Driving Water Reuse by New Technologies, Land Use and Infrastructure Planning, and Legislation Policies

Dear Colleagues,

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have set targets for climate protection until 2030. Increasing periods of drought in many countries around the world has shown that water supplies are reaching their limits. Reusing treated wastewater, which is available in predictable quantities on a daily basis, is an important resource, along with the storage of rainwater. Therefore, to achieve the SDGs, new technologies in connection with planning strategies, as well as new legislative policies, must be developed or improved to drive the use of recycled wastewater. In particular, municipalities, industry, and agriculture can reduce water stress by reusing treated wastewater for various purposes, such as street cleaning, refilling cooling water, and crop irrigation. In addition to reusing treated wastewater, efficient water-use practices also contribute significantly to reducing water consumption, such as the use of specific irrigation techniques and the optimal distribution of land with specific uses.

In general, most countries have regulations for the discharge of treated wastewater into water bodies, but more advanced regulations for the production of reused water according to the “fit-for-purpose” principle are sometimes lacking. Consequently, advanced treatment steps, as well as their implementation, are essential for wastewater treatment, so that the treated water has a quality that corresponds to the “fit-for-purpose” principle.

Holistic water management concepts and strategies are advantageous to improve the situation around scarce water locally and also regionally. Only a few countries have implemented holistic integrated water management concepts that also include the reuse of treated wastewater, which is why there is a need for further research in this area in particular. Overall, regions and cities affected by water scarcity need to analyze all aspects of the local water supply situation, as well as their potentials and opportunities for water reuse. In general, regulations and technologies in this area exist, but implementation is lacking, and therefore stakeholders in planning and water/wastewater management need to work closely together to advance water reuse. Only in this way will it be possible to achieve SDG 6 in the near future.

In this context, we welcome contributions dealing with, but not limited to, the following topics:

• New energy-reduced technologies for municipal and industry wastewater treatment with respect to water reuse;
• Removal of micro-pollutants, antibiotic resistance, microplastics, etc.;
• Dimensioning/planning and operation;
• Innovative water reuse concepts and technologies for land use and infrastructure planning;
• Water reuse applications that are “fit for purpose” in urban, rural and, industrial areas;
• Requirements and acceptance of reused water;
• Water-reuse concepts, implementations, case studies, and best practices;
• Legislation policies for implementing water reuse.

Prof. Dr. Martin Wagner
Prof. Dr. Sonja Bauer
Guest Editors

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• water reuse
• municipal wastewater treatment
• industrial wastewater treatment
• removal of micro-pollutants, antibiotic resistance, and microplastics
• dimensioning/planning and operation
• legislation policies for implementing water reuse

1.

Tentative title: Sustainability of ecosystems in the conservation of natural water eyes

 Authors: Bessy Castillo Santa Maria, et al.

2.

Tentative title: Good agricultural practices and sustainability of natural springs

Authors: Bessy Castillo Santa Maria, et al.

3.

Title: From district to city scale: the potential of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD)

Abstract: The summer of 2022 was one of the hottest and driest summers that Germany experienced in the 21st century. Water levels in rivers sank dramatically with many dams and reservoirs running dry as a result fields could not be irrigated sufficiently, and even power generation and supply was affected. Impact of abnormally high temperatures for extended periods (heatwaves) is not restricted to nature and the economy but is also a considerable public health burden. Experts worldwide agree that these extreme weather events are being driven by climate change, and will increase in intensity and frequency in the future. Adverse impact of these extreme weather events multiplies among dense urban environments e.g., through heat islands. This calls for cities to take action to heat-proof and water-secure their urban developments. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is one such approach to mitigate the aforementioned challenges by leveraging the urban water ecosystem with special attention to the subject of water reclamation, retention, treatment and distribution. This paper introduces and builds upon a prototype of WSUD that centers around an artificial lake as an integrated water resource management system (IWRMS) fed by treated grey water and storm water obtained from two housing blocks flanking the water reservoir. Based on the specifications of this prototype indicators on site suitability are derived and applied to identify potential locations for replicable projects in the city of Darmstadt. The results confirm the impact WSUD can have: a total of 22 sites with 2,527 apartments are found suitable for prototype implementation in Darmstadt. Savings in town water consumption from these 22 sites would add up to 147 million liters. Further benefits include the provision of 24 million liters of irrigation water, storm water retention, adiabatic cooling during heatwave, increased biodiversity and improvement of livability of the sites and the city. 

Authors: Joachim Schulze, Simon Gehrmann, Avikal Somvanshi and Annette Rudolph-Cleff

4.

Tentative title: Reuse of Treated Wastewater for Crop Irrigation: Water Suitability, Fertilization Potential, and Impact on Selected Soil Physicochemical Properties

Authors: Solomon Ofori, David Kwesi Abebrese, Iveta Růžičková, Jiří Wanner