Now open for application
Closed for application
C40.CU2.03

Innovative and sustainable measures for reducing water footprint in cities

  • Reference person
    Giuseppe Tito
    Aronica
    garonica@unime.it
  • Host University/Institute
    Università degli Studi di Messina
  • Internship
    N
  • Research Keywords
    Water footprint
    Sustainable engineering
    Resilience and risk impact
  • Reference ERCs
    PE8_11 Environmental engineering, e.g. sustainable design, waste and water treatment, recycling, regeneration or recovery of compounds, carbon capture & storage
    SH7_6 Environmental and climate change, societal impact and policy
    PE10_17 Hydrology, hydrogeology, engineering and environmental geology, water and soil pollution
  • Reference SDGs
    GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
    GOAL 13: Climate Action
  • Studente
  • Supervisor
  • Co-Supervisor

Description

Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk. Europe is one of the most urbanized continents in the world. Besides the urbanization, climate change as well as demand for goods and services may influence water demand. In different cities, this impact will be different. Part of water is delivered by public water supply (public or private systems). Although the share of the household’s water demand in total water abstraction can be relatively small, it is nevertheless often the focus of public interest, as it comprises the water volumes that are directly used by the population. Looking forward to the next few decades, it seems likely that there will be a significant expansion in urban water infrastructures. Universities can pave the path toward promoting water footprint reduction and sustainable management practices. Due to their missions and strategic societal role, universities have indeed a crucial role in inspiring decisive actions taken by individuals, private and public organizations, and businesses. For this purpose, the proposed research topic intends to focus for water footprint accounting of direct water use in urban area by studying innovative sustainable and multifaceted measures like rainwater harvesting, both at the household and the community level. The innovative approaches are intended to support urban water managers and, as such, it can include additional aspects usually disregarded in previous water footprint of cities.

Suggested skills:

The ideal candidate should have a strong background in civil and environmental studies, specifically in the field of sustainable urban drainage and water supply systems, applied hydrology and hydraulics. Familiarity with programming languages such as MATLAB, R, C++ and commercial software as EPA-SWMM, EPANET, as experiences in statistics, data analysis and socio-economic modelling will be an added value. Fluency in English, both written and spoken is recommended. Finally, the candidate should be strongly motivated to work in a collaborative environment, with an inter-disciplinary approach. Finally, willingness to international mobility is required.

Research team and environment

The research activity will take place at the Department of Engineering within the Research Group of Water Engineering and Hydrology coordinated by Prof. Giuseppe T. Aronica. The Group includes an Associate Professor, two post-doc researchers and five Ph.D students; the research activities cover research topics related to water resources management , sustainable urban drainage systems, water supply systems, hydrology and hydraulics. These activities are supported by many national and international research projects, consultancies for Public Agencies and Private Companies. The Research Group have strong collaborations with Italian and international Universities.