Evaluation Tools and Models for Sustainable Water Management of Developed Countries: A Review

Abstract

Sustainable water management (SWM) calls for balancing the financial and social resources needed to support essential water systems with competing demands from the water industry. This review's goal is to evaluate SWM across three domains: urban, agricultural, and natural systems.  This chapter explores the following questions: (1) How is SWM defined and evaluated? (2) What are the challenges associated with sustainable development in each sector? (3) What are the areas of greatest potential improvement in urban and agricultural water management systems? And (4) What role does country development status have in SWM practices? Depending on the complexity of the problem and the investigators' resources, the methods for evaluating water management practises range from very simple indicator methods to the integration of several models. The two key findings and recommendations for meeting SWM objectives are:  all forms of water must be considered usable, and reusable, water resources; and increasing agricultural crop water production represents the largest opportunity for reducing total water consumption, and will be required to meet global food security needs. The level of regional development should not dictate sustainability objectives, however local infrastructure conditions and financial capabilities should inform the details of water system design and evaluation