Managing water demand within the catchment

The management of water at a catchment scale is an extensive topic and is affected by many drivers.

Cambridgeshire Horizons

In considering the role of urban design and planning in supporting sustainable management practices the role of green infrastructure is pivotal. Incorporating the management of water quality, flood risk and water resources into wider green infrastructure networks can be a land efficient and environmentally enhancing approach to water management.

In this sense, the wider landscape plays an important role in managing water as a resource and supporting distribution over a sub-region.

Measures that can support demand management within the catchment (equivalent to a sub-regional scale) include:

• managing flow into regional/sub-regional drinking water reservoir catchments
• linking forest management with an ecological carrying capacity that addresses erosion
• carefully considering the implications of desalination plants and their waste products
• analysing water assets across the catchment through new borehole drilling for groundwater to establish a clear picture of vulnerable aquifers.
   

Priority: encourage sustainable water use
Tags: water, regions and subregions