Scenarios, Sustainability, and Critical Infrastructure Risk Mitigation in Water Planning
Planning for water in the context of critical infrastructure
By David Jermain
October 2020
With climate change impacting water systems around the globe, the state of water supply planning is facing unprecedented challenges and calls for revamped approaches designed to better prepare for less predictable outcomes. The Institute for Sustainable Energy (now the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability) has found that by integrating scenario planning into existing planning models and incorporating the broader context of how critical electric, water, communications, and transportation infrastructure is interconnected, more complexity can be captured in the water planning process and can support informed decision making.
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Key Findings and Recommendations
- Implementing a new framework for planning that evaluates critical infrastructure interdependencies and how they overlap is critical.
- Disregarding the interdependencies of critical infrastructure in the U.S. results in more costly critical service due to a lack of risk reduction and cost efficiencies.
- Scenario planning is becoming increasingly important as a method for understanding the water planning risks and opportunities for cities, states, and utilities.
- The interdependency between water and energy infrastructure is of most concern when it comes to planning and addressing challenges related to supply, allocation, decision-making, and safety and security.
- Institute for Sustainable Energy researchers provide a case study from the City of Austin, Texas’ 100-year water plan—a major contribution to modern water strategy and supply planning.