Guiding urban water management towards 1.5 °C
Simon Parkinson
Abstract
Abstract Reliable access to clean and affordable water is prerequisite for human well being, but its provision in cities generates environmental externalities including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As policy-makers target opportunities to mitigate GHGs in line with the Paris Agreement, it remains vague how urban water management can contribute to the goal of limiting climate warming to 1.5 °C. This perspective guides policy-makers in the selection of innovative technologies and strategies for leveraging urban water management as a climate change mitigation solution. Recent literature, data and scenarios are reviewed to shine a light on the GHG mitigation potential and the key areas requiring future research. Increasing urban water demands in emerging economies and over-consumption in developed regions pose mitigation challenges due to energy and material requirements that can be partly offset through end-use water conservation and expansion of decentralized, nature-based solutions. Policies that integrate urban water and energy flows, or reconfigure urban water allocation at the river basin-level remain untapped mitigation solutions with large gaps in our understanding of potentials.