Integrated Water Management and Planning for Future Water Supplies

Utilities today face increasingly complex challenges to their water supplies that require new ways of planning, evaluating, and investing in water supply options. Over the last decade, research and experience have indicated that an integrated water management (IWM) approach can provide multiple benefits to water utilities and the communities they serve, and that such an approach will help utilities develop more robust and diversified water supply portfolios that will be necessary in an uncertain future. However, an IWM approach can be difficult to adopt, and uncertainties about the feasibility of alternative water supplies remain. This Research Area was approved to provide tools for water utilities to overcome supply challenges like drought, degraded water quality, reliance on imported water, and population growth through IWM, with a focus on public health protection.

Research Area Objectives

1. Provide data, tools, and knowledge to support water supply diversification efforts through an integrated water management approach with a focus on institutional issues and economics.
2. Identify elements of an integrated, resilient and reliable supply to improve water supply planning.
3. Evaluate how new water supplies from nontraditional sources, including reuse strategies beyond wastewater effluent, such as graywater and stormwater, can be protective of public and environmental health while diversifying water supplies.

Research Area Project Timeline and Value

Research Area Development Workshop

• Timeline: 2014–2015
• Total Project Value: $112,500
• Research Area Objectives: Integrated Water, Supply Plan, and Alternative Supplies

Framework for Evaluating Alternative Water Supplies: Balancing Cost with Reliability, Resilience, and Sustainability

• Timeline: 2015–2018
• Total Project Value: $501,659
• Research Area Objectives: Supply Plan

Integrating Land Use and Water Resources Planning to Support Water Supply Diversification

• Timeline: 2015–2017
• Total Project Value: $370,765
• Research Area Objectives: Integrated Water

Determine Water Quality for Alternative Drinking Water Sources

• Timeline: 2016–2018
• Total Project Value: $234,085
• Research Area Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Anticipating Trade-offs Using Alternative Water Supplies

• Timeline: 2017–2019
• Total Project Value: $365,063
• ResearchArea Objectives: Integrated Water, Supply Plan

Cumulative Value of Research Area Research: $1,929,844

Projects Funded Outside of the Research Area Program that meets a Research Area Objective

Blueprint for Onsite Water Systems

• Year Completed: 2014
• Funding Program: EO 
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Institutional Issues for One Water Management

• Year Completed: 2015
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Integrated Water, Supply Planning, and Alternative Supplies

National Research Council - Beneficial Uses of Graywater and Stormwater

• Year Completed: 2016
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Soil Aquifer Treatment Characterization with Soil Columns for Groundwater Recharge in the San Fernando Valley

• Year Completed: 2017
• Funding Program:  Facilitated Research
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Technical Guidance for Public Health Standards for Onsite Water

• Year Completed: 2017
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Blueprint for One Water

• Year Completed: 2017
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Integrated Water

Assessment of Techniques for Evaluating and Demonstrating Safety of Water from DPR Treatment Facilities

• Year Completed: Ongoing
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Blending Requirements for Water from DPR Treatment Facilities

• Year Completed: Ongoing
• Funding Program: EO
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Novel Unit Process for Nutrient Removal from Stormwater

• Year Completed: Ongoing
• Funding Program: Partnership
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Challenges and Practical Approaches to Water Reuse Pricing

• Year Completed: Ongoing
• Funding Program: FA
• RA Objectives: Supply Planning, Alternative Supplies

Building-Scale Treatment for Direct Potable Reuse and Intelligent Control for Real-Time Performance Monitoring

• Year Completed: Ongoing
• Funding Program: TC
• RA Objectives: Alternative Supplies

Key

EO = Emerging Opportunities

RA = Research Area

TC = Tailored Collaboration