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Resource Type: Open source

Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Water, Megacities & Global Change

Climate change effects of intensifying magnitude and global challenges such as sea level rise, increasing temperatures or urbanization, threaten these cities. Now, there is a need for action to achieve resilient cities. A transversal and multidimensional solution is proposed, based on the collaboration among scientists who advance knowledge, operators and basin authorities (in public and private sectors) who innovate technically and socio-politically, and local politicians who can support new, fairer and more efficient models of water governance, in constant interaction with civil society.

Greenhouse gas emissions from membrane bioreactors: analysis of a two-year survey on different MBR configurations

This study aimed at evaluating the nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment. The study investigated the N2O emissions considering multiple influential factors over a two-year period: (i) different MBR based process configurations; (ii) wastewater composition (municipal or industrial); (iii) operational conditions (i.e. sludge retention time, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, C/N, hydraulic retention time); (iv) membrane modules. Among the overall analysed configurations, the highest N2O emission occurred from the aerated reactors. The treatment of industrial wastewater, contaminated with salt and hydrocarbons, provided the highest N2O emission factor (EF): 16% of the influent nitrogen for the denitrification/nitrification-MBR plant. The lowest N2O emission (EF = 0.5% of the influent nitrogen) was obtained in the biological phosphorus removal-moving bed-MBR plant likely due to an improvement in biological performances exerted by the co-presence of both suspended and attached biomass. The influent C/N ratio has been identified as a key factor affecting the N2O production. Indeed, a decrease of the C/N ratio (from 10 to 2) promoted the increase of N2O emissions in both gaseous and dissolved phases, mainly related to a decreased efficiency of the denitrification processes

Building the Resilience of WSS Utilities to Climate Change and Other Threats : A Road Map

Water supply and sanitation (WSS) utilities are expected to become increasingly susceptible to the expected impacts of climate change. WSS utility planners and engineers have dealt with natural climate variances and disaster planning as part of the design process for many years. However, the traditional methods for these plans have not considered the deep uncertainty surrounding many future conditions, which are further exacerbated by climate change. To help utilities incorporate resilience and robustness in their choices, this road map proposes a process in three phases that can inform the design of strategies necessary to WSS services provision. The road map builds on the understanding that climate change is most often an amplifier of existing uncertainties (many of which are threats), and, as such, should not be evaluated as a stand-alone impact. The approach reveals the strengths and vulnerabilities of investment plans concisely and helps utilities invest robustly by identifying near-term, no-regret projects that can be undertaken now, while maintaining flexibility in pursuing additional actions adaptively as future conditions evolve. These results can be achieved both with a qualitative exploration and a quantitative assessment, depending on the context and the resources available.

Resilient Water Infrastructure Design Brief

The purpose of the Resilient Water Infrastructure Design Brief is to guide users on how resilience can be built into the engineering design of their project. With a focus on the three natural hazards most likely to affect water and sanitation infrastructure (droughts, floods, and high winds from storms), the document provides a six-step process to help users address weather and climate related challenges that are most likely to affect an infrastructure component at some point in its operational lifetime. In order to achieve both systems level resilience and infrastructure level resilience, this design brief should be used in tandem with other World Bank publications, such as the 2018 guidance document “Building the Resilience of WSS Utilities to Climate Change and Other Threats: A Road Map,” which emphasizes systems level resilience and analysis. The design brief highlights the relationship between these two documents and the unique function that each serves in improving overall resilience in the water sector. It also includes guidance for users to incorporate resilience design principles into projects’ appraisal documents and a sample module/task description for applying the two documents to an engineering design or feasibility study terms of reference.

Climate Change Adaptation in Europe and Central Asia: Disaster Risk Management

The following paper serves as a sectoral background note for the regional report ‘managing Uncertainty: Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia Countries’. It focuses on what is known about the implications of climate change for extreme weather and the ability of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) to mitigate and manage the impact of extreme events. It also explains how climate change will increase weather-induced disasters in ECA, highlighting the sensitivity of ECA’s population to these hazards, and recommending various measures in the area of financial and fiscal policy, disaster risk mitigation, and emergency preparedness and management, to reduce current and future vulnerabilities. The goals of this paper are to: (i) present forecasts on how climate change will affect weather-related hazards and secondary effects, and what impact the extreme hydro-meteorological phenomena will have on the countries of Europe and Central Asia; and (ii) provide an overview of measures to mitigate and manage these risks.

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