Open-source platform for SDG indicators at the local level

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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>

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Circular Cities

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Starter Kit collection

Policy case

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Scalability

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Societal Services

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

Solidify definitions and create frameworks to support the understanding of the circular economy across contexts and maintain cohesive systems of data sharing, processing and storing.


 Knowledge Management

Data, knowledge & information sharing

Increase standardised data collection

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

Visions and Ambitions

Metrics and indicators to measure progress

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

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Rethink

Facilitate cross-collaboration by engaging city departments, industries and businesses on ambitious, closed-loop circular projects.

Support closed-loop systems and cross-sectoral synergies

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility Systems

Governments

Water system refers to the water supply network for storing and supplying water for use by the community.

One of the greatest challenges of a city is to provide its inhabitants with safe, clean water from a limited fresh water supply. Improving the city’s water infrastructure efficiency, such as minimising leakages, reduces the strain put on the limited supply, which in turn, helps to ensure inhabitants gain access to clean and affordable water.

The water infrastructure of a city typically consists of components such as surface water diversions, wells, pumps, transmission pipes and canals, treatment and storage facilities, and distribution network elements (Burian et al.). Options for improving the efficiency of the system include investing in water loss reduction systems, creating and following a regular maintenance program, and better matching water supply and demand (Global Water Partnership).

Cities can improve the efficiency of their water system infrastructure by conducting a water audit, in which all water flows are traced and losses in the system are identified to map where the most efficiency improvements can be gained. Alongside this, asset management can be used to create a short-term and long-term strategy of investing in new equipment, refurbishing existing equipment and developing maintenance programmes to ensure infrastructure is as efficient as possible, and leaks are minimised. Such management programmes create financial transparency amongst all stakeholders and provide useful long-term planning for larger infrastructure changes (US EPA)

💧 Water Systems

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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  25 October 2021 by Greg Scruggs, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation  In October 2017, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made a pledge: The second-largest US city would strive to meet the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
LA’s move came amid a wave of commitments to the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, since they were adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
There was only one problem: The 17 SDGs and their 169 targets were designed by countries, for countries. Cities were welcome to pledge their support, but they were not front and centre in the carefully crafted and negotiated document known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in subsequent efforts like the adoption of an indicator framework by the United Nations Statistical Commission.
That conundrum immediately hit home for Erin Bromaghim, LA’s Director of Olympic and Paralympic Development. “Cities had ostensibly committed themselves, but there were not a lot of examples of what that meant,” she said. “The idea was somewhat new without direct connectivity to non-profit or national government support. We didn’t have a template on how we were meant to get started.”
Over the nearly four years since the mayor made that pledge, Los Angeles has developed an open-source platform for collecting and analysing SDG indicators at the local level. As an open-source tool, LA created the template that it lacked when first pursuing this exercise in the hopes of paving the way for other cities to more easily track their progress on the SDGs.
To kickstart the effort, the city had vital support from the philanthropic sector. As part and parcel of the city’s public pledge to the SDGs, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation agreed to backstop the local government as it pioneered just how a municipal government could adapt this national framework for sustainable development to the local level.
Enlisting help
LA’s first move was to enlist the help of outside entities that had relevant knowledge and expertise. In February 2018, the city entered into partnership agreements with a political economy institute at LA university Occidental College and with the World Council on City Data.
These partnerships made LA one of eight hub cities around the world that agree to share data collected in the development of local SDG indicators. The city also sought to develop baseline measurements by conducting an inventory of existing city plans that touch on the various aspects of the SDGs.
“Right away you can see what cities may or may not have within their responsibilities,” Bromaghim said. For example, Los Angeles County, a unit of local government larger than the City of Los Angeles, is responsible for public health. Likewise for education, the Los Angeles Unified School District encompasses a geography larger than the City of Los Angeles.
As a result, LA parsed which targets were more relevant to its municipal jurisdiction. With regards to SDG3 on health, for example, “While we care a lot about all of the targets and indicators, we don’t have jurisdiction over maternal mortality [Target 3.1] but we do have jurisdiction over traffic fatalities [Target 3.6],” she said. In the case of SDG11.4 on cultural heritage, LA felt that it could go deeper than the national target of dollar amount spent on cultural resources by incorporating a map of citywide cultural resources that was already underway at the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
With other targets, the city was surprised to discover just how much influence it had. When reviewing SDG15 about life on land, Bromaghim initially did not expect the city to have much authority. “I didn’t think of LA as a hub of biodiversity but in fact we have huge teams looking at biodiversity in LA, such as understanding wildlife corridors and invasive species,” she said.
“There are amazing pockets of expertise throughout the city structure, all of which relate back to practical city services.” For example, biodiversity indicators helped inform the city’s Bureau of Sanitation to avoid wildlife corridors and build public support for the construction of wildlife corridors over existing roadways. This indicator also created opportunities to engage the public by incorporating data from the citizen science application iNaturalist.
Open data platform
The LA Open SDG data platform went live in July 2019. It currently collects 159 indicators, which is 60 more than the US government’s portal SDG.gov.
In 2019, the city also submitted a Voluntary Local Review to the UN High-Level Political Forum. Finally, the city launched an SDG Activity Index as a public encyclopedia of local entities across the public, private, philanthropic, grassroots, and charitable sectors that are pursuing efforts to improve SDG-related outcomes in the city.
This wealth of material has been a beacon for cities looking to do the same but unsure where to start. “Translating and implementing the question of what it takes to move the SDGs forward can be daunting,” said the UN Foundation’s Krista Rasmussen. “LA has laid out a clear path and developed a whole process to accelerate the SDG framework and make it applicable to their city. The meticulous documentation is invaluable.”
Rasmussen applauded LA in particular for taking measures beyond those prescribed in the SDG framework, such as disaggregating data to measure outcomes for the LGBTQ+ community.
Rasmussen credited the resources that a big city like LA was able to marshal, from foundation to university support. In addition to Occidental College, other institutes of higher learning like the University of Southern California, Arizona State University, and Pomona College joined the SDG effort and provided a pipeline for students to work on the SDG data collection effort. “They have resources and additional capacity that other cities don’t have,” she said.
As one convener hoping to spread local adoption of the SDGs, Rasmussen said the UN Foundation has directed cities like Arlington, Virginia and Phoenix, Arizona to learn from the LA experience. LA was also one of the featured case studies in a January-February 2021 workshop on Voluntary Local Reviews attended by representatives from 140 local and regional governments.
“Los Angeles is the first city in the world to report SDG data at such a granular level using an open-source platform,” said Elettra Baldi of Open Data Watch.
“This is important because it serves as a blueprint for other cities that want to adopt the SDGs locally. They created the portal using GitHub, a free software, and other cities can reuse the code used to build the SDG platform for free. This is a crucial step that LA has taken to ensure that other cities can replicate their portal.”
What at first seemed like a monumental task slowly but surely became more manageable as LA’s army of data scientists and volunteers sifted through the reams of publicly available datasets to map the SDGs onto the city’s footprint.
“From the outside the goals are so big – think about something like reducing inequalities,” Bromaghim said. “But when I started digging in on how it relates back to LA, it was just a matching game.”
Los Angeles is one of 15 finalists in the Guangzhou Awards. The winners will be announced later this year. The biennial Guangzhou Award was launched in 2012 and is run in partnership with the City of Guangzhou, China; United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG); and the World Association of the Major Metropolises (Metropolis). It recognises innovation in social, economic and environmental issues and aims to share best practices between cities globally. 

Los Angeles

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Municipality of Los Angeles

Leveraging on open technologies to collaboratively reach the SDGs, the municipality of&nbsp;Los Angeles developed an open-source platform for collecting and analysing SDG indicators at the city level. The city became the first in the world to take this approach, serving as a blueprint and making the code freely available for other cities with similar goals.

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Replace freshwater with less impactful alternatives and enact water efficiency measures

Regenerative water

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer / consumer collaboration

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Designing products so they use as little materials, water, energy, etc. as possible during use

Design for resource efficiency

Engaging in discussions with customers to educate and raise awareness of the circular economy and explore circular opportunities together

Customer dialogue, marketing 

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to circular economy

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

Infrastructure

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

Govern the Transition

Cross-departmental collaboration and engagement

'Incentivise' sends market signals and support to businesses, citizens and governments to promote certain activities.

Incentivise

Public-private partnerships

Innovation-oriented public procurement

 Public Procurement

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Economic Frameworks

Use longer and more often by extending and intensifying use of existing resources, products, spaces and infrastructure

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Reuse

Do better with less by using and supporting infrastructure, processes and products that are designed to minimize material, water and energy use and waste generation from production to end of use


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Reduce

Maintain and repair city-owned spaces and infrastructure to increase longevity, and support opportunities for residents to do the same for privately owned items and property

Support reuse, repair, remanufacturing, maintenance of existing resources, products, spaces & infrastructure

Ensure that infrastructure and built assets in the city are designed and upgraded to be as resource-efficient as possible.

Design infrastructure and the built environment for resource efficiency

One of the greatest challenges of a city is to provide its inhabitants with safe, clean water from a limited fresh water supply. Improving the city’s water infrastructure efficiency, such as minimising leakages, reduces the strain put on the limited supply, which in turn, helps to ensure inhabitants gain access to clean and affordable water.

The water infrastructure of a city typically consists of components such as surface water diversions, wells, pumps, transmission pipes and canals, treatment and storage facilities, and distribution network elements ([Burian et al.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123847034005098)). Options for improving the efficiency of the system include investing in water loss reduction systems, creating and following a regular maintenance program, and better matching water supply and demand ([Global Water Partnership](http://www.cawater-info.net/policybriefs/pdf/tec_brief_4_water_efficiency.pdf)).

Cities can improve the efficiency of their water system infrastructure by conducting a water audit, in which all water flows are traced and losses in the system are identified to map where the most efficiency improvements can be gained. Alongside this, asset management can be used to create a short-term and long-term strategy of investing in new equipment, refurbishing existing equipment and developing maintenance programmes to ensure infrastructure is as efficient as possible, and leaks are minimised. Such management programmes create financial transparency amongst all stakeholders and provide useful long-term planning for larger infrastructure changes ([US EPA](https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-water-infrastructure/things-local-officials-should-do-sustainable-water-infrastructure)).

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💧  Improving water infrastructure efficiency

The water consumed by households must be of a sufficiently good quality to safely drink, bathe and clean with. However, the quality of water required for each of these needs differs significantly. For example, potable or drinking water must be of a higher quality than the water used to flush a toilet or irrigate a garden (so called “greywater”).  It is possible to significantly reduce our overall water consumption by using and reusing non-potable water sources for lower quality purposes—a strategy particularly relevant for drought-stressed cities.

Greywater reuse systems can be applied at household level to collect water from showers and baths, filter and treat it, and then recirculate it to flush toilets or irrigate gardens. Alternatively, a sports centre can collect greywater from showers and hand basins and process it to be used to irrigate an adjacent sports field or community garden.

Cities can encourage the uptake of greywater reuse systems through awareness campaigns, regulations and financial incentives. Awareness campaigns can show the potential environmental and financial benefits of installing greywater systems. Regulations can be in the form of building codes and requirements in which the installation of a grey water reuse system is compulsory, unless practically infeasible. Financial incentives are usually in the form of rebates for installing such a system. Municipal governments can also lead by example and procure such greywater reuse systems in municipal or city-run buildings, such as municipal offices or schools. This can not only improve the water-efficiency of such buildings, but can also showcase the benefits of the systems, and support local market demand.



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💧  Grey-water reuse systems

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

 Rainwater harvesting and management is nothing new. In fact, this technique has been used for thousands of years in many parts of the globe to capture and store rainwater in the pores of soil or for human use. Growing water scarcity, climate change, rapid urbanisation, and increased demand for water, are once again making this ancient technology a viable option for cities.
The potential for rainwater harvesting and management (RWHM) to reduce water consumption, alleviate stormwater runoff and provide drinking water, has largely been neglected in the modern era. In part, this is due to local context, such as seasonal variability in rainfall, costs of storage, treatment and retrofitting water systems, as well as policy and institutional barriers. Add to this short-sighted water management policies that rely on the overexploitation of river water or groundwater.
For cities and communities to become truly water-wise, the long-term benefits of using alternative water sources, such as rainwater, is key. The decentralized nature of RWHM requires the involvement and cooperation of the communities they most affect. A water-wise city first requires water-wise communities that understand the benefits of such systems. Professor Mooyoung Han on a green roof at Seoul National University How can we make RWHM happen in cities? 
Integration across sectors and disciplines, and reworking city-wide master plans that promote policy alignment, are vital. As is working with local communities and other stakeholders to ensure the knowledge and capacities for successful implementation. There is a long way to go, but pioneering examples from Asia offer a glimpse of what may be possible.
Singapore
In Singapore, a city-state with limited water resources, harvesting rainwater was a natural extension of pre-existing strategies to reduce, reuse and replenish water sources. Approximately 86% of Singapore’s population lives in high-rise buildings, so rooftop water collection systems have been installed to maximize the use of rainwater and act as a catchment. The rainwater is collected in tanks and used for toilet flushing, helping to reduce water consumption, save on energy and reduce other costs within the buildings.
Vietnam
In a village near Hanoi, Vietnam, without piped water supply, the groundwater is contaminated with arsenic, river water is polluted, and bottled water is too expensive. The only option for drinking water is to use rainwater. Several community-based rainwater harvesting systems, including within public schools and hospitals, are successfully supplying drinking water to residents. After site-specific technical, economic and social barriers are identified and overcome, community-based rainwater harvesting can become a promising option to provide drinking water in rural villages in developing countries in Africa and East Asia alike.
Korea
In Korea, studies have shown that 90% of total water assets are ‘invisible water’ – water that is held in soil moisture, living plants and the atmosphere. Maintaining and increasing invisible water is vital for cities, a process of urban greening achieved by reducing the number of impervious surfaces and retaining it in soil and plants. Invisible water evaporates to become clouds and later returns to the ground as rain, completing a short water cycle. Green infrastructure benefits cities twofold: enhancing resilience against extreme rainfall events; and reducing the urban heat island effects by evapotranspiration of invisible water. Greenery intercepts rainfall and slows down its travel, reducing the magnitude of flooding risks. Greenery also consumes heat energy by evaporation, therefore decreasing the temperature. Did you know that 1m3 of water consumes 700KWh of heat energy by evaporation? That is the equivalent of the energy spent in a day by 100 air conditioning window units. China
Shenzhen is responding to its urban water shortage crisis by becoming one of the earliest adopters of the Sponge City concept. The city aims to become a water supply catchment, increasing its use of invisible water to provide temperature control. This has begun with the implementation of policies and regulations for rainfall infiltration, retention and storage in new construction projects. Shenzhen has made progress, but still faces challenges to ensure stable and clean water supply. Increasing urban green spaces, Sponge City concepts and retrofitting buildings in cities, are all important methods to prepare for an uncertain future.
The way forward
Traditional water management has much to contribute to future solutions, but we must move towards a new paradigm that considers rainwater as a main water resource within the entire water cycle in a city. By doing so we can align stakeholders to an urban water vision known as a water-wise community.
What is your city doing to reinvigorate rainwater management? Join us on the journey to water-wise cities! Embrace the Water, a Cities of the Future Conference
IWA’s Embrace the Water (12-14 June, 2017) is a unique event looking at the water opportunities and threats in modern, sustainable and innovative cities. It presents and opportunity for water professionals and urban planners to learn and collaborate on sustainable solutions for their cities. Don’t miss one of the leading cities and water events of the year. 

Many US cities are facing a decrepit state and lack of investment in their water infrastructure. Some cities are therefore adopting various tools, such as a water management plan in Los Angeles, to thwart such challenging issues.