Climate Resilience & Water Security

Due to climate change, Flanders faces challenges of increasing droughts and water scarcity that call for smart circular solutions. In the Horizon 2020 project B-Watersmart, local partners and research organizations De Watergroep, Aquafin, Proefstation voor de Groenteteelt, VITO, the City of Mechelen and KWR collaborated in a community of practice to develop solutions to increase water security. The project aimed to accelerate the transformation to a water-smart economy and society by developing innovative solutions and facilitating a water-smart culture. It demonstrates how local solutions using alternative water sources can help improve the robustness of the regional water system. In the city of Mechelen, a smart rainwater buffering and subirrigation system was developed and built that makes stormwater available for nearby agricultural fields, thus reducing flood risks for the city while recharging ground water levels and increasing water availability for agriculture. The basins’ smart proactive controls based on local rainfall predictions, crop water demand and local groundwater levels allowed for a more optimal allocation of the water resources. Next to that, a pilot test explored the potential reuse of municipal effluent as a source of drinking water in comparison to enhance the robustness of the drinking water purification process using closed circuit reverse osmosis. Due to the improved treatment capacity, actual quality intake limitations for surface water are reduced. The experiences from the project were developed into a joint vision and strategic agenda for a water-smart region. This emphasized the potential of local circular solutions to improve robust water resource management, safeguard health and safety, protect the environment, and adapt to climate change. The community of practice established during the project enabled connections between sectors and fostered the collaboration between organizations such as drinking and wastewater utilities, municipalities and agriculture that is necessary for developing circular solutions.

With climate change, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent. These changes directly affect water security, requiring urgent adaptation actions in urban systems to reduce emissions and promote resilience. Measures to enhance water availability and combat climate change are embedded within a legal and institutional framework, which aligns with international agreements and stakeholders engaged in water management. Therefore, an integrated and coordinated approach between water, sanitation, and climate change is essential. In this context, the One Water approach emerges, based on the principle that urban waters are interconnected within a watershed system. This approach is also linked to resource recovery, such as nutrients and energy, forming the One Water/resource recovery system. This study aims to explore trends and concepts related to integrated water management, emphasizing its interactions with climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Publications from 1982 to 2024 were analyzed using the Scopus database and VosViewer software, with a particular focus on the last ten years. A total of 2,855 documents were identified from 1982 to 2015, while 1,471 publications were selected from 2015 to 2024. The results highlight the growing relevance of terms such as "integrated approach" and "water governance." Successfully implementing this vision requires strong stakeholder collaboration and continuous innovation in water management practices.

Circular economy has been proposed as a solution to tackle challenges and versatile stressors faced by the water sector, including climate change, water scarcity, water pollution, and resource depletion, thereby offering a promising pathway towards attaining sustainable development goals and enhancing climate resilience. While circularity has been conceptually associated with resilience and sustainability, existing studies are sparse, fragmented, and highly theoretical, lacking clear conceptualization and failing to provide practical guidance on utilizing these concepts to guide water systems planning and management. By carrying out a systematic literature review, this paper aims to tackle the following objectives: (1) conceptualize resilience and sustainability in the context of the circular water economy, (2) unveil the effects of circularity-enhancing interventions on the sustainability and resilience of water systems, and (3) clarify the influence of the interventions on pressures and emerging threats confronting the water sector. Circularity strategies employed in existing studies regard water (i) as a service, promoting water recovery, reuse, and recycling, and water (ii) as a source of energy and materials carrier, aiming to resource recovery and energy production from water and wastewater streams. Preliminary findings reveal that utilization of alternative water sources fosters diversification of water resources and is considered to enhance the reliability and resiliency of water supply services by reducing their dependency on freshwater resources and serving as reserve capacity in the face of water scarcity while also decreasing freshwater withdrawals. Valorization of wastewater streams for materials recovery and energy production decreases wastewater discharge and ecosystem degradation and offers alternative resources and energy supplies, decreasing dependency on primary resources and limiting their depletion. The findings indicate that incorporating resilience and sustainability in water systems management is essential for ensuring the reliability of water services in the face of emerging threats to water supply while serving Sustainable Development Goals, out of which are strengthened climate resilience and adaptive capacity, access to clean water and energy, reduced water pollution, and conservation of water resources. The state-of-the-art literature review aims to bridge the gap in conceptual clarity on the effects of the circular economy on water systems’ resilience and sustainability and to provide insights to policymakers and practitioners on how these concepts can be utilized to inform water systems planning. Future research should explore how these concepts can be practically applied to water systems design and management by translating the theoretical findings of the systematic review into actionable advice. Further, future research should focus on operationalizing these concepts to specify how resilience and sustainability can be measured as system properties, to facilitate their use in designing and assessing circular water systems, and to enable empirical testing.