The Sustainable City

Wednesday 20 August
Workshop 6 - Full Day Workshop

Convenor : Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)

Co-Convenors : International Water Association (IWA) and Department for Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation, Sida (INEC) together with UN-HABITAT

Cities are the hubs of economic progress and home to the densest concentration of human and industrial waste. Positive as well as negative footprints of cities are felt far beyond the city borders, especially in downstream areas. Dense populations have the potential to increase resource efficiency through concentration of activity. However, unless the city is planned and designed intelligently, the corresponding concentration of pollutants resulting from this density can create unhealthy conditions and environmental problems. Stormwater runoff, for example, can wreak havoc upon a city’s solid waste, sanitation and water supply infrastructure. Models for institutional arrangements and technical solutions must be adjusted to include social and behavioural characteristics of the community, as well as the impact of continued urban growth on the sustainability of the city’s infrastructure.

This workshop focuses on how a growing city should be planned so that sanitation, stormwater, solid waste and water supply can, together with other infrastructure systems, be energy efficient and guarantee quality environmental conditions. How can stormwater be harvested or reused, (e.g. for infrastructure) or to create blue-green zones? Can new areas be developed by only modifying existing infrastructure systems? How should sanitation be related to different infrastructure systems?

Workshop Details :

Chair: Mr. Paul Reiter, IWA
Co-chair: Mr. Johan Willert, Sida, Sweden
Commentators: Dr. Graham P. Alabaster, UN-HABITAT and
Prof. Mogens Henze, Technical University of Denmark (tbc)
Rapporteur: Prof. Lars Bengtsson, Lund University, Sweden
Co-rapporteur: Prof. Saburo Matsui, Kyoto University, Japan

• 1: Waste as a Resource
• 2: Water Afteruse – Protecting Health and Ecosystems
• 3: Changing Human Behaviour – Prospects for Progress
• 4: Preventive Action for Human Health
• 5: Cost-effectiveness in Pollution Abatement
• 6: The Sustainable City
• 7: Sanitation under Changing Climatic Conditions
• 8: The Lingering Failure of Sanitation – Why?