Transition Management to Promote Sustainable Water Management. Sustainable Water Supply and Sewage Disposal Infrastructure in Municipalities (July 2007-December 2009)

Description :

Municipal water management is founded upon a central system of water supply and sewage disposal facilities and networks which emerged over a long period of time. Until now the generally accepted rule was that in areas with mid to high population densities, centralized and uniform systems held decisive technical and economical advantages over de- or semicentralized systems. It was not until the emergence of the phenomenon of (socio-demographic) contraction in former East Germany that an entirely new problem arose: quantitative functional thresholds were reached as a result of under-utilization. Since this is also a basic trend in former West Germany , taking a closer look at individual cases and investigating urban service systems' scope for transformation are worthwhile undertakings. In numerous trial municipalities the feasibility of intelligent system solutions, in this case the linking of centralized and semi-centralized system alternatives, is to be analyzed using selected methods of participative scenario planning. This will incorporate cities undergoing a process of contraction, cities experiencing instances of fluctuation in certain areas, and cities with growing populations which result in stagnating or rising consumptio