Last week, more than 90 experts from different areas of expertise ranging from industry to non-profit agencies converged at Colombia University, New York to discuss crises and opportunities and to develop a future plan for collaboration.
This new initiative titled “America’s Water” aims to build a network of experts across many sectors in order to develop research that will inform water infrastructure improvements in the USA.
Discussions focused on how to address current drought trends, America’s decaying infrastructure, and new technologies amongst other things, but one of the more notable suggestions came from Edward Clerico, CEO of Natural Systems Utilities.
State of the Planet reports:
“Part of the problem up to now, Clerico argued, is that the developed world has been building and operating its water infrastructure on a linear model that dates back to Roman times. “Water infrastructure in the future will look more like a tree than a Roman aqueduct,” making it more resilient, regenerative, adaptive to its environment and beautiful. “Large and linear must become small and resource-oriented,” he added, with designs that address not just water but carbon and nutrients.
Nancy Stoner of the Pisces Foundation agreed that already-existing technologies offered great hope for solving water problems, especially those that approach the problem from a local, integrated water management approach, including green infrastructure, water reuse, energy harvesting from sewage and other technologies. We need to “look holistically and look long-term,” she said.
However, Stoner also expressed a view that seemed to be held by most of the participants: that while technical solutions exist, the real problem is society’s inability to prioritize water to make the governance, policy and social changes necessary to drive the transformation needed.”
The Columbia Water Center team will collect the results of the conference brainstorming sessions to create a working document and ongoing conversation among participants in hopes of developing collaborative, implementable solutions to water utility infrastructure management issues.
It’s exciting to see new initiatives like this shaping up and finding answers to the various water utility infrastructure management needs nationwide.
Inframanage.com will keep a lookout for the Columbia Water Center team working document and the recommendations and actions that emerge for this “America’s Water” initiative.
PHOTO CREDIT: Columbia Water University via Flickr Creative Commons License.
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