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Presenter: Professor Sarah Bell, UCL
Abstract
Integrated, sustainable water management requires wide stakeholder engagement, including with local communities and households. This is a challenge for water professions, organisations and policies that have established cultures and expertise in top-down, centralised management of infrastructure. Engaging with communities is necessary to reduce demand for water and to ensure acceptability of new infrastructure options. It also provides opportunities for innovation, particularly in decentralised systems.
With an annual average rainfall of less than 600mm and a population of 8.7 million, forecast to grow to at least 9.5 million by 2050, London faces a deficit in water resources and lack of capacity in drainage and wastewater infrastructure. The Mayor of London has set targets for building 66,000 new homes each year. Delivering housing growth within constrained water and wastewater infrastructure and resources, whilst improving quality of life for Londoners presents a complex challenge for the city.
The Community Water Management for a Liveable London (CAMELLIA) project has been recently funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council to address these challenges. The project is led by Imperial College and other research organisations, with support from the water utility Thames Water, the Greater London Authority, local governments, housebuilders, social landlords and local environmental groups. This seminar will describe the plans for CAMELLIA and some of the underlying research that supports the bottom-up approach. The potential for communities to work with engineers to model and co-design solutions to address complex urban infrastructure challenges has been tested in pilot projects, and will be further developed as a core element of CAMELLIA.
This is a free event – no RSVP required.