Sustainable Water Management in Urban, Agricultural, and Natural Systems

Urban Farm DB summary

This review assesses sustainable water management (SWM) across three sectors — urban, agricultural, and natural systems — addressing four questions: how SWM is defined and evaluated, the challenges associated with sustainable development in each sector, where the greatest potential for improvement lies in urban and agricultural water management, and what role a country's development status plays in SWM practices. Methods for evaluating water management range from simple indicator approaches to integration of multiple models, depending on problem complexity and investigator resources. The review's two key findings and recommendations are: (1) all forms of water must be treated as usable and reusable resources, and (2) increasing agricultural crop water production efficiency represents the largest opportunity for reducing total water consumption, needed to meet global food security requirements. It states that the level of regional development should not dictate sustainability objectives, though local infrastructure conditions and financial capabilities should inform the details of water system design and evaluation.