Throughout history, the first and foremost role of urban water management has been the protection of human health and the aquatic environment. To this end, the practice of (waste)water treatment has maintained a central focus on the removal of pollutants through dissipative pathways. While conventional (waste)water treatment is regarded as one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century, these dissipative approaches may not suffice in the 21st century as we enter a new era striving for resource efficiency in a more circular economy.
A key challenge for the future of urban water management is the need to re-envision the role of water infrastructure. While safeguarding human and environmental health will remain paramount, becoming a more proactive force for sustainable development through the recovery of resources embedded in urban water will prevail.
“Resource Recovery from Wastewater: Principles and Applications”, just released by IWA Publishing, explains the basic principles governing resource recovery from water; provides a comprehensive overview and critical assessment of the established and emerging technologies for resource recovery from water; and puts resource recovery from water in legal, economic, social, and environmental sustainability frameworks.
Roy Brouwer, executive director of the Water Institute and professor in Economics, authors chapter 14: Economic analysis of resource recovery. The chapter clarifies basic economic concepts and methods using practical, real-world examples.
“Resource recovery will have long-lasting, positive impacts on the environment and the well-being of future generations, justifying investments in new, more decentralized infrastructure innovations based on circular economy concepts and broader societal analysis instead of traditional financial cash flow analysis,” said Brouwer who used the book in his Water Resource Economics course last fall.
Resource Recovery from Water serves as a powerful teaching tool. It illustrates important scientific, societal and policy impacts of resource recovery for both seasoned water professionals and the next generation of engineers and experts. The book includes an impressive collection of international authors and topics. See the complete list of authors and access the book Resource Recovery from Water: Principles and Application from IWA Publishing here.