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Within the global sustainability agenda, companies must align their operations with specific Sustainable Goals (SGs) and develop corresponding budgeting strategies. This paper presents a robust multicriteria decision-making model tailored for a Spanish utility company specializing in water services. The model ensures that financial allocations reflect the company's vision and its interpretation of sustainable development within its service areas. This approach aims to promote objectivity, traceability, and sustainability in decision-making, as a critical component in achieving SGs. The article emphasizes the importance of aligning water companies' budget allocations with SGs, highlighting key indicators for consideration. It provides a practical illustration of how the company's financial allocations were synchronized with SGs using a multicriteria decision-making model. A case study is included, involving a budget allocation of 40 million euros compared across four scenarios with the historical average of budgets from the Past Three Investment Plans (P3IP). The results reveal significant variations in budget allocation across different infrastructure categories, demonstrating the system's robustness, such as a 70% variation in production infrastructures, 27% in transportation, 25% in distribution, and 40% in the remaining areas, depending on the scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water utility crews, including those who perform system maintenance and operations at drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities, are experiencing the impacts of changing rainfall characteristics first‐hand. These frontline crews have relevant, experiential knowledge about changing climate‐related risks and adaptation needs that, to date, are not included in utilities' strategic climate planning or implementation efforts, resulting in critical knowledge systems and action gaps. In this co‐production case study with Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), a municipal public water utility in Washington State, we use surveys and interviews to document barriers and opportunities for frontline crew engagement to enhance SPU's climate adaptation strategies to extreme rainfall. We find that 66% of crew workers perceive changes to rainfall intensity over the past decade and 59% report responding more to rainfall‐related issues. These frontline crews are coping with changes in extreme precipitation by increasing preventative maintenance, working overtime during major storm events, and doing more pre‐storm planning and preparation. Crews identified several aspects limiting their ability to respond to and prepare for extreme rainfall. To enhance their adaptive capacity, crews documented needs for infrastructure improvement, workforce facilities improvement, increased access to appropriate personal protective equipment, improved communication and coordination across the utility, and enhanced workforce capacity, including increased staff numbers. Findings suggest that for more effective, equitable, and responsive climate adaptation, water utilities should explicitly solicit and include crews' knowledge and lived experiences in adaptation planning while prioritizing strategies that enhance frontline crews' capacity and working conditions as a form of reciprocal action. Plain Language Summary: This study engaged frontline crews at Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) to understand and inform how future frontline workforce engagement can be integrated in adaptation planning and investments including frontline crew engagement as a necessary part of a robust and equitable climate adaptation planning. Water utility crews are frontline workers because they may be directly exposed to climate impacts where they work. These frontline workers experience climate change impacts, including heavier rainfall, firsthand. This exposure has implications for climate equity. In Seattle, Washington, the City has made equity plans, community engagement plans, and climate action and adaptation plans, yet to‐date none of them explicitly include frontline workers' knowledge, experiences, or exposure as critical to understanding and managing climate change. Frontline workers are not just impacted by climate‐amplified hazards, but they are also implementers of climate adaptation strategies. These workers hold experience‐based knowledge about the effective management of water utility systems and knowledge of current climate adaptation strategies. This study, through direct frontline worker engagement, explores how water utilities can intentionally include crews' on‐the‐ground perspectives in adaptation efforts and invest in increasing workers' ability to adapt as part of reciprocity for incorporating their experiential knowledge into climate adaptation planning and action. Key Points: Water utility crews have experiential knowledge about climate risks that is often not integrated in utilities' climate adaptation effortsCrews managing utility assets like stormwater infrastructure already perceive that climate change is deteriorating their working conditionsIntegrating crew knowledge into strategic planning while enhancing crews' capacity is important for equitable adaptation in the water sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of World Water Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Non-financial reporting of large public interest entities is a very important component of annual corporate reporting. This reporting emphasizes the social responsibility of these entities and highlights environmental, social and personnel issues, respect for Human Rights and the fight against corruption and bribery. In Romanian legislation directive 2014/95/EU is transposed by Order of the Ministry of Public Finance no. 1938/2016, which legislates the obligation to make a non-financial declaration for large entities of public interest. Most regional water and sewerage operators are in the category of these entities for the non-financial statement. As there is no legislated and unanimously accepted reporting framework, each of these entities makes the non-financial statement in its own approach. In this quantitative research we examine the way and content of non-financial reporting by regional water and sewerage operators in Romania.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on drinking water were reported to have been achieved five years earlier than the target date of 2015 in all the continents, except Africa and Oceania. This study assessed the performance of selected state water utilities in Nigeria in Africa over a period of years to determine improvements, if any, in their service coverage and demand gap in meeting the ambitious SDG target 6.1, which aims to achieve sustainable drinking water for all by 2030. Employing the key performance indicator (KPI) methodology, encompassing operational and maintenance efficiency, investment efficiency, and financial sustainability, this research unveils a widening disparity between water supply and demand gap. Alarming is the revelation that the revenue from water sales falls short of covering operation and maintenance costs, rendering these utilities financially unsustainable. This underperformance of state water utilities signals a formidable barrier to Nigeria's prospects of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.1, thereby jeopardizing the nation's ability to ensure universal and affordable access to safe drinking water by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water and wastewater utilities consume significant energy. While they are regulated on water quality and other environmental issues, energy management is largely optional. In between enforceable public policy and voluntary internal action, professional associations can influence their industries to act. In this perspective article, we discuss 10 policy statements from three professional associations in the water sector and discuss how they support energy management. While few of the statements directly address energy management, we conclude that they justify it in terms of ethics, sustainability, affordability, and asset management. Still, their disparate nature exposes a policy gap. We recommend that the associations develop definitive policy statements on the subject to clarify their positions and set expectations. Practitioner Points: Water/wastewater utilities use energy but are not regulated for energy management.In the absence of public policy, professional associations can influence action.We discuss 10 policy statements from ASCE, AWWA, and WEF in the water industry.The statements support energy management indirectly but leave a policy gap.We recommend developing policy statements specifically on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a vision has been shared of how artificial intelligence (AI) can optimize the increasingly complex operations of drinking water utilities. However, it has been unclear if and how water utilities use the technology. Here, we surveyed a simple random sample of 49 large US water utilities to provide a snapshot of progress. We found that 12 of them (24%) have used some form of AI. Of those that have not, the majority plan to use or may plan to use AI in the next 5 years. The reported AI uses were experimental, manual, or partial models rather than fully integrated, ongoing applications. Respondents are motivated to use AI for improving water quality, detecting leaks, and automating complex systems, but they cited payback uncertainty and lack of AI expertise as the most common barriers to implementation. To better demonstrate how AI can join other tools available to assist human operators, researchers should focus on the top motivations and barriers identified here and partner with water utilities on convincing case studies of full-scale AI projects. These steps will support further responsible adoption of AI to optimize water utility operations as part of more sustainable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance assessment is recognized as an important management tool for urban water systems. This article describes the application of a performance assessment framework for storm water systems, in collaboration with two Portuguese urban water utilities. A performance assessment system was built for each water utility, including objectives, assessment criteria and performance metrics. The results showed the existence of areas vulnerable to flooding occurrences and the need for investment in rehabilitation. The application of the performance assessment framework supports the identification of systems' vulnerabilities and priorities for intervention. Opportunities and suggestions for improving data collection procedures are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is a municipal water supply, drainage, wastewater, and solid waste management utility in Seattle, Washington. This utility has explored the impacts of climate change and supported climate adaptation work since 1997. Faced with threats such as sea level rise, drought, wildfires, and extreme precipitation events, SPU has worked to "mainstream" climate science throughout its strategic planning, capital investments, management, operations, staffing, institutional culture, and more. This paper provides a descriptive, chronologically ordered account of how SPU's climate-change-related work has evolved to become an aspect of a broader social and environmental sustainability orientation, aimed at resilience against climate impacts, but also towards improving greenhouse gas emissions reduction, carbon sequestration, water and waste circularity, green infrastructure, ecosystem and species stewardship, green and blue workforce development, affordability, an intergenerational perspective, and environmental justice. We frame this transition as a movement from a core focus on risk management toward a proactive and integrated mode of sustainable operations. While SPU's journey has been enabled by a co-productive approach to climate services, we speculate on how this model can be broadened and diversified to help SPU pursue their goal of becoming a sustainable organization. It is our hope that this paper sparks reflection and discussion within the climate services community, amongst utilities, municipalities, and policy entrepreneurs that are interested in sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maynilad Water Services Inc. (MWSI) is responsible for supplying water to the west zone of Metro Manila. The utility provides service to 17 cities and municipalities which frequently experience water interruptions and price hikes. This study aimed to identify the key factors affecting customer satisfaction toward MWSI by integrating the SERVQUAL dimensions and Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT). An online questionnaire was disseminated to 725 MWSI customers using the snowball sampling method to obtain accurate data. Ten latent were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling and Deep Learning Neural Network hybrid. It was found that Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Expectations, Confirmation, Performance, and Water consumption were all factors affecting MWSI customers' satisfaction. Results showed that having an affordable water service, providing accurate water bills, on-time completion of repairs and installations, intermittent water interruptions and professional employees contribute to the general satisfaction. MWSI officials may utilize this study's findings to assess further the quality of their services and design effective policies to improve. The employment of DLNN and SEM hybrid showed promising results when employed in human behavior. Thus, the results of this study would be beneficial when examining satisfaction to utilities and policies among service providers in different countries. Moreover, this study could be extended and applied among other customer and service-focused industries worldwide.

Climate change projections in many regions of the world show a critical reduction in precipitation and a significant rise in temperatures in the next decades. This change may affect the operation of water utilities in arid and semi-arid parts of the globe. The Mediterranean region is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on water resources. In this paper, we reflect on the challenges that the water utility sector may experience during the upcoming decades to continue providing its essential service under the new climate scenario. Our reasoning is based on the lessons learned during the co-creation of a climate service with the water utility company of Valencia (Spain) within the framework of the EU ERA4CS project INNOVA. The joint vision of climate, water management researchers and water utility operators resulted in a multi-scale framework for evaluating the vulnerability of the water utility to climate change. The modelling framework couples water quantity and quality and their interaction in a chain of models. The proposed framework forced all parties to consider the issue of the temporal and spatial scales, and the importance of choosing and defining the boundaries of the problem. The analytical framework has three distinct elements: (1) a combination of climate projections; (2) hydrological and water resource management model of the river basin system; (3) reservoir management and water quality model. Two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 were considered in two timeframes for the analysis: the short term (2020–2040) and the medium term (2041–2069). The results show a significant reduction in water availability combined with an increased frequency and intensity of phytoplankton blooms and anoxia episodes. These changes result in the deterioration of the reservoir trophic state, shifting from ultraoligotrophic-oligotrophic (control period) to oligotrophic-mesotrophic (RCP 8.5). The example shows how the combination of models on different scales and the involvement of experts in the co-creation process can result in a customized climate service that provides valuable information to water utility operators that can be used to reduce the system’s vulnerability to climate change.

Copyright of Gestion et Management Public is the property of Association Internationale de Recherche en Management Public (AIRMAP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper assesses the sustainability of Brazilian's water and sanitation state-owned companies' services. The assessment was conducted based on the selection of six indicators reflecting three of the sustainability dimensions: social, economic, and environmental. We built a global sustainability index by adopting the MACBETH multicriteria analysis methodology, which aggregates the dimensions of sustainability with their respective indicators. As main result we found that two companies were considered sustainable in each of the three assessed dimensions of sustainability, and that three companies were globally sustainable according to the methodology applied in this study. Setting sustainability targets and increasing regulatory enforcement leads to improved services performance. Further, sustainable sanitation services bring us closer to achieving the national targets for universal access and Sustainable Development Goal 6 established by the United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in customer engagement (CE) has triggered a new wave of reforms, particularly in utility regulation. Within the water sector, there has been a shift from a focus on cost‐reflective pricing toward customer‐centric pricing processes designed to identify customer preferences and expectations. The Victorian water sector in Australia offers a unique opportunity to explore the outcomes of these CE trends given the recent first‐time application of a novel Performance, Risk, Engagement, Management, and Outcomes (PREMO) framework. Based on in‐depth interviews with senior industry representatives from a diverse sample of Victorian water utilities, this paper critically analyses the scope, design, and incentive mechanisms that underpin the new regulatory process. Findings indicate that CE has potentially beneficial aspects to both the regulator and the regulated utility, including more transparency in capital projects and a better understanding of customer preferences in service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Samoa improved the capacity of Samoa Water Authority (SWA) by implementing integrated cooperation with water utilities in Okinawa Prefecture, and hardware and software development to reduce the high non-revenue water (NRW) ratio and improve water supply quality and inadequate water pressure. Standard operation procedures were formulated to enhance the capacity of SWA. The cooperation method adopted continuous on-the-job training with a bottom-up approach. Consequently, the NRW ratio was reduced from 68 per cent to 36 per cent and water supply with proper pressure was achieved in the targeted area. The quality of the tap water, in which many coliform bacteria were detected before the cooperation, achieved 100 per cent compliance with standards. The cooperation evidenced that improving water services can help users' understanding of tariff payments, although the water tariff increased for most consumers due to a shift from fixed to metered tariff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to guarantee the sustainability of the potable water supply service, a water utility must generate improvements in its performance in an integrated manner. The objective of this research is to analyze and provide information about the components and indicators used by the water utility of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, which directly impact water management. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Logic (FL) methodologies were applied. The study determined the trends and evolution over time from 2002 to 2017. From the combination of both methodologies, a Water Supply Management Index was obtained with an average value of 0.79, which shows positive progress for water resource management by the water utility. However, the traditional indicators are insufficient and require particular attention. The analysis helped to identify those indicators that do impact water management and their ability to measure the sustainability of the city's water utility. This may make it possible to monitor the progress toward the accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), by performing an evaluation and thorough analysis of the status of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban water utilities, facing rising demands and limited supply expansion options, increasingly partner with neighboring utilities to develop and operate shared infrastructure. Inter‐utility agreements can reduce costs via economies of scale and help limit environmental impacts, as substitutes for independent investments in large capital projects. However, unexpected shifts in demand growth or water availability, deviating from projections underpinning cooperative agreements, can introduce both supply and financial risk to utility partners. Risks may also be compounded by asymmetric growth in demand across partners or inflexibility of the agreement structure itself to adapt to changing conditions of supply and demand. This work explores the viability of both fixed and adjustable capacity inter‐utility cooperative agreements to mitigate regional water supply and financial risk for utilities that vary in size, growth expectations, and independent infrastructure expansion options. Agreements formalized for a shared regional water treatment plant are found to significantly improve regional supply reliability and financial outcomes, despite highly correlated weather and climate across neighboring supply systems (e.g., concurrent drought events). Regional improvements in performance, however, mask tradeoffs among individual agreement partners. Adjustable treatment capacity allocations add flexibility to inter‐utility agreements but can compound financial risk to each utility as a function of the decision‐making of the other partners. Often the sensitivity to partners' decision‐making under an adjustable agreement degrades financial performance, relative to agreements with fixed capacities allocated to each partner. Our results demonstrate the significant benefits cooperative agreements offer, providing a template to aid decision‐makers in the development of water supply partnerships. Key Points: Inter‐utility agreements are useful tools to help neighboring water utilities cooperate to reduce supply risks and infrastructure costsAgreements improve regional supply and financial performance versus pathways of independent action, but introduce tradeoffs among partnersAgreements with adjustable financing most expose partners to decision‐making by other utilities, increasing financial risks [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A water utility requires myriads of data for effective decision-making. As the sources and ranges of data are becoming increasingly complex, the use of a metadata framework can play a significant role in effective data management. Using case study method, this research analyzed data needs of a water supply system in a small town in South Australia and designed a demo portal of a metadata framework. As part of the case study, the project team undertook a broad investigative approach using focus group (interviews), observation, exploration of potential data sources, identification of knowledge leaders and information technology systems. The metadata framework comprised two separate but interconnected metadata groups, (1) metadata elements to describe the metadata source and (2) metadata elements to describe the datasets held in each data source. The metadata framework was populated to describe data sources and data held in each of the sources. The data catalogue created by this process showed that it was accomplishable and appropriate to describe data sources and datasets via a metadata framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water pricing is a demand management strategy to address the looming challenge of greater water scarcity in arid regions. Much of the literature on residential water rates focuses on evaluating the impact of pricing on household conservation. A separate, but rarely addressed question is what motivates a water utility to select a particular rate structure and the timing of doing so. We assess utilities' decisions to adopt pro-conservation rate structures, such as increasing block rates and water budget rates. We develop a conceptual model of utility decision-making regarding the transition to pro-conservation rates and apply it to California. We examine the relationship between rate adoption and characteristics of utilities and customers using logistic regression and a balanced panel dataset of 323 California water systems from 2006-2015. We find a notable shift towards pro-conservation rates, which 71% of California utilities had by 2015, compared to 44% in 2006. Capacity factors associated with adoption include size of service population and customer income level, while motivating factors include peer adoption, greater customer engagement, and special district governance. Overall, this study provides insight into barriers to pro-conservation pricing, which can inform policies to enable transitions and advance conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eutrophication, climate change, and river flow fragmentation are the main cause of nuisance algal blooms worldwide. This study evaluated the conditions that trigger the growth and occurrence of nuisance phytoplankton in the Santa Lucía River, a subtropical floodplain lotic system that supplies drinking water to 60% of the population of Uruguay. The main variables that explained phytoplankton biovolume were extracted from generalized linear models (GLM). The potential impact of nuisance organism advection on water utility was estimated by the phytoplankton biovolume transport (BVTR, m3 day−1), an indicator of biomass load. Santa Lucía River had a wide flow range (0.7×105–1438×105 m3 day−1) and eutrophic conditions (median, TP: 0.139 mg L−1; TN: 0.589 mg L−1). GLMs indicated that phytoplankton biomass increased with temperature and soluble reactive phosphorus. Contrary to expectations, the presence of cyanobacteria was positively associated with periods of high flow that result in high cyanobacterial biovolume transport, with a probability of 3.35 times higher when flow increased by one standard deviation. The cyanobacterial biovolume transported (max: 9.5 m3 day−1) suggests that biomass was subsidized by allochthonous inocula. Biovolume from other nuisance groups (diatoms, cryptophytes, and euglenophytes) was positively associated with low-flow conditions and high nutrient concentrations in the main river channel, thereby indicating that these conditions boost eukaryote blooms. The evaluation of BVTR allows a better understanding of the dynamics of fluvial phytoplankton and can help to anticipate scenarios of nuisance species transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water utilities face continuous challenges with the changes of operational environment, aging personnel, and related tacit knowledge of employees. This article explores knowledge management at one Finnish utility and points out knowledge sharing in daily tasks. It highlights how employees interpret knowledge and tacit knowledge and their sharing. Qualitative inquiry was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 61 employees (65% of personnel) in 2004 and 33 in 2013 (47%). Knowledge management was regarded as a personal, individually controlled property. Value was one obstacle to the unwillingness to share knowledge and tacit knowledge. Positive change between 2004 and 2013 was seen in the interpretation of tacit knowledge: being something that is recorded in your own head only. Tacit knowledge was daily shared with the closest coworkers. As a strategic asset, knowledge should be managed at water and wastewater utilities as further development needs crucial understanding of previous procedures and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to guarantee the sustainability of the potable water supply service, a water utility must generate improvements in its performance in an integrated manner. The objective of this research is to analyze and provide information about the components and indicators used by the water utility of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, which directly impact water management. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Logic (FL) methodologies were applied. The study determined the trends and evolution over time from 2002 to 2017. From the combination of both methodologies, a Water Supply Management Index was obtained with an average value of 0.79, which shows positive progress for water resource management by the water utility. However, the traditional indicators are insufficient and require particular attention. The analysis helped to identify those indicators that do impact water management and their ability to measure the sustainability of the city’s water utility. This may make it possible to monitor the progress toward the accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), by performing an evaluation and thorough analysis of the status of water resources.

Efficient water management of the urban water cycle is one of the current concerns with the increase of (peri) urban areas due to the population growth, economic development, and possibility of water scarcity due to climate change. To face the increase of the water demand it is imperative the creation of digital water solutions to provide a real-time monitoring, decision support system, to manage the water supply network efficiently and optimize the water-energy nexus. This paper presents a Water Wise System – W2S, results from a R&D project supported by an EU and Portuguese Government Grant. The paper provides a preliminary study of an architecture solution to Water Wise System software, focuses on the water challenges, present technology, digital water, IoT and the future of smart cities. The solution aims to support a paradigm shift in the management of water distribution networks, with predictive and analytical convergence supported in Machine Learning, Deep Learning and an integration with SCADA, GIS and EPANET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic water storage tanks are commonly used in urban centres of developing countries such as Uganda to enable reliable access to water. However, little work has been done on the conditions of domestic water storage tanks since it is assumed that water received meets the required standards and guidelines for drinking water. In 2015, over 80% of the water quality complaints raised by water utility customers in Kampala were about water from storage tanks. In this study we assessed water quality in, and conditions of, domestic storage tanks, for customers supplied by a water utility from March - August 2017 in Kampala, Uganda. Longitudinal assessment of 372 storage tanks in 6 sampled wards involved a minimum of 6 samples collected from each site in both wet and dry months of 2017. A set of guiding questions was used to establish tank conditions, with a 'yes' or 'no' response and a range of 'low' to 'critical' risk ratings. The study showed that there were three main types of storage tanks: plastic (88%), concrete (7%), and metal (5%). Of these tanks, 84% were elevated, 41% were less than 5 years old, 69% were not cleaned annually, and 88% were covered. There was a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.05) between tank physical conditions and quality of stored water. Wards with unplanned and industrial settlements had the highest number of tanks with contaminated water. The study therefore revealed that the physical conditions and management of domestic water storage tanks have an effect on water quality. This is important information for a water utility as it means that it is not enough to supply safe water if the quality may deteriorate upon storage at the consumer premises. A routine inspection checklist and consumer guidelines for domestic storage tank management are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the quantitative status of groundwater has always represented an attractive method of modelling development for scientific research purposes and, at the same time, an essential planning tool for water managers. Today, in addition to the traditional modelling and management applications, the quantification of groundwater resources increasingly aims at evaluating effective water bodies’ health. In fact, the founding principles introduced by the most recent international directives in terms of water protection are specifically addressed to natural ecosystems’ protection complying with different socio-economic conditions. In this context, Acea Ato2, a water utility operating in central Italy, here proposes the implementation of an analytical water budget model for the assessment of the groundwater potential recharge status throughout its managed area.

The deployment of advanced sensors has strengthened the monitoring capability of power plants. In the context of the cogeneration process, the plant cooling is performed by the cooling towers using the condensation process on exhaust steam. However, the computer networks and industrial control systems built on this sensor-based digital layer may become vulnerable to cyberattacks. This may eventually raise a concern on the performance and security of these energy utilities. To resolve this issue, an inoculated subobserver-based fusion filter is proposed. It improves the resilience against malicious attacks in combined cycle power plants with desalination units, which are usually functioning in a closed-loop environment and infected with injected attacks. A time-delay-based state representation is considered for the system. To access latency in a closed-loop environment, a subsystem-based set of subobservers are introduced. Information from each sensor is then gathered using the interacting-multiple-model-based fusion process. The stability of the system has been proved and kept in-check at two different implementation levels of the procedure using functional equivalence and Lyapunov stability criteria, respectively. Performance evaluation is then conducted on a water-level system. Results show that the proposed scheme accurately extracted the system parameters from the contaminated measurements in the presence of multiple system disturbances and cyber intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply and maintenance of urban drinking water utilities are the most important priorities of people in the world especially in urban areas and it is very clear for urban planners or decision makers to evaluate the costs of action or weigh them against the problems of inaction. Also, specific annual budget is essential for ensuring people welfare and using water utilities with good quality. There are different issues in relation to managing of urban water utilities in terms of cultural, social, physical, environmental and even political and it is necessary to assess the existing conditions of utility by authorities and experts for making decision about those applications. So, we introduce Performance Benchmarking method for reaching this aim. This method is one of the best and update solutions in analyzing drinking water utility in developed countries especially in United State of America. So, in this paper, seven drinking water utilities of United State have been compared with Tabriz metropolitan drinking water utility that is located in North West of Iran and results of indicators’ performance have been comparatively explained. Also, Results show that Tabriz metropolitan drinking water utilities are low advanced in terms of many indicators’ performance than seven United States drinking water utilities. But, in some indexes almost equal to and in certain other cases are advanced than it. However, this methodology is very effective for decision makers, responsible and other experts in all regions and this model can be applied for other cities and urban areas.

Responding to a major disaster requires coordination and communication across all critical infrastructure sectors, including emergency management and drinking water and wastewater. This paper describes how in planning for an earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the various bureaus in the City of Portland developed robust relationships by participating in joint exercises and events, coordinating on damage assessments and collaborating on planning efforts. The paper also describes the various tools and resources provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency to help water utilities and emergency management agencies to strengthen their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]