The end of the sectoral approach? Understanding the role of integration in urban water management

Urban areas are highly dependent on their urban water systems, which provide essential services such as access to clean drinking water, public health protection, and flood control. Global developments increasingly threaten the provision of these services: changing weather patterns, ongoing urbanization processes, and depleting natural resources...

Understanding cross-sectoral innovations for urban water management through the lens of organizational ambidexterity

Urban water systems worldwide need integrated, cross-sectoral innovations to anticipate developments like climate change and population growth. Development and implementation of such innovations is challenging due to the operational and sectoral mindset of organizations in which these innovations take place. This study uses the concept of...

The role of integration for future urban water systems: Identifying Dutch urban water practitioners' perspectives using Q methodology

Urban water systems are under increased pressure from ongoing developments like climate change, population growth and urbanization. While it is clear that current urban water challenges need a more integrated approach, practitioners disagree on what such an integrated approach means exactly. Integration could therefore be described as a...

Towards the integrated management of urban water systems: Conceptualizing integration and its uncertainties

Climate change and urbanization, as well as growing environmental and economic concerns, highlight the limitations of traditional wastewater practices and thereby challenge the management of urban water systems. Both in theory and in practice, it has been widely acknowledged that the challenges of the twenty-first century require solutions...

Root causes of failures in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS): an exploratory study in 11 municipalities in the Netherlands

Despite being widely implemented, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) do not always function flawlessly. While SUDS have been tested extensively and seem to perform well on a laboratory or pilot scale, practitioners’ experience is different: failures in SUDS occur regularly in practice, resulting in malfunctioning systems, water...

De toekomst van het stedelijk watersysteem: Opereren in een stad vol transities

Gedreven door ontwikkelingen zoals klimaatverandering, verstedelijking en digitalisering zien we in het stedelijk watersysteem steeds vaker oplossingen ‘buiten de buis’. Oplossingen zoals publieke pleinen met een waterbergende functie, polderdaken met een dynamische waterberging, zwembaden verwarmd met warmte uit (afval)water; het zijn allemaal...

Statistical modelling of Fat, Oil and Grease (FOG) deposits in wastewater pump sumps

The accumulation of FOG (Fat, Oil and Grease) deposits in sewer pumping stations results in an increase in maintenance costs, malfunctioning of pumps and, a potential increase of wastewater spills in receiving open water bodies. It is thought that a variety of parameters (e.g. geometry of the pump sump, pump operation, socioeconomic...

A study on the relationship between fat, oil and grease (FOG) deposits in sewer systems and FOG disposal patterns

Fat, oil and grease (FOG) deposits are one of the leading causes of sewer system blockages, thereby increasing the risks of undesired and polluting flooding and sewer overflows. FOG accumulates throughout the entire sewer network; e.g., in public sewer pipes and lateral house connections it reduces the available discharge capacity, and in pump...