According to the United Nations (UN) there are currently 23 M cities (metropolitan areas with a total population in excess of 10 million people), 40 cities with 5 to 10 million inhabitants and 394 cities with 1 to 5 million inhabitants (UN 2012). Currently 52 % of the human population lives in cities, and by 2050 this will be 67 %. In developed countries this will even rise to 86 % by 2050 (UN 2012). Urban areas in the world are expected to absorb all of the population growth over the next four decades (Fig. 1). Most of the population growth expected in urban areas will be concentrated in cities and towns of less developed regions (UN 2012). With rapid population growth, water withdrawals have tripled over the last 50 years and are predicted to increase by 50 % by 2025 in developing countries (SIWI 2012; UNESCO 2012). Competing demands for scarce water resources may lead to an estimated 40 % supply shortage by 2030 (2030 Water Resources Group 2009). Recently, the World Economic Forum identified the water supply crisis as one of the top five global risks for both the impact and likelihood. This is caused by the decline in the quality and quantity of fresh water combined with increased competition among resource-intensive systems, such as food and energy production (World Economic Forum 2013).
fhm romania martie 2013 pdf 11
The cities of Rotterdam and Dar es Salaam have been assessed previously (Van Leeuwen et al. 2012; Van Leeuwen and Chandy 2013). Additional partner cities and regions were added from the EU research project TRUST (Transitions to the Urban Water Services of Tomorrow; -i.net/) leading to the following 11 cities and regions that have been included in the present study on the comparison of cities and regions: Algarve (ALG; Portugal), Amsterdam (AMS; the Netherlands), Athens (ATH; Greece), Bucharest (BUC; Romania), Dar es Salaam (DAR; Tanzania), Hamburg (HAM; Germany), Kilamba Kiaxi (KIL; Angola), Oslo (OSL; Norway), Rotterdam (ROT; the Netherlands), Reggio Emilia (REG; Italy), and the cities of Scotland (SCO; United Kingdom).
Data gathering was organized by means of a questionnaire with 36 questions in 5 headings: (1) general information, (2) drinking water, (3) waste water, (4) environmental quality, biodiversity and attractiveness and (5) governance (Van Leeuwen and Marques 2013). Additional information was gathered for public participation (EFILWC 2006) and water security (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2011), as described previously (Van Leeuwen et al. 2012).
Rather than collecting information ourselves, as in the case of the city of Rotterdam (Van Leeuwen et al. 2012), the stakeholders (representatives of municipalities, water utilities, wastewater utilities and water boards) were asked to complete the questionnaire in an interactive manner as described by Van Leeuwen and Chandy (2013).
Detailed information from the TRUST questionnaire and additional information gathered for water security, public participation and regional or national estimates for local environmental quality (surface water, groundwater and biodiversity), as well as the scoring of the 24 City Blueprint indicators for each city and region can be found in Van Leeuwen and Marques (2013).
The data for the BCI of each city or region are given in Table 1, together with some other indicators such as the scores for the commitments for UWCS (indicator 23), the VPI (voluntary participation index) according to the EFILWC (2006), and the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita (in international dollars for 2011) as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF 2012). Comparisons were also made with some governance indicators according to the World Bank (2013) such as the GE (Government Effectiveness), RQ (Regulatory Quality) and RL (Rule of Law) as described by Kaufman et al. (2010). The RL is a national indicator capturing perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence (Kaufman et al. 2010).
The use of national or regional information on environmental quality as used in this report may lead to serious overestimations of local environmental quality as cities are often sources of pollution (Grimm et al. 2008; Bai 2007). The use of local information rather than national data on e.g. water quality in the case of Rotterdam (Van Leeuwen et al. 2012) and Dar es Salaam (Van Leeuwen and Chandy 2013) leads to much lower scores and are clear examples of this. In other words the scores as provided in the current paper on environmental quality are probably too optimistic and are underestimations of the actual environmental quality of the cities. Furthermore, many water pollutants have not been accounted for. The Environmental Performance Index (2010) uses only three parameters measuring nutrient levels (dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) and two parameters measuring water chemistry (pH and conductivity). These parameters were selected because they cover issues of global relevance (eutrophication, nutrient pollution, acidification, and salinization) and because they are the most consistently reported. The consequence of this is that important groups of chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), persistent bioaccumulating and toxic chemicals (PBTs), endocrine disrupters and many other groups of micro-pollutants have not been addressed at all. This may lead to a serious underestimation of the actual pollution status in cities.
The City Blueprint is a baseline assessment and quick scan for the sustainability of the UWCS. Early involvement of stakeholders is important (Van Leeuwen 2007; Van Leeuwen and Chandy 2013). The City Blueprint method and process is proposed as first step of gaining a better understanding of UWCS and the challenges ahead (Philip et al. 2011). This has been accomplished. The inherent limitations are that the baseline assessment does not cover all aspects of the UWCS. Some aspects of UWCS are addressed very generally. The assessment is also a snapshot. It is a picture and, therefore, does not address long-term trends in UWCS stress and adaptations. In other words, the assessment is static and not dynamic. In discussions with the cities of Oslo, Athens and Dar es Salaam, the representatives explained that more drinking water needs to be provided in the very near future (Rozos and Makropoulos 2013; Van Leeuwen and Chandy 2013). For instance, in the city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania the population is expected to double in size in the next decade! These trends are not captured in the City Blueprint. Furthermore, the current political situation in Greece precludes long-term planning and investment strategies in UWCS and is so uncertain that, in contrast with the global trend (Fig. 1) people are leaving the city of Athens and move to rural areas. This actually leads to a decrease in the number of city inhabitants. Finally, drinking water consumption in Algarve is very high (146 m3 per person per year). This may be explained by the high influx of tourists, whereas the calculation for drinking water consumption is based on the registered population. All these observations need to be included in the city reports. When these limitations are taken into account, the City Blueprint provides stakeholders with a basic insight in the current status of the sustainability of their UWCS. It enables them to internally reflect upon the current status in terms of possible consequences for future UWCS management, to share the results with other UWCS stakeholders, and to discuss potential improvements.
The fastest way to meet the global water challenges is not another policy document, but active and timely information exchange. This can be stimulated by more transparent communication, more focus on public awareness as well as on implementation of available technologies (Fig. 5). Examples are the creation of a Blue City website where cities can display their best practices regarding UWCS, a Blue Friend Label for industries and their products contributing to cost-effective improvements in UWCS, and an annual Blue City Award for the best performing city. By enabling this, sustainable development will take place, cities will start to learn from each other, and civil society and the private sector can play their role (European green city index 2009). Recently, this City Blueprint proposal on governance has been prioritized by the European Commission in the context of the European Innovation Partnership on Water (European Commission 2013).
An important result from this study is that the variability in sustainability among the UWCS of the cities offers great opportunities for short-term and long-term improvements, provided that cities share their best practices (UNEP 2008). Cities can learn from each other (Fig 5). Theoretically, if cities would share their best practices, the BCI might reach a value of 9.70, which is close to the theoretical maximum of 10. It shows that even cities that currently perform well, can still improve their UWCS. Of course, this would depend on many other factors, such as socio-economic and political considerations (Van Leeuwen 2007), and is ultimately the responsibility of the cities themselves. The ideas presented in this paper have recently been prioritized as action by the European Commission in the context of the European Innovation Partnership on Water (European Commission 2013).
Sharapova's first scheduled tournament of the 2013 season was the Brisbane International, where she was seeded second. However, she withdrew from the tournament before it began, citing a collarbone injury.[142] She started her season at the Australian Open seeded second. She defeated Olga Puchkova and Misaki Doi in the first two rounds without losing a game in either match, the first time a player won in back-to-back double bagels at a Grand Slam tournament since the 1985 Australian Open.[143] Sharapova then defeated Venus Williams, Kirsten Flipkens, and Ekaterina Makarova, where in losing nine games, she overtook Monica Seles' record of fewest games dropped heading into a Grand Slam semifinal.[144] She lost to Li Na in the semifinals. 2ff7e9595c
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