Water in sustaining resilient cities

Healy, Adrian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-0147 and Lewis, Earl 2024. Water in sustaining resilient cities. Mukherjee, Abhijit, ed. Water Matters: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Elsevier, pp. 237-246. (10.1016/B978-0-443-15537-6.00021-5)

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Abstract

Access to water shapes and sustains our towns and cities. The process of urbanization establishes complex hydrosocial territories designed to overcome local water scarcity and provide security of water supplies. However, rapid rates of urbanization combined with the effects of climate change are challenging the ability of many urban areas to secure sufficient water supplies. Using the example of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, this chapter examines how adaptive responses to successive water shocks and ongoing water scarcity have set up a pathway to transformative change. It demonstrates how Windhoek has moved from traditional pathways of water provision based on transporting water from further, to more innovative approaches focused on improving resource efficiency. More recently Windhoek has developed a novel storage system dedicated to promoting resilience in times of water shortage. The experience of Windhoek highlights the value of adopting a resilience lens to urban water supplies that considers preparatory actions; coping strategies; adaptation approaches; and the transformation of hydrosocial systems in the face of changing circumstances. However, Windhoek also highlights the wider techno-ecological dilemma of Sustainable Development Goals 11, which implicitly seeks to maintain existing development pathways rather than questioning their validity in a changing world.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISBN:	978-0-443-15537-6
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2024 12:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/173793

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