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The Topic: Future cities utILIty WeeK | 6th - 12th February 2015 | 17 Smart water Utility Week asks Laurie Reynolds to describe his vision for the future of urban water systems. What defines a future city from a water perspective? "First, before we think about what a future city might look like above the ground, we need to understand what it will look like below the ground. This means understand- ing the capacity and constraints of our age- ing water infrastructure in relation to shiing demand. "While lots of work has been done to improve data capture from water assets, real- time condition monitoring with extrapolated intelligence about capacity is still very much in its infancy. "Second, we need to develop more dynamic water networks for future cities, which responding to shiing population concentrations and economic pressures. "With technology that exists today, we ought to aspire to a more flexible system with moveable boundaries so that you can ensure there are multiple feeds into every customer." What technological advances make you think this vision is now achievable? "Recent improvements in system modelling tools, better communication between sen- sors and enhanced ability to control valves are all enablers. Essentially these are part of a wider drive towards the 'internet of things'. "To go further in using the internet of things to support smarter water we need a range of additional advances – key among these is the need for an effective low pow- ered wide area network, or LPWAN. This would enable an efficient means of commu- nication for ubiquitous sensors in the sys- tem. There is a lot of focus on gigabytes, but the small amounts of data we need to trans- mit from sensors doesn't need that kind of high bandwidth." Are there any potential risks to water safety and quality as we strive for smarter water systems in future cities? "If we don't do anything, then there's a real possibility that increasing demand could put undue strain on our wastewater and sewer- age systems, which are generally even less well understood in terms of condition moni- toring than our potable water systems. "We do, however, need to be cautious as we create systems to store and reuse water that we think about the risk of disease and contamination from things like legionella." Laurie Reynolds is managing director of Aquamatix water wOrld urban populations are increasing globally at the pace of around 1.5 million people a week. as the paved and concrete boundaries of our cites encroach more and more on surrounding flood plains and catchment areas, the risk of frequent flooding – even without the added menace of climate change – is mounting. Consequently, the importance of understanding the dynamics of surface water in cities and being prepared to manage stormwater effectively is being given new strategic significance by government, says David Schofield, associate director at Hydro Consultancy, which specialises in sustainable drainage and water sensitive urban design. hydro Consultancy submitted evidence to an inquiry being conducted by the all Party Parliamentary Group for excellence in the built environment in October last year to support its search for innovation in urban flood management. The submission proposed an integrated approach that mixes and matches eight techniques for managing surface and stormwater, including downpipe discon- nection, de-paving and planting – using features such as curb extensions (pictured). the submission also advocated the introduc- tion of surface water discounting as a way of introducing a financial incentive for industrial and commercial investment in this often underestimated field. a large part of the hydro Consultancy's submission was influenced by Schofield's experience of the strategy adopted in Portland, uS, where an extensive Green Streets Programme has wrought big improvements in the city's ability to deal with surface water and reduced pressure on its sewerage system. Importantly for the brownfield environment of a city, Green Streets put a focus on retrofit solutions. It installed 1,000 sustainable drainage systems (Suds) across 37 hectares and disconnected 56,000 city downpipes, among other actions, to improve the city's ability to handle surface water. but barriers stand in the way of achieving similarly large-scale surface water management schemes in the UK, says Schofield. "In the uK, we have so many stakeholders in the water system but responsibility for surface water disposal lies with our water companies – not local authorities as it does in america. this makes it more difficult to introduce incentivisation schemes for local busi- nesses. With our privatised water companies, which are seeking dividends for shareholders, there is a conflict of interest. It came out in the [aPPG for excellence in the built environment] inquiry, and it is my personal belief, that in this respect privatisation was a backwards step." to guard future cities from the detrimental social, health and economic impacts of frequent and serious flooding, therefore, Schofield is firm that a policy decision is required in the UK to real- locate responsibility for surface water management and support the establishment of a strong skills base in water sensitive urban design in local authorities. £200bn the international market for inte- grated city solu- tions by 2030 70% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. flood 1 in 4 London properties are considered to be at risk of flooding according to a Greater London Authority Report, 2012 it's a fact Photo: David Schofield, Hydro Consultancy