Forskningsprogrammet Urban Water – resultat, tillämpningar och Fortsatt Utveckling / The research programme Urban Water – results, implementation and Further Development
The Urban Water programme (www.urbanwater.org) has been a long-term integrated research programme including senior researchers and PhD students from 9 Swedish universities.
The central question was whether future sustainable water and wastewater systems will be improved versions of today’s, or if there would be radical changes. The programme aimed to develop a “toolbox” for strategic planning. The aspects covered were the environment, health and hygiene, economy, organisation, households, as well as technical function. The tools were tested and refined in “model cities”, where local planners and administrators participated in the work. The tools developed and experience gathered in the programme are now being applied in studies of possible future wastewater systems for Göteborg and Stockholm. Although the research programme ends in June 2006, the activities are carried on in the Urban Water network, a User Group, and the small researcher-owned company Cit Urban Water Management AB. The programme has also resulted in 15 PhD exams. Some of the graduates are contributing to this issue of VATTEN.