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Urban development has altered surface-water hydrology of landscapes and created urban heat island effects. With climate change, increasing frequency of extreme heat events and in some areas, episodic drought and flooding, present new challenges for urban areas. Green infrastructure holds potential as a cost-effective means of providing microclimate cooling and stormwater diversion. Further, green open spaces when combined with the provision of equipment and facilities have the potential to promote physical and emotional well-being. However successful implementation may be predicated on co-ordinated efforts of multiple agencies. The Institutional Analysis and Development framework developed by Crawford and Ostrom is used in a case study to understand the institutional impediments, transaction costs and gaps in responsibility associated with the delivery of green infrastructure. Lessons learned are potentially transferable to other urban settings. Our analysis reveals areas of high transaction costs as well as a gap in the polycentric decision-making of agencies. The local government council is concerned with the well-being of its residents but has limited financial capacity. None of the agencies who deliver green infrastructure have responsibility for facilitating the indirect or preventative health benefits. Thus, a co-ordination problem among agencies can lead to suboptimal investments in green infrastructure.

Wastewater recycling has emerged as a prominent option among the various alternative sources of water in both developing and developed countries. However, the questions that need to be answered in this context are: how do communities determine which option is best for them, and what are the factors that make one water alternative more appealing than another? The aim in this paper is to understand the factors that affect wastewater management across communities that are at varying stages of economic development. From an in-depth literature review of 329 studies, the factors that determine wastewater management have been grouped together into four categories: physical, economic, institutional and environmental factors. Finally, drawing on the Environmental Kuznets Curve, a framework has been developed that combines these factors that constrain or facilitate wastewater treatment and recycling over a broad spectrum of economic settings and stages of development. The factors, their components and the methods through which relevant empirical evidence can be collected to assess them, are presented and discussed in detail. In doing this, the aim is to highlight the changing nature of the four factors which will influence long-term investments in wastewater infrastructure.

In an effort to increase the livability of its cities, public agencies in Australia are investing in green infrastructure to improve public health, reduce heat island effects and transition toward water sensitive urban design. In this paper, we present a simple and replicable approach to building a business case for green infrastructure. This approach requires much less time and resources compared to other methods for estimating the social and economic returns to society from such investments. It is a pragmatic, reasonably comprehensive approach that includes socio-demographic profile of potential users and catchment analysis to assess the economic value of community benefits of the investment. The approach has been applied to a case study area in the City of Brimbank, a western suburb of Greater Melbourne. We find that subject to a set of assumptions, a reasonable business case can be made. We estimate potential public benefits of avoided health costs of about AU$75,049 per annum and potential private benefits of AU$3.9 million. The project area is one of the most poorly serviced areas in the municipality in terms of quality open spaces and the potential beneficiaries are from relatively low income households with less than average health status and education levels. The values of cultural (recreational benefits, avoided health costs, and increased property values) and regulating (reduction in heat island effect and carbon sequestration) ecosystem services were quantified that can potentially offset annual maintenance costs.

In this article the authors document evolving attitudes, policies and roles of stakeholders in wastewater and faecal-sludge management in India, China and Ghana. In each country there is momentum for expanding not just access to sanitation at the household/community levels, but also for greater treatment and safe end-of-life management of human excreta. Governments are increasingly looking to engage the private sector, but models of engagement that make a compelling business case and instil confidence in cost recovery will have to emerge before the private sector takes an active role in wastewater and faecal sludge treatment in low-income countries.

The current study uses contingent valuation technique to estimate the value of clean water in river Musi in Hyderabad, India. The main source of pollution of the river is untreated domestic and industrial wastewater from the urban area of Hyderabad. Therefore, people’s Willingness To Pay [WTP] for the treatment of their wastewater to different quality levels (Level C, B & A) is estimated using a payment card method. Four variables were considered to influence the willingness to pay - number of years the household lived in Hyderabad; individual perceived importance of controlling water pollution; household income levels and proximity to the river. The results of the logistic regression confirmed that the variables - perceived importance of the respondent of controlling water pollution and household incomes have a significant influence on people’s WTP. Only 30% of the respondents were willing to pay for wastewater to be treated to level C. It was concluded from the survey results that 100% cost recovery of sewerage services and wastewater treatment would not be possible in Hyderabad in the current situation. However, a phased increase in the water tariffs accompanied with simultaneous improvements in service delivery mechanisms and awareness among consumers may be successful in the long-run.