IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i11p4481-d365871.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing Evidence of Sustainable Urban Water Management Systems: A Review through the Lenses of Sociotechnical Transitions

Author

Listed:
  • Blal Adem Esmail

    (Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
    Division of Urban and Regional Studies, Department of Urban Planning & Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden)

  • Lina Suleiman

    (Division of Urban and Regional Studies, Department of Urban Planning & Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, 114 28 Stockholm, Sweden)

Abstract

Sustainability concerns and multiple socio-environmental pressures have necessitated a shift towards Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) systems. Viewing SUWM systems as sociotechnical, this paper departs from eight factors previously identified by transition research: Pressures , Context , Purposes , Actors , Instruments , Processes , Outputs , and Outcomes as a methodological framework for a structured review of 100 articles. The study seeks to analyze empirical cases of planning and implementing SUWM systems worldwide. A wide range of public actors—driven by social and environmental factors rather than by economic pressures—have initiated SUWM projects so as to locally fulfill defined social and environmental purposes. We provide evidence on the emergence of new actors, such as experts, users, and private developers, as well as on the diverse and innovative technical and societal instruments used to promote and implement SUWM systems. We also explore their contexts and institutional capacity to deal with pressures and to mobilize significant financial and human resources, which is in itself vital for the transition to SUWM. Planned or implemented SUWM outputs are divided into green (wet ponds, raingardens, and green roofs) and gray (rain barrels and porous pavements) measures. The outcomes of SUWM projects—in terms of societal and technical learning, and their institutional uptakes—are often implicit or lacking, which seemingly reduces the rate of desirable change.

Suggested Citation

  • Blal Adem Esmail & Lina Suleiman, 2020. "Analyzing Evidence of Sustainable Urban Water Management Systems: A Review through the Lenses of Sociotechnical Transitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-45, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4481-:d:365871
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4481/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4481/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Darla Nickel & Wenke Schoenfelder & Dale Medearis & David P. Dolowitz & Melissa Keeley & William Shuster, 2014. "German experience in managing stormwater with green infrastructure," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 403-423, March.
    2. Cortinovis, Chiara & Geneletti, Davide, 2019. "A framework to explore the effects of urban planning decisions on regulating ecosystem services in cities," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Lina Suleiman & Bo Olofsson & David Saurí & Laura Palau-Rof & Natàlia García Soler & Ourania Papasozomenou & Timothy Moss, 2020. "Diverse pathways—common phenomena: comparing transitions of urban rainwater harvesting systems in Stockholm, Berlin and Barcelona," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 369-388, January.
    4. Dolata, Ulrich, 2009. "Technological innovations and sectoral change: Transformative capacity, adaptability, patterns of change: An analytical framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1066-1076, July.
    5. Kate Zidar & Timothy A. Bartrand & Charles H. Loomis & Chariss A. McAfee & Juliet M. Geldi & Gavin J. Rigall & Franco Montalto, 2017. "Maximizing Green Infrastructure in a Philadelphia Neighborhood," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 2(4), pages 115-132.
    6. Karl Widerquist, 2018. "The Bottom Line," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: A Critical Analysis of Basic Income Experiments for Researchers, Policymakers, and Citizens, chapter 0, pages 93-98, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    8. Helen L. Brown & Darren G. Bos & Christopher J. Walsh & Tim D. Fletcher & Sharyn RossRakesh, 2016. "More than money: how multiple factors influence householder participation in at-source stormwater management," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(1), pages 79-97, January.
    9. Yangang Xing & Phil Jones & Iain Donnison, 2017. "Characterisation of Nature-Based Solutions for the Built Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Bos, J.J. & Brown, R.R., 2012. "Governance experimentation and factors of success in socio-technical transitions in the urban water sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(7), pages 1340-1353.
    11. Smith, Adrian & Stirling, Andy & Berkhout, Frans, 2005. "The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1491-1510, December.
    12. Craig Lashford & Matteo Rubinato & Yanpeng Cai & Jingming Hou & Soroush Abolfathi & Stephen Coupe & Susanne Charlesworth & Simon Tait, 2019. "SuDS & Sponge Cities: A Comparative Analysis of the Implementation of Pluvial Flood Management in the UK and China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, January.
    13. Xiaohu Lin & Jie Ren & Jingcheng Xu & Tao Zheng & Wei Cheng & Junlian Qiao & Juwen Huang & Guangming Li, 2018. "Prediction of Life Cycle Carbon Emissions of Sponge City Projects: A Case Study in Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Anna Hult, 2013. "Swedish Production of Sustainable Urban Imaginaries in China," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 77-94, January.
    15. P Kanoko Maeda & Victoria Chanse & Amanda Rockler & Hubert Montas & Adel Shirmohammadi & Sacoby Wilson & Paul T Leisnham, 2018. "Linking stormwater Best Management Practices to social factors in two suburban watersheds," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-23, August.
    16. Annicka Cettner & Kristina Söderholm & Maria Viklander, 2012. "An Adaptive Stormwater Culture? Historical Perspectives on the Status of Stormwater within the Swedish Urban Water System," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 25-40.
    17. Jan-Peter Voß & Adrian Smith & John Grin, 2009. "Designing long-term policy: rethinking transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 275-302, November.
    18. Geels, Frank W., 2004. "From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(6-7), pages 897-920, September.
    19. Christopher M. Chini & James F. Canning & Kelsey L. Schreiber & Joshua M. Peschel & Ashlynn S. Stillwell, 2017. "The Green Experiment: Cities, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, January.
    20. Annicka Cettner & Richard Ashley & Maria Viklander & Kristina Nilsson, 2013. "Stormwater management and urban planning: Lessons from 40 years of innovation," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(6), pages 786-801, July.
    21. Hodson, Mike & Marvin, Simon, 2010. "Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 477-485, May.
    22. Michael H. Finewood & A. Marissa Matsler & Joshua Zivkovich, 2019. "Green Infrastructure and the Hidden Politics of Urban Stormwater Governance in a Postindustrial City," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(3), pages 909-925, May.
    23. Geels, Frank W. & Kemp, René, 2007. "Dynamics in socio-technical systems: Typology of change processes and contrasting case studies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 441-455.
    24. Eva Lieberherr & Olivia Odom Green, 2018. "Green Infrastructure through Citizen Stormwater Management: Policy Instruments, Participation and Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, June.
    25. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    26. Mike Hodson & Simon Marvin, 2009. "‘Urban Ecological Security’: A New Urban Paradigm?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 193-215, March.
    27. V. M. Jayasooriya & A. W. M. Ng & S. Muthukumaran & B. J. C. Perera, 2019. "Multi Criteria Decision Making in Selecting Stormwater Management Green Infrastructure for Industrial Areas Part 1: Stakeholder Preference Elicitation," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 33(2), pages 627-639, January.
    28. Furlong, Kathryn, 2014. "STS beyond the “modern infrastructure ideal”: Extending theory by engaging with infrastructure challenges in the South," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 139-147.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jesús de-los-Ríos-Mérida & Francisco Guerrero & Salvador Arijo & María Muñoz & Inmaculada Álvarez-Manzaneda & Jorge García-Márquez & Begoña Bautista & Manuel Rendón-Martos & Andreas Reul, 2021. "Wastewater Discharge through a Stream into a Mediterranean Ramsar Wetland: Evaluation and Proposal of a Nature-Based Treatment System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Ulf Stein & Benedict Bueb & Gabrielle Bouleau & Gaële Rouillé-Kielo, 2023. "Making Urban Water Management Tangible for the Public by Means of Digital Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Suleiman, Lina, 2021. "Blue green infrastructure, from niche to mainstream: Challenges and opportunities for planning in Stockholm," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    4. Natalia Sergeevna Shushunova & Elena Anatolyevna Korol & Nikolai Ivanovich Vatin, 2021. "Modular Green Roofs for the Sustainability of the Built Environment: The Installation Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Elena Korol & Natalia Shushunova, 2022. "Analysis and Valuation of the Energy-Efficient Residential Building with Innovative Modular Green Wall Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, June.
    6. Bhandari, Pratik & Creighton, Douglas & Gong, Jinzhe & Boyle, Carol & Law, Kris M.Y., 2023. "Evolution of cyber-physical-human water systems: Challenges and gaps," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Nguyen Hong Duc & Pankaj Kumar & Pham Phuong Lan & Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan & Khaled Mohamed Khedher & Ali Kharrazi & Osamu Saito & Ram Avtar, 2023. "Hydrochemical indices as a proxy for assessing land-use impacts on water resources: a sustainable management perspective and case study of Can Tho City, Vietnam," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 117(3), pages 2573-2615, July.
    8. Mariusz Starzec & Józef Dziopak, 2020. "A Case Study of the Retention Efficiency of a Traditional and Innovative Drainage System," Resources, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Cahn, Amir & Katz, David & Ghermandi, Andrea & Prevos, Peter, 2023. "Adoption of data-as-a-service by water and wastewater utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Andrea Cristina Ramirez Herrera & Sonja Bauer & Victor Peña Guillen, 2022. "Water-Sensitive Urban Plan for Lima Metropolitan Area (Peru) Based on Changes in the Urban Landscape from 1990 to 2021," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-20, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suleiman, Lina, 2021. "Blue green infrastructure, from niche to mainstream: Challenges and opportunities for planning in Stockholm," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. Anthony McLean & Harriet Bulkeley & Mike Crang, 2016. "Negotiating the urban smart grid: Socio-technical experimentation in the city of Austin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(15), pages 3246-3263, November.
    3. Erlinghagen, Sabine & Markard, Jochen, 2012. "Smart grids and the transformation of the electricity sector: ICT firms as potential catalysts for sectoral change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 895-906.
    4. Coenen, Lars & Benneworth, Paul & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 968-979.
    5. Nesari, Mohammad & Naghizadeh, Mohammad & Ghazinoori, Soroush & Manteghi, Manoochehr, 2022. "The evolution of socio-technical transition studies: A scientometric analysis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2018. "Global socio-technical regimes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 735-749.
    7. Köhler, Jonathan Hugh & Hohmann, Claudia & Dütschke, Elizabeth, 2018. "Sustainability transitions in local communities: District heating, water systems and communal housing projects," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S11/2018, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    8. Berggren, Christian & Magnusson, Thomas & Sushandoyo, Dedy, 2015. "Transition pathways revisited: Established firms as multi-level actors in the heavy vehicle industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1017-1028.
    9. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Binz, Christian, 2017. "Global socio-technical regimes," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    10. Lisa-Britt Fischer & Jens Newig, 2016. "Importance of Actors and Agency in Sustainability Transitions: A Systematic Exploration of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-21, May.
    11. Cheng Wang & Tao Lv & Rongjiang Cai & Jianfeng Xu & Liya Wang, 2022. "Bibliometric Analysis of Multi-Level Perspective on Sustainability Transition Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-31, March.
    12. André Sorensen & Anna-Katharina Brenner, 2021. "Cities, Urban Property Systems, and Sustainability Transitions: Contested Processes of Institutional Change and the Regulation of Urban Property Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Geels, Frank W., 2012. "A socio-technical analysis of low-carbon transitions: introducing the multi-level perspective into transport studies," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 471-482.
    14. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    15. Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Tani, Almona & Tartiu, Valentina Elena & Imbriani, Cesare, 2020. "Towards a sustainable forest-based bioeconomy in Italy: Findings from a SWOT analysis," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    16. Fuchs, Gerhard & Hinderer, Nele & Kungl, Gregor & Neukirch, Mario, 2012. "Adaptive capacities, path creation and variants of sectoral change: The case of the transformation of the German energy supply system," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2012-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    17. Kejia Yang & Johan Schot & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Shaping the Directionality of Sustainability Transitions: The Diverging Development Patterns of Solar PV in Two Chinese Provinces," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    18. Bettini, Yvette & Brown, Rebekah R. & de Haan, Fjalar J. & Farrelly, Megan, 2015. "Understanding institutional capacity for urban water transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 65-79.
    19. Anna Kuokkanen & Mahir Yazar, 2018. "Cities in Sustainability Transitions: Comparing Helsinki and Istanbul," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    20. Simmons, Geoff & Giraldo, Jorge Esteban Diez & Truong, Yann & Palmer, Mark, 2018. "Uncovering the link between governance as an innovation process and socio-economic regime transition in cities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 241-251.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4481-:d:365871. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.