IMPLICATIONS OF ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY FOR URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT / Vad innebär ekologisk hållbarhet för VA-systemen?
One of the main issues ot the research programme ”Sustainable Urban Water Management” (UW), which is funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA), is if existing urban water management is sustainable and what measures may be undertaken if it is not. This paper focuses on the ecological dimension of sustainability and its objective is to examine different approaches to define ecological sustainability, i.e. guiding principles approach, politically set environmental quality criteria, and scientifically derived critical loads and carrying capacities. The implications for the assessment of urban water management are discussed. Different approaches are used to measure the fulfilment of goals or targets for urban water supply and wastewater management for different environmental criteria (water preservation, eutrophication, contribution to acidification, contribution to global warming, spreading of toxic compounds, and use of natural resources).