Abstract
Cities in regions around the world, such as the Colorado River Basin, face severe water challenges and need solutions that deliver significant progress towards sustainable urban water systems. Real-world experiments help stakeholders learn about solutions and select the most promising for scaling and transfer, but the sustainability experiments literature lacks guidance on how solution case studies might be done. An analytical framework for sustainability solutions developed by the authors is applied in a case study of a water-independent house experiment in Tucson, Arizona to provide insight into whether it could be a transformational solution towards a city-scale sustainable water system. Findings indicate technical feasibility, despite the arid climate, with sustainable co-benefits, but city-scale transformational potential is limited by house size, cost, and cultural acceptability, with a risk of negative systemic effect. Further experimentation towards a more effective solution is seen as worthwhile and areas for improvement and exploration are suggested.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1038-1049 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
| Volume | 214 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 20 2019 |
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Keywords
- Analytical-evaluative framework
- Colorado River Basin
- Scaling and transfer
- Sustainability experiments
- Sustainable urban water transformation
- Water self-sufficiency
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Environmental Science(all)
- Strategy and Management
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Cite this
Water-independent residential properties as a transformational solution to achieve water sustainability in desert cities? / Forrest, Nigel; Stein, Zoë; Wiek, Arnim.
In: Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 214, 20.03.2019, p. 1038-1049.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Water-independent residential properties as a transformational solution to achieve water sustainability in desert cities?
AU - Forrest, Nigel
AU - Stein, Zoë
AU - Wiek, Arnim
PY - 2019/3/20
Y1 - 2019/3/20
N2 - Cities in regions around the world, such as the Colorado River Basin, face severe water challenges and need solutions that deliver significant progress towards sustainable urban water systems. Real-world experiments help stakeholders learn about solutions and select the most promising for scaling and transfer, but the sustainability experiments literature lacks guidance on how solution case studies might be done. An analytical framework for sustainability solutions developed by the authors is applied in a case study of a water-independent house experiment in Tucson, Arizona to provide insight into whether it could be a transformational solution towards a city-scale sustainable water system. Findings indicate technical feasibility, despite the arid climate, with sustainable co-benefits, but city-scale transformational potential is limited by house size, cost, and cultural acceptability, with a risk of negative systemic effect. Further experimentation towards a more effective solution is seen as worthwhile and areas for improvement and exploration are suggested.
AB - Cities in regions around the world, such as the Colorado River Basin, face severe water challenges and need solutions that deliver significant progress towards sustainable urban water systems. Real-world experiments help stakeholders learn about solutions and select the most promising for scaling and transfer, but the sustainability experiments literature lacks guidance on how solution case studies might be done. An analytical framework for sustainability solutions developed by the authors is applied in a case study of a water-independent house experiment in Tucson, Arizona to provide insight into whether it could be a transformational solution towards a city-scale sustainable water system. Findings indicate technical feasibility, despite the arid climate, with sustainable co-benefits, but city-scale transformational potential is limited by house size, cost, and cultural acceptability, with a risk of negative systemic effect. Further experimentation towards a more effective solution is seen as worthwhile and areas for improvement and exploration are suggested.
KW - Analytical-evaluative framework
KW - Colorado River Basin
KW - Scaling and transfer
KW - Sustainability experiments
KW - Sustainable urban water transformation
KW - Water self-sufficiency
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.309
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.309
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85060338909
VL - 214
SP - 1038
EP - 1049
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
SN - 0959-6526
ER -