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Welcome back to urban infrastructure, part 2.

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As you have seen last week,
smart meters and smart grids can contribute

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to increasing energy awareness and they can contribute to educating citizens 

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and supporting them in energy saving behavior.

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But.

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While Sonderborg is on its way to become carbon
neutral,

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dense megacities will for the time being rely
on renewable energy sources harvested outside

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the city.

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However,
they can do a lot more towards energy efficiency

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in transport (public transport) and in the built
environment.

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In the building frenzy of many of today’s
megacities,

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building quality is insufficiently enforced,
even if strict quality standards are formally

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in place.

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This is bad news for many years to come,
as the potential for energy efficiency for

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the next decades is largely determined by
the building practices of today.

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In dense megacities,
infrastructures for the supply of safe drinking

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water and the hygienic removal of waste and
waste water are arguably the most crucial

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for the citizens’ wellbeing,
as they are crucial for public health.

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Untreated waste and waste water are potential
sources of disease,

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including contagious diseases.

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And therefore in 2007,
the readers of the British Medical Journal

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elected sewerage as the most crucial ‘medical’
breakthrough in the past 200 years.

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Waste and waste water must not only be treated
for reasons of public health.

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It is also necessary to protect the local
environment and its ecosystems and,

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moreover,
waste and waste water are becoming more and

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more important as sources of secondary valuable raw
materials.

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Waste water is a source of for example phosphate,
which is needed as a fertilizer in agriculture,

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and the solid waste produced by cities is
a source of useful minerals and valuable metals.

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The problem with cities,
and especially with megacities,

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is that their concentrated population mass
puts excessive strain on the local environment,

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in terms of water and energy needs as well
as the generation of emissions,

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waste and waste water.

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In practice,
much more than just the local environment

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is affected:

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in a world of global supply chains,
a major part of the city’s water and energy

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use is happening where the city’s food and
goods are produced.

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Agriculture is responsible for 70% of the
world’s freshwater use,

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industry for 19%,
whereas domestic use accounts for only 11%.

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However,
think of the water footprint of the products

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that you use every day:

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a liter of milk has taken 1000 liters of fresh water to produce.

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The footprint of a new pair of jeans is 11,000
liters of water,

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as it takes 10,000 liters of water to produce
a kg of cotton.

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The Aral Sea disappeared because the rivers
feeding it were diverted for irrigation projects

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– among others to irrigate cotton plantations.

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And this is now known as one of the planet’s worst
environmental disasters.

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The sad truth for many megacities in coastal
zones is that they satisfy their freshwater needs 

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by extracting groundwater at rates that
far exceed the rate of replenishment,

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with serious adverse consequences,
such as salt water intrusion and land subsidence,

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see for example what happened in Jakarta over
the past 40 years.

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In a world in which more than 50% of the population
already lives in coastal zones,

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the combination of sea level rise and land
subsidence is bad news,

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as it entails more exposure to the risk of
flooding.

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Salt water intrusion implies that groundwater
becomes increasingly brackish,

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so that more and more energy intensive and
expensive desalination techniques are necessary

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to make the water drinkable.

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Desalination is technically possible and widely
practiced,

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especially on Caribbean and Mediterranean
islands and in the Middle East region.

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But,
desalination is very expensive,

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because it is so energy intensive,
and that may not be a problem in oil rich Saudi Arabia,

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but it is a serious problem in many emerging economies.

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Especially in water strained locations,
the city’s water needs often conflict with

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the water needs of agriculture and local ecosystems.

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As water is a prime condition for life on
earth,

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cities have historically always been located
in areas where fresh water was available in abundance.

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Whole civilizations disappeared when their
water resources ran out.

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In river deltas,
fresh water is available from rivers.

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But the choice to use groundwater instead is usually
made because of its better and more constant

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quality,
so that it is less expensive to turn it into

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potable water.

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In many emerging economies,
surface waters are heavily polluted as a result

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of untreated or insufficiently treated discharge
of industrial and municipal waste water.

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Agricultural pollution caused by the application
of pesticides and fertilizers also poses a

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threat, both to surface water quality and future groundwater quality.

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To some extent, the water balance in cities can be restored by designing for water retention

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in the city.

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Rather than collecting and discharging rainwater
runoff as quickly as possible,

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it could be allowed to seep into the soil
so that,

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in time,
it will replenish groundwater resources.

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Impermeable pavements could be replaced with
porous materials.

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Green park areas which also offer water storage
options,

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also contribute to restoring the water balance
as well as to the quality of the living environment

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for the city’s residents.

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Such measures help to some extent to maintain
freshwater pressure in aquifers,

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thereby reducing salt water intrusion,
and ensuring that natural ecosystems are not

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bereft of fresh water.

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The challenge for cities is to meet the water
demand as far as possible with renewable internal

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freshwater sources,
which are internal river flows and groundwater

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from rainfall in the country.

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Since most large cities far exceed their renewable
water capacity,

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it is the more important to raise people’s
awareness of water scarcity,

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and to advocate frugal water use, for example with the use of water saving fixtures in your home.

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In some countries,
such as Ireland,

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water use is not yet metered and charged,
which is a practice that is obviously not conducive

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to responsible water use.

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To build and maintain a high quality water
infrastructure,

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the costs should be covered by all its users.

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Without metering and charging water use,
consumers are not stimulated to reduce wastage.

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And without cost recovery,
maintenance of the system will suffer.

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In Ireland it is estimated that more than
40% of the potable water produced by the water

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utilities is lost as a result of leaking distribution
infrastructure.

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The most extreme measures to guarantee water
security are seen in Singapore,

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where waste water is processed and purified
to the extent that it is restored to drinking

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water quality.

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For this purpose,
Singapore uses microfiltration and reverse

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osmosis, which are both advanced membrane separation techniques.

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The drinking water reclaimed from waste water
is known as ‘NEWater’ in Singapore.

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Even if it is absolutely safe,
free from bacteria and even virus particles,

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most people do not like the idea that they
are drinking used water,

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which is the reason that NEWater is currently
supplied to industries for non-potable water use.

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At this moment in time,
NEWater already meets 30% of the Singaporean

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water needs.

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By 2060,
Singapore plans to have tripled the NEWater

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capacity,
so that NEWater will then supply 55% of the total projected

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water demand.

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Then, let's go to Hong Kong, which uses another interesting approach to reduce its freshwater footprint.

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Around 80% of Hong Kong residents flush their
toilets with seawater,

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and in the spring of 2014 plans were announced
to expand the seawater supply infrastructure

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to 85% of the Hong Kong population.

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And even though the seawater is only used for
flushing of toilets,

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it is treated to ensure that it is bacteriologically
safe.

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The construction of the seawater distribution
system dates back to the 1950’s,

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to cope with the frequent shortages of freshwater at that time.

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And both Hong Kong and Singapore have extensive
schemes in place to protect the quality of

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their raw water reservoirs.

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In spring of 2014, it was the

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UN World Water Day, which focused on the
water-energy nexus:

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energy is needed for water,
and water is needed for energy.

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You may be thinking now of hydropower,
but in fact,

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for all thermal power plants,
cooling water is an essential requirement.

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And if it is not available in sufficient quantities,
plants are forced to reduce their output or

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or to shut down entirely.

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Energy depends on water – not only for power
generation,

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but also for the extraction,
transport and processing of fossil fuels,

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and the irrigation of feedstock crops for
biofuels.

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Moreover,
many low-carbon energy technologies – nuclear

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power,
power plants fitted with carbon capture and

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storage equipment and certain types of concentrating
solar power – can also be highly water-intensive.

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Global water withdrawals for energy production
in 2010 were estimated at 583 billion cubic

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metres (bcm), which is some 15% of the world’s total water withdrawals.

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Of that,
the water consumption – the volume withdrawn

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but never returned to its source – was 66
bcm.

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In the OECD/IEA scenarios for the future,
withdrawals increase by about 20% between

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2010 and 2035,
but consumption rises by a more dramatic 85%.

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So water is growing in importance as a criterion
for assessing the physical,

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economic and environmental viability of energy
projects.

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Among other examples,
the availability of and access to water could

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become an increasingly serious issue for unconventional gas development and power generation in parts

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of China and the United States,
for India’s large fleet of water-dependent power plants,

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for Canadian oil sands production and for maintaining

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reservoir pressures in Iraq, which support oil output there.

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And such vulnerabilities will require deployment
of better technology and especially greater integration

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of energy and water policies in the future.

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Then,
there is one more interdependency that I would

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like to point out,
and that is the dependency of many innovative

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energy technologies on scarce materials.

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The materials developed for example for high
efficiency wind turbines,

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for batteries,
solar PV panels and fuel cells,

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often contain so-called rare earth elements
and other scarce materials.

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How to secure the supply of these critical
materials is a concern for the future.

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Because most of our recycling systems are far from
effective:

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many valuable and critical materials leak
away into the environment,

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due to a lack of public awareness,
a lack of waste collection systems,

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and a lack of sophisticated waste processing
systems.

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This will need to change.

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As the world population and its material needs
grow,

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the waste generated by cities will become
a more and more important source of critical materials.

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Our municipal waste will be the mine of the future.

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So, to conclude,
let me get back to the factor 8 question:

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‘Is it possible to imagine infrastructure
systems that can meet the needs of twice today's

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population with half today's energy resources while
providing twice the liveability?’ 

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Can infrastructure be the agent of change that helps cities to achieve this goal – and that helps us to balance

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the needs of the city with the needs of the
natural environment and its ecosystems?

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As you have seen in many examples today,
the design and management of urban infrastructure

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is key to accomplishing the factor 8 goal.

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It is key to the eco transformation of cities.

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Infrastructure can serve us more economically and efficiently than we could do it ourselves, 

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at least when we are living in a city.

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and infrastructure has to do so,
so that cities can reduce their ecological footprint.

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Smart infrastructure can give us feedback
on our behavior as consumers and thus help

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us to use natural resources more sparingly.

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And by connecting us,
infrastructure can support collaborative initiative

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and inclusive development.

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I will get back to you about the final assignment, and

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Thank you for your attention.