Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) approaches highlighted in this special issue have the potential to contribute to the transformation of urban water systems. The aim of the transformation is to accommodate population and economic growth and at the same time enable a system which is environmentally sustainable and resilient to...

The Millennium Drought across Australia during the 2000s placed cities under pressure in providing urban water security. In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, a comprehensive water demand programme triggered a significant reduction in per capita water consumption. The water demand programme included incentives for the installation of rainwater tanks.

Highlights

• Energy efficiency is important for reducing carbon emissions.
• Policies are adopted to increase residential energy efficiency.
• Policy formulation in this space can be supported by analytical tools.
• Traditional equations based diffusion modelling is a limited approach.
• Agent Based Modelling addresses limitations of previous methods.

Abstract

This research is an investigation into new methods to provide urban and suburban public transport and active travel options that offer efficient, affordable and flexible trips while reducing reliance on private vehicle use. 

The Modelling the Uptake of Water Conservation and Efficiency Measures in Sydney report team worked with Sydney Water’s WaterFix Program to validate their agent based, decision-making model aimed at encouraging consumers to participate in water saving programs.

This paper reports on a review of international water conservation efforts, but with a particular focus on the Australian context.

Adoption of water conservation measures is one-way water utilities and community are able to reduce the demand on finite water resources by a growing population, and adaptively manage the impacts of episodic droughts. To deliver effective and least cost water conservation programs in the future, utilities need to better understand what drives people’s choices to adopt or not adopt water-wise behaviours, technologies and services.

This technical report presents a series of research projects funded by the Low Carbon Living (LCL) CRC, the CSIRO and agencies such as Sydney Water, Sustainability Victoria and the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage have been developing and piloting an Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) approach to better understand the decisions made by community members when they are presented with a range of resource conservation products and services, or are selecting resource consuming appliances and fixtures.

Prospects for the decarbonising of Australian cities will depend on opportunities for a reduction of transport energy use. This project focuses on the most significant challenge to Green House Gas reduction in urban transport -- specifically, that relating to provision of public transport and active travel options for low density suburban areas that are currently car dependent.