External And Internal Drivers For The Water Sector: Global Change And Paradigm Shift

Abstract

The water sector has become subject to significant shifts due to global change. That’s why the break-up of the centrally dominated infrastructure needing to become more and more flexible in recent times is being discussed. Demographic, social and economic changes have led to a decrease in water demand and thus to an under-utilisation of the technical infrastructure. In contrast, the increase of heavy rains and prolonged dry periods has changed the sewage system contrarily. Furthermore, the legal requirements of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its environmental objectives have to be observed. In the field of sewage disposal arises a paradigm shift from the central stormwater water disposal towards decentralised stormwater management to cope with the challenges. However, the integration of a decentralised approach to an existing centralised infrastructure system represents further challenges, especially due to heterogeneous inter- and intraregional settlement and infrastructure development.