CIV558/CIV658

Sustainable development and climate

change–energy-environment nexus

Presented by:
Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Gökçekuş
 Content

 Section 1: Chapter 4
 Section 2: Homework 4
 Section 1:
Water and Sustainability
 Water in Cities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImzNmJT3_OA
 Water challenges in cities

 The majority of the world’s population live in cities.

 Because by far most resources are consumed here, the current and future
challenge to achieve human well-being, sustainable use of natural
resources and economic growth is particularly large for urban areas.
 Approximately 80% of the world’s GDP (Gross domestic product) is
produced in cities, and 75% of the global energy and material flows are
consumed in cities as well.
 The pressure and potential for innovation by sharing of knowledge
amongst cities will only increase due to vast urbanization and urban
sensitivity to climate change.
 The urban water cycle has an essential role in this process.
 Cont.

 Currently, over half of the word population lives in cities, in

flood prone areas along the coast and major rivers .
 Cont.

 In the coming 40 years urbanization is projected to increase

with more than 2 billion people, meaning that two third of the
world population will live in cities by 2050.
Cont.
 Cont.

 This rapid urban growth will mostly take place in

developing countries where it causes immediate water
related challenges.
 Currently, basic needs are insufficiently met since over 600
million people still do not have access to safe drinking water
and 2.5 billion people lack improved sanitation facilities.
 According to WHO 2012, diseases related to unsafe water
caused by inadequate sanitation and hygiene lead to an
estimated 1.7 million deaths a year.
 Cont.

 Furthermore, costs of climate change are in general high and

will further increase, although they will differ per region.
 For example, Europe is expected to be only moderately
impacted by climate change according to IPCC (2013), still
the calculated damage of 240 billion US$ by 2080 is
significant.
 Large investments in urban climate adaptation and mitigation
are therefore necessary.
Water challenges in cities: Flooding

 Rapid urbanization leads to urban developments in flood

prone areas, large scale surface water pollution and depletion
of freshwater resources.
 Most cities are vulnerable to flooding and sweater intrusion
because they are located in the vicinity of rivers and seas.
 Sea level rise and the increase in extreme river discharges
poses a projected 15% of the global population at risk of
flooding. This is mainly in urban areas including almost all
worlds’ mega-cities.
 Cont.

 Importantly, cost-effective urban flood protection can often be

attainable because of high concentrations of people and assets.
 Furthermore, impacts of floods by extreme rainfall will become
more severe due to global warming.
 Often urban soil is largely sealed by buildings and paved
infrastructure.
 Hence, rainwater cannot infiltrate which results in reduced
groundwater recharge, and increased risk of urban drainage
flooding. This affects many cities around the world including
unexpected places such as the city of Copenhagen.
 Water challenges in cities: Water
scarcity

 Approximately 30% of the megacities’ population lives in

arid areas. By 2030, the world will experience an estimated
40% fresh water shortage.
 Global water demand will increase by 55% between 2000 and
2050 and over 40% of the world’s population is projected to
live in river basins under severe water stress.
 Furthermore, water withdrawals are estimated to increase by
50% in 2025 in developing countries, and by 18% in
developed countries.
 Cont.

 According to IPCC (2013), climate change will cause

increased droughts, limit freshwater availability, groundwater
recharge and will amplify the spread of water-borne diseases.
 Water challenges in cities: Water
pollution

 Access to clean water is a precondition for life, human

activity and sustainable development.
 Cities are large emitters of nutrients and contaminants that
reduces biodiversity and human health.
 The ’urban stream syndrome’ describes a consistently
observed degradation of streams fed by urban areas.
 Key mechanism explaining this ‘’urban stream syndrome’’ is
an efficient drainage system together with large urban waste
production.
 Cont.

 Untreated sewer discharges, combined sewer overflows, solid

waste pollution and storm water runoff are the largest causes
of urban water pollution.
 Storm water runoff from sealed surfaces such as asphalt and
concrete hinder infiltration and generates runoff peaks.
 This water is polluted with e.g. oil, grease and toxins from
motor vehicles, road salts and heavy metals from roofs.
 These pollutants cannot be adequately purified by
vegetation or processes in the soil. Therefore, secondary
wastewater treatment is a prerequisite for sufficient water
quality.
 Cont.

 Hence, improved access to sanitation has to be combined with

wastewater treatment in order to avoid enlarged wastewater
drainage efficiencies.
 For example, according to European Commission (2014),
nutrients such as phosphate are on the EU list of critical raw
materials. Combined sewer overflows are still frequent and will
increase as a result of the increase in extreme weather events.
 Moreover, nutrient emissions in Asia and Africa are projected to
double or triple within 40 years.
 Cont.

 This will enhance eutrophication, biodiversity loss, threaten

drinking water, fisheries, aquaculture and tourism.
 Cities generate vast amounts of solid waste which release
hazardous substances and nutrients. Especially plastics easily
enter rivers and ultimately oceans.
 Weathering processes reduces these plastics into small particles
that are not biologically degradable and toxic.
 The plastics form a ‘soup’ in the Pacific ocean that covers twice
the area of United States and affects many marine animals by
ways of ingestion
 Water challenges in cities:
Infrastructure refurbishment

 Infrastructural and urban planning are key for sustainable

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) but require
large investment and long term planning.
 An estimated 41 trillion US$ is needed to refurbish the urban
infrastructure in the period between 2005-2030.
 Over 50%, 22.6 trillion US$ of these investments will be
needed to refurbish the water systems.
 This is roughly 60% more than is spent on infrastructure in
the same period until now
 Cont.

 Yearly expenditures on water infrastructure for developed

countries are currently around 1% of the GDP (Gross
domestic product).
 For developing countries this is about 3.5% with extremes up
to 6% or more.
 The widespread need to accelerated investments in
infrastructure are exacerbated by increased climate change
related adaptation costs to combat weather anomalies,
extreme rainfall and water scarcity.
 Some of these challenges in cities are summarized in Figure
(see next slide).
A Sustainable Solution to Our world’s
Water Problem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmn8-4HA5Bc
 Sustainability Criteria for Water
Resource Systems

 Water resources are vital for sustaining the life and health of
people and ecosystems.
 One of the key factors for the economic and social development
of a country is to ensure that water is managed in a sustainable
manner.
 However, at present, resource sustainability is a distant goal yet
to be achieved in most regions and countries of the world.
 More than a billion people in the developing world lack access
to safe drinking water and nearly three billion people lack access
to adequate sanitation systems.
 Cont.

 Sustainable development is defined as development which

meets those needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
 However, the concept of sustainable development still remains
somewhat nebulous and lacks the necessary precision to allow
its direct practical application.
 Hence, the obvious tendency to translate this concept into
practical guidelines that can be used and adapted to meet
differing circumstances at global, regional, national and local
levels.
 Cont.

 Sustainable water systems should provide adequate water

quantity and appropriate water quality for a given need, without
compromising the future ability to provide this capacity and
quality.
 Water systems in the realm of sustainable development may not
literally include the use of water, but include systems where the
use of water has traditionally been required.
 Examples include waterless toilets and waterless car washes,
whose use helps to alleviate water stress and secure a
sustainable water supply.
 Cont.

 Accessing the sustainability features in water supply, that is to

say, the three-fold goals of economic feasibility, social
responsibility and environmental integrity, is linked to the
purpose of water use.
 Sometimes, these purposes compete when resources are
limited; for example, water needed to meet the demands of an
increasingly urban population and those needs of rural
agriculture.
 Cont.

 Water is used
 for drinking as a survival necessity,
 in industrial operations (energy production, manufacturing
of goods, etc.),
 domestic applications (cooking, cleaning,
bathing, sanitation), and
 agriculture.
 Why be concerned about water
quantity and quality?

 In total, less than three-tenths of 1% of Earth’s freshwater is

in the lakes and rivers that have served as the major sources
of water through most of human history, but societies
worldwide have not always appreciated this easily accessible
freshwater and the need to protect it.
 Thus, water consumption has nearly doubled since 1950, and
much of the world suffers greatly from inadequate access to
potable water.
 Cont.

 About 20% of the Earth’s population of 6.2 billion lacks

access to safe drinking water.
 According to United Nations, more than 200 million people
every year suffer from water-related diseases, and about 2.2
million of them will die.
 The demand for water resources is continuing to increase.
This increase is being driven not only by a growing world
population but also by the aspirations of that population for
an ever increasing standard of living.
 Cont.

 At the same time, the capacity of the planet to meet this

demand is in decline because of over-harvesting,
inappropriate agricultural practices, and pollution, to name
just a few.
 These impacts on Earth are occurring because humans are not
in line with the way the natural world functions.
 Currently a large proportion of the world’s population is
experiencing water stress
 Cont.

 Rising population demands for water from irrigation (70% of all

water uses), industrial (20%), and residential (10%) uses greatly
outweigh greenhouse warming affects on world water supplies.
 Likewise, humans use more than 50% of the available
freshwater in our world, 60% of which is wasted, leaving less
than half for all other life forms on Earth.
 World Health Organization (WHO) says good health and
cleanliness require a total daily supply of about 8 gallons per
person per day
 Cont.

 Increasing water shortages or inequitable access to safe water

can cause poverty and environmental degradation that can
lead to global hunger, resulting in civil unrest and human
conflict.
 And with conflict comes regional and national disputes, even
war, that can best be alleviated by the sustainable use of these
resources.
 How do we act sustainably?

 Society consistently faces issues related to economy, the

environment, and fairness among people.
 Each of these human concerns is in someway impacted by the
forces that drive the natural world.
 However, development models intended to tackle societal
problems have traditionally taken a piecemeal, singular
approach, addressing issues of economics or environment or
social health, sometimes in isolation from one another.
 Cont.

 For example, socio-economic systems often become caught

up in the adversarial “economy versus environment” debate
and begin operating in a linear direction:
 Taking resources from the Earth, making them into
products, and throwing them away to produce large
amounts of waste (take-make-waste).
 This process leads to communities being unsustainable!
 Cont.

 Sustainable development is the centerpiece and key to water

resource quantity and quality, as well as national security,
economic health, and societal well-being.
 The word sustainability implies the ability to support life, to
comfort, and to nourish.
 For all of human history, the Earth has sustained human beings
by providing food, water, air, and shelter. Sustainable also means
continuing without lessening.
 Development means improving or bringing to a more advanced
state, such as in our economy.
 Cont.

 Thus, sustainable development can mean working to improve

human’s productive power without damaging or undermining
society or the environment that is, progressive socio-
economic betterment without growing beyond ecological
carrying capacity:
 Achieving human well-being without exceeding the
Earth’s twin capacities for natural resource regeneration
and waste absorption.
 Cont.

 By acting under the principles of sustainable development,

our economic desires/demands become accountable both to
an ecological imperative to protect the ecosphere and to a
social equity imperative to create equal access to resources
and minimize human suffering.
 These requirements are the foundation of sustainable
development as represented by the three circle model
(principle elements) of sustainability (see next slide)
Cont.
 Cont.

 These three elements interact with each other so continuously

that we cannot make decisions, make policy, manufacture,
consume, essentially do anything without considering the
effects and costs upon all three simultaneously.
 Each circle (sustainability principle) is defined as follows:
 Economic Vitality (Compatible with Nature) development
that protects and/or enhances natural resource quantities
through improvements in management practices/policies,
technology, efficiency, and changes in life-style.
 Cont.

 Ecologic Integrity (Natural Ecosystem Capacity)

understanding natural system processes of landscapes and
watersheds to guide design of sound economic development
strategies that preserve these natural systems.
 Social Equity (Balancing the Playing Field) guaranteeing
equal access to jobs (income), education, natural resources,
and services for all people: total societal welfare.
 Cont.

 Carrying out activities that are sustainable requires

simultaneous, multi-dimensional thinking about the
consequences of present actions in a cause and effect pattern
on future public and environmental health through
examination of the connections among environmental,
economic, and social concerns when we make choices for
action.
 Sustainable development does not try merely to attain a
“balance” between economics and environment as if they
were two distinct entities.
 Rather, it considers directionality, where economic and
cultural activities are integrated into natural processes in a
cyclic fashion so as not to degrade the environment upon
which economic prosperity and social stability rest.
 For example, consider the production of electricity. To have a
prosperous economy, society demands the continued and
added production of electricity.
 Cont.

 For electricity to be produced to power our economies,

society must both develop the appropriate. technologies and
regulate its demand for this electricity so that the supply of
water (environmental issues) used for electrical production is
consumed in a sustainable way.
 The use of water as a natural resource for making electricity
must not impair other users of the water by the activities of
power production releasing polluted or in other ways
degraded water as an output.
 Cont.

 Thus, the directionality of this scenario (Below figure) is that

our economic ventures cannot be driven by electricity if
society does not provide the human capital resources and
there are not adequate supplies of freshwater.
Linkages and flows between the economic,
social and environmental systems
Section 2
 Homework 4

 Discuss briefly the relationship between, sustainability,

environment and water (Write about 1000 words).
 You must cite all information used in your report.
 The level of similarity should be less than 15%