Out of Water: Design Solutions for Arid Regions

Water security is one of the main challenges facing urban areas in arid or semi-arid zones. Egyptian cities need to deal with both insufficient quantity and quality of water for residents. Here we provide proposed actions and policies to allow transition towards water sensitive urban design in order to respond to water challenges in Egypt. Based on a systematic literature review, we have selected a set of criteria concerning the environmental, economic, social, governmental, and infrastructural dimensions of urban water management. We compiled and compared management approaches from Lima, Windhoek, and Adelaide. The three cities have climatic conditions and water issues similar to Egyptian cities and have made substantial advances towards sustainable water management. We then evaluated which elements can be adapted and used in Egypt. Proposed actions included participatory approaches that engage the community in water management, educational campaigns that lead to change of public p...

Landscape Journal, 2015

2014

Water is not only essential to life in every form, but throughout history it has been a fundamental means of production for populations, used for trade, defence, transportation, industry and recreation, hence determining the topographical character of urban areas. In the post-industrial society, though, the use of water for aesthetic pleasure in urban planning and architectural design has increasingly prevailed on other functions since the origin and development of the leisure and tourism industry and, finally, leading to the transformation of the meanwhile abandoned urban industrial waterfronts. However, many contemporary experimental urban and architectural projects are addressing water from different perspectives and introducing new modes of thinking and practices that will radically change our relationship with this natural resource. The aim of this work is to pinpoint and to analyse these developing approaches, which unveil possible paths of design innovation: using existing ur...

Green Energy and Technology, 2014

One of the most challenging problems that urban areas will face in the future is adaptation to the effects of climate change, particularly with regard to local problems of water management (e.g., flooding caused by heavy rain events, degradation of urban streams, and water scarcity). Sustainable local management of stormwater calls for approaches that connect technical and ecological solutions with urban design aspects and socioeconomic factors. This in turn opens up great opportunities to advance knowledge toward the application of water-sensitive urban design (WSUD), an approach that integrates the water cycle into urban design to simultaneously minimize environmental degradation, improve aesthetic and recreational appeal,

2012

With timeframes for addressing the issues of the City of the Future (CotF) rapidly approaching (e.g. 2020, 2025, 2050), this paper integrates international research knowledge and expertise from four continents. It critically evaluates the role of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) in the CotF in terms of overlapping theory and practice. The aspirations of water sensitive cities are reviewed and multiple drivers for applying WSUD are described from developing and developed country perspectives In addition, the potential for WSUD to support cities in 'leap-frogging' towards their visions are explored. The role of WSUD within the wider context of achieving sustainable living objectives (e.g. greater resilience, low carbon living, sustainable transportation, local food supply and social stability) is debated and the concept of the 'multi-objective city' introduced. Conclusions are drawn regarding opportunities for the WSUD process to provide a framework within which pro...

2011

Cities are undergoing severe water shortages. Many actions are underway to counteract this situation which poses a severe threat to the survival and welfare of humankind. The deleterious impacts of water shortage are becoming glaringly evident in all parts of the world and are particularly alarming in developing countries. In the meantime, contemporary architectural design and urban planning are locked in a paradigm that valorizes practices with high costs of construction and maintenance based on the powers of technology to create buildings and urban landscapes that are, with rare exceptions, not in harmony with the environment and with water conservation. As an alternative, urban design with water aims to maximize water supply and conservation, while minimizing any harmful impact on the natural habitat in a manner that optimizes the role of the built environment as a means for an enjoyable life. As a source of inspiration, traditional water management systems from different parts o...

Cities embody both networks and physical entities and live on production, consumption and waste rejection. A vital part of their metabolism is how water is managed, to the point that the water cycle develops characteristics that are exclusive to the urban context—what is known as the “urban water cycle”. Yet current planning strategies rarely acknowledge water management as essential, and are instead dominated by land-use considerations. This paper will attempt to shed light on some of the particularities of Athens’s urban water cycle by focusing on Eleonas’s ‘urban void’. Specifically, this paper will scrutinise the relations of causality between urban form and the recurrence of flooding events and the deterioration of surface water quality. By deconstructing Eleonas—a paragon of a previously industrious region— into smaller in scale entities that constitute the zone, this paper will attempt to both discern to which extent they affect the urban water cycle locally and expose the potential that small scale interventions can have in transforming the city as a whole. A strong correlation has thus far been found between the worsening conditions of the urban void and the quality of its water management. After a series of survey visits, we found that water-related issues not only affect the urban setting but are also induced and exacerbated by its form and quality of infrastructure. Therefore, if urban voids are developed appropriately, they can play a meaningful role in the urban setting and enhance its global condition. Such conclusions imply that if planning is fostered by a water-sensitive mindset, the environmental quality of the metropolis should increase in the long-term. Consequently, a change of paradigm towards a more integrated and flexible water management is suggested in order to attain more adaptable cities.

Water, 2024

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 were affected. The 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. The 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 of 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 2527 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 the improvement in livability of the sites and the city.

JOURNAL OF WATER AND LAND DEVELOPMENT, 2020

For citation: Januszkiewicz K., Gołębiewski J.I. 2020. Climate change-oriented design: Living on the water. A new approach to architectural design. Journal of Water and Land Abstract The paper deals with the digital architecture concept which is trying to introduce a new spatial language into the context of water urbanism, using nature as a model, measure and mentor. The first part analyses Biomimetics with its design strategies and methods. The Problem-Based Approach (designers look to nature for solutions) and the Solution-Based Approach (biological knowledge influences human design) are defined here. In the second part of the research, the authors present selected examples to the topic. This case study has demonstrated that a new approach to architectural design is emerging. This approach redefines the process of architectural design, understood not as the traditional shaping of the ob-ject's form, but as a compilation of various factors resulting from changeable climate characteristics and ecology. The conclusions emphasize that not only the contemporary understanding of ecology should be changed, but also the way architects approach the built environment, especially in the aquatic environment.