances.Detailed descriptions of these sources and demand management, agreed by the project team with its stakeholders, are provided in Appendix B .1.2 Integrated urban water management (IUWM) decision support frameworkTo bring together all the necessary components to evaluate and select optimal mixes of water sources for cities and towns required the development of an integration framework. This framework uses a systems analysis approach, taking into account technical, economic,environmental and social factors to assess combinations of traditional and alternative water sources. When applied to planning studies, this approach incorporates IUWM principles such as minimising usage of resources to provide urban water services (e.g. fresh water, energy, materials); minimising wastes generated from the urban water system through recovering resources from wastes; enhancing liveability by providing acceptable levels of service; and improving the wellbeing of ecosystems.The IUWM DSF comprises eight components (Figure 1):1. Identify overall goals, i.e. identifying the purpose of applying the IUWM DSF. For example, for this study, the purpose of applying the IUWM DSF was to inform po...