A path towards "one water" community : performance assessment and benchmarking
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Engineering, School of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Pokhrel, Sarin Raj
issued: 2023-05-03T19:57:06Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: An urban water system (UWS) has three main service components: (i) drinking water; (ii) wastewater; and (iii) stormwater. Historically, each component in urban water development evolved with different objectives for “different” types of water. Even today, the trend continues, as urban water services are managed in silos. The silo-based approaches are less sustainable, resilient, and reliable, mainly because of significant pressures on freshwater supplies exerted by the increasing population, high living standards, rapid urbanization, and climate change uncertainties. To cope with these challenges, conventional thinking needs to change. An innovative paradigm, the “One Water” approach (OWA), which considers “urban water” as a single entity, is the need of the hour. Currently, Australia, USA, and Singapore are leading the implementation of the OWA whereas the EU nations have emphasized the need for integrating water resource management (reflecting the One Water concept) in an urban environment. Only a few Canadian municipalities have embraced OWA at a very preliminary level. This research aimed to develop an OWA-based framework to improve urban water sustainability, resiliency, and reliability. The research entailed five phases. Phase 1 identified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater performance individually. Phase 2 developed a performance assessment model that benchmarked UWS performance, determined weaknesses, and recommended necessary interventions to enhance overall performance. Phase 3 provided a bigger picture of OWA (definition and scope) concept, existing practices, and challenges to implementing OWA in a real-world environment. In addition, it also developed an optimization model to identify the optimum water conservation strategies to reduce potable water use. Phase 4 developed and prioritized OWA indicators to evaluate integrated UWS (IUWS) performance and measure water systems’ sustainability, resiliency…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/84552
note: A PATH TOWARDS ‘ONE WATER’ COMMUNITY: PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND BENCHMARKING by Sarin Raj Pokhrel MASc, Civil Engineering, The University of British Columbia, 2019 B.Tech. Civil Engineering, Invertis University, 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Civil Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) April 2023 ©Sarin Raj Pokhrel, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read and recommended to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: A Path towards ‘One Water’ Community: Performance Assessment and Benchmarking Submitted by Sarin Raj Pokhrel in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Examining Committee: Dr. Rehan Sadiq, School of Engineering Supervisor Dr. Kasun Hewage, School of Engineering Co-Supervisor Dr. Sepideh Pakpour, School of Engineering Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Nicolas Peleato, School of Engineering Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Nathan Pelletier, Biology, Faculty of Management University Examiner Dr. Usman Khan, York University, School of Engineering External Examiner iii Abstract An urban water system (UWS) has three main service components: (i) drinking water; (ii) wastewater; and (iii) stormwater. Historically, each component in urban water development evolved with different objectives for “different” types of water. Even today, the trend continues, as urban water services are managed in silos. The silo-based approaches are less sustainable, resilient, and reliable, mainly because of significant pressures on freshwater supplies exerted by the increasing population, high living standards, rapid urbanization, and climate change uncertainties. To cope with these challenges, conventional thinking needs to change. An innovative paradigm, the “One Water” approach (OWA), which considers “urban water” as a single entity, is the need of the hour.…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0431604
language: eng
degree discipline: Civil Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Sadiq, Rehan
contributor: Hewage, Kasun
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84552