In our current economic model, manufactured capital, human capital, and natural capital all contribute to human welfare by supporting the production of goods and services in the economic process, where natural capital—the world’s stock of natural resources (provided by nature before their extraction or processing by humans)—is typically used for material and energy inputs into production and acts as a ‘sink’ for waste from the economic process.1 This economic model can be best described as ‘linear’ which typically involves economic actors2—who are people or organisations engaged in any of the four economic activities of production, distribution, consumption, and resource maintenance—harvesting and extracting natural resources, using them to manufacture a product, and selling a product to other economic actors, who then discard it when it no longer serves its purpose.3
In the linear economy, following the Take-Make-Dispose model, the water sector typically employs the Take-Use-Discharge strategy. In this strategy, water is ‘withdrawn’ from streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, oceans, and groundwater reservoirs as well as harvested directly as rainwater. Water is then ‘used’ by municipalities, industries, agriculture, the environment, etc. within the water cycle, including for consumptive and non-consumptive uses. Non-consumptive used water is ‘returned’ to the river basin directly or via a municipal treatment facility. Depending on the location within the basin this returned water could then be used downstream or lost to the basin. While the current linear economic model has generated an unprecedented level of growth, the model has led to constraints on the availability of water resources in addition to the generation of waste and environmental degradation from a variety of climatic and non-climatic trends.
In response to climate change, increasing resource scarcity, and environmental degradation, governments around the world are implementing a variety of policies to encourage the transition towards the ‘circular economy’ that focuses on reducing material consumption, reusing materials, and recovering materials from waste. In the context of water resources management, water utilities are beginning to promote the circular water economy
that reduces
water consumption, reuses
and recycles
water and wastewater, and recovers
materials, including heat and minerals, from water and wastewater to not only mitigate greenhouse gas emissions but also enhance resilience
to climate change from efficiency gained in reducing water consumption and reusing water for various activities.
There is however no systematic survey of the various policy solutions water utilities have implemented to encourage the development of the circular water economy that mitigates emissions while enhancing the resilience
of communities and populations to climate change in the providing of water- and wastewater-related services. Instead, the majority of texts focus on the engineering and hard science aspects of the circular economy or on developments in particular facets of water resources management.
Developing the Circular Water Economy surveys the various technology policies used in leading locations to encourage the development of the circular water economy. The book will define the term ‘technologies’ according to the use by UNEP-DHI, which classifies technologies as hardware (physical infrastructure and technical equipment on the ground), software (‘soft technologies’ including approaches, processes, and methodologies including planning and decision support systems, models, knowledge transfer, and building capacity), and ‘orgware’ (organisation technologies for instance, organisation, ownership, and institutional arrangements).
Specifically, under each heading of reduce
, reuse and recycle
, and recover
, Developing the Circular Water Economy surveys the various technology policies implemented by water utilities to develop the circular water economy
that mitigates emissions and enhances resilience
to climate change. Finally, readers are provided with an array of case studies of leading locations from around the world that have implemented policy solutions to encourage the emergence of the circular water economy.
Following this chapter, the book’s chapter synopsis is as follows:
- Chapter 2 discusses the impacts of climate change on water quantity and water quality.
- Chapter 3 provides readers with an overview of the major, long-term non-climatic challenges to managing water in the linear water economy.
- Chapter 4 introduces the concept of the circular water economy before discussing its contribution to mitigating emissions and enhancing resilience to climate change.
- Chapters 5–7 provides readers with an understanding of the terms ‘reduce ’, ‘reuse’ and ‘recycle ’, and ‘recover’ in the context of the circular water economy.
- Chapters 8–14 provides readers with case studies on the development of the circular water economy in a variety of locations around the world.
- Chapter 15 provides readers with a series of best practices for other locations around the world developing the circular water economy.
- Chapter 16 concludes from the case studies that developing the circular water economy requires innovative policies.
Notes
- 1.Edward B. Barbier, “The Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development,” Australian Economic Papers 42, no. 2 (2003).
- 2.Neva Goodwin, Jonathan Harris, Julie A. Nelson, Brian Roach, and Mariano Torras, Microeconomics in Context (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2013).
- 3.World Economic Forum, “Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the Scale-Up Across Global Supply Chains,” (2014), http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ENV_TowardsCircularEconomy_Report_2014.pdf.
References
- Barbier, Edward B. “The Role of Natural Resources in Economic Development.” Australian Economic Papers 42, no. 2 (2003): 253–72.Crossref
- Brears, R. C. Natural Resource Management and the Circular Economy. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2018.
- Goodwin, Neva, Jonathan Harris, Julie A. Nelson, Brian Roach, and Mariano Torras. Microeconomics in Context. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2013.
- World Economic Forum. “Towards the Circular Economy: Accelerating the Scale-Up Across Global Supply Chains.” (2014). http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_ENV_TowardsCircularEconomy_Report_2014.pdf.