Options analysis model for water demand management

To cope with the needs of increasing urban populations amidst negative impacts of climate change will require mainstreaming water demand management (WDM) in urban water management strategies for the city of the future. There are a variety of options for WDM: urban water managers, engineers and planners need to make correct choices of the most viable options that fit within the socio-cultural, political, economic and environmental context. Ideally, these choices take into consideration the vision of the key city stakeholders and identified scenarios over the longer-term period. This paper describes a simple model developed as one of the outputs of the WDM research under the EU-sponsored SWITCH project, to be used as a decision support tool by urban engineers, planners and managers, with no skills in linear programming. The model uses a VENSIM modelling shell that is freely available on the internet. Application of this tool will make it easier to mainstream WDM options in strategic planning processes for the city of the future.