Towards the integrated management of urban water systems: Conceptualizing integration and its uncertainties

Abstract

Abstract Ongoing developments such as climate change, urbanisation, as well as growing environmental and economic concerns highlight the limitations of traditional wastewater practices, and thereby challenge the management of urban water systems. Both in theory and in practice, it has been widely acknowledged that challenges of twenty-first century require solutions that address problems in a more integrated way. Although the demand for integration is obvious, current urban water literature illustrates that there is no consensus as to what such a more integrated approach exactly involves, neither on how to deal best with the sociotechnical complexity that it entails. In addition, its decision-making has proved difficult because of the complexity and uncertainty involved. As the need for such integrated solutions is expected to increase even further in the future, this article aims to support the required multi-actor decision-making process. First, the article structures the existing approaches, and conceptualizes the phenomenon of urban water systems integration in a holistic way. Based on the object of integration, four types of systems integration are differentiated: geographical, physical, informational and project-based. Second, the paper explores the implications that such integrated solutions bring along, using the concept of uncertainty. We show that the shift towards integrated solutions specifically calls for addressing the uncertainties arising from 1) the interfaces emerging at the locations where the previously unconnected systems become interconnected; and 2) the socio-institutional changes that systems integration requires. Finally, we draft the key challenges that come with the multi-actor complexity of more integrated solutions and provide some possibilities for dealing with them.