Sustainable Waste Water Management for Smart Cities

Abstract

“According to some estimates, buildings account for almost one-half of the world's material and energy consumption, one-sixth of fresh water use, and a quarter of all wood harvested. So it has become necessary to follow sustainable concepts to get the rid from energy crisis”. Green building aims at having buildings and their environs with high level of resource efficiency. We should follow the Green architecture concepts, which aim to examine critically the ways in which the resources including energy are used and to evolve measures for environment- friendly planning, design and construction of buildings and their surroundings. More energy use does not improve well-being. Water is vital for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and countless other purposes. The origin, composition, and quantity of waste are related to existing living standards. Effective waste-water management is well-established in developed countries, but still in most of the developing countries, many people are lacking access to water and sanitation services. Many cities are serviced by three separate urban water infrastructure systems comprising water supply, sewerage and storm-water drainage. If we talk about sewerage system then we face a great problem of pollution that occurs in water surface and groundwater is the unavailability of adequate wastewater infrastructure in order to anticipate the rapid development of city with large populations. Waste-water is nowadays considered as a renewable resource from which potable/non-potable water and energy as well as fertilizers could be derived. Providing reliable and affordable wastewater treatment in urban and rural areas is a challenge in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. Centralized wastewater collection and treatment systems are costly to build and operate, especially in areas with low population densities and dispersed households. Developing countries lack both the funding to construct centralized facilities and the technical expertise to manage and operate them. Alternatively, the decentralized approach for wastewater treatment which employs a combination of onsite and/or cluster systems is gaining more attention. Such an approach allows for flexibility in management, and simple as well as complex technologies are available. The decentralized system is not only a long-term solution for small communities but is more reliable and cost effective. This paper presents a review of the various decentralized approaches to wastewater management for smart cities of the developing world. An overview of recent trends in waste-water management is proposed concerning the role of centralization and decentralization in waste-water treatment. The main advantages, criticisms and limitations considering social, economic and environmental issues have been summarized. The goal is to meet today's needs using renewable resources so that the needs of future generations can be easily provided for sustainable water management for buildings and cities.