Weston Roundtable Lecture Series: Prof. Vladimir Novotny

Water management paradigms in cities are unsustainable. The flows exemplify linear urban metabolism: long distance transfers of water and high energy use for transport, treatment and disposal of used water and solids.

The worldwide Cities of the Future initiative features a new paradigm of water-centric sustainable communities. Cities of the Future distribute water and reclaim energy from used water in an urban metabolic cycle based on the four R's: reduce, reclaim, reuse and restore.