Journal: Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks

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Routledge

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Publications 1 - 3 of 3
  • Sanitation systems
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Maurer, Max (2023)
    Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks ~ Routledge Handbook of Urban Water Governance
    Hybrid wastewater systems can be defined as the coexistence of centralized and modular systems in the same catchment. Currently, we have no explicit knowledge if such hybrid systems can be stable over the long term or if modular systems always will be a stopgap solution. Current evidence indicates that, depending on the settlement structure, centralized systems can have diseconomies of scale, and modelling studies show that there are conditions where hybrid systems are cost-effective. Decisive factors are the costs of modular systems and the heterogeneity of urban areas. Overall, there are good reasons to believe that fortifying centralized systems with modular systems enable overcoming some of the critical weaknesses of the one-size-fits-all centralized systems approach. However, centralized systems show strong path dependencies. Besides a wide range of institutional and organizational barriers, current engineering economic and planning methodologies also need to be improved and adapted. From a purely engineering perspective, the following research needs can be identified: (i) long-term transition planning tools that are spatially explicit and can consider a wide range of modular technologies; (ii) cross-sectoral integration methodologies; (iii) better methods to integrate multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to consider the broader range of benefits hybrid systems can provide; and (iv) improved engineering economic methodologies considering uncertainties, unused capacity, and the value of adaptability.
  • Rethinking urban water governance and infrastructure in Europe
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Lieberherr, Eva; Hüesker, Frank; Pakizer, Katrin (2023)
    Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks ~ Routledge Handbook of Urban Water Governance
    Contemporary urban water governance focuses on advancing water infrastructures, including re-regulation reforms and calls for sustainability developments. This raises questions about the “right” scale of water governance, such as the degree of organizational consolidation and autonomy. On the one hand, the regional level is emerging as a focal area within which water governance occurs, as regionalization reforms propose to widen the scale of water governance from the local or municipal to the catchment level. On the other hand, reforms pushing for organizational autonomy – to increase economic efficiency – have led to parts of the water system being consolidated, while others have been decentralized. Governance reforms thus can stand at odds with each other, as some focus on the centralization of water management with horizontal coordination across municipal governments, while others emphasize flat hierarchies and increased autonomy, which may involve fragmentation of water management and organization. In this chapter we investigate the arguments for and against regionalization and organizational autonomy as two governance reforms. We address this question by reviewing the governance literature and by looking at how these reforms work in practice, taking a detailed look at the German model of water governance, where we find differing degrees of resistance toward both regionalization and organizational autonomy reforms.
  • Actor networks in urban water governance
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Fischer, Manuel; Ingold, Karin; Duygan, Mert; et al. (2023)
    Routledge Environment and Sustainability Handbooks ~ Routledge Handbook of Urban Water Governance
    A network perspective to urban water governance provides a useful analytical perspective. Network approaches allow systematic descriptions and analysis of the structure of interactions among actors and technical elements. This chapter presents conceptual approaches, theoretical elements, and methodological tools related to actor networks in urban water governance. The chapter starts by presenting theoretical aspects and related research questions at the intersection of network governance and urban water governance. After an introduction to the main concepts and measures of Social Network Analysis, the chapter focuses on how network approaches can help in analyzing processes of digitalization and decentralization, not least with the concept of sociotechnical network approaches that combine actor networks with technical networks.
Publications 1 - 3 of 3