Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Modern urban water systems (UWSs) include three systems, which provide drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services to ensure high quality of life. Though interconnected, UWSs have been evolved and managed as individual systems. In the Okanagan Valley (BC, Canada), a majority of UWSs are small to medium-sized, and these systems have been facing multidimensional challenges, such as rapid population growth, aging infrastructure, and climate change. The proposed research aims to develop a performance assessment and benchmarking strategy using 'one-water approach' (OWA), for continuously monitoring and improvement of UWSs in the Okanagan Valley. Seven water stakeholders: City of Kelowna, City of West Kelowna, City of Vernon, Regional District of North Okanagan, District of Peachland, District of Lake Country, and Okanagan Basin Water Board are directly involved in this research. Proposed project will involve following four interlinked phases: (1) investigation of the state-of-the-art practices in urban water management; (2) identification and development of performance indicators; (3) development of the performance assessment and benchmarking framework; and (4) development of web portal for information analysis, sharing, and learning.The results from the proposed research will identify underperforming areas requiring further improvement and will recommend interventions at various decision making levels. The proposed framework is scalable and generalizable, which can be employed to other jurisdictions in Canada and globally. The project investigator (Dr. Rehan Sadiq) and co-investigator (Dr. Kasun Hewage) are currently professors at the University of British Columbia and both are leaders in their field. Drs. Sadiq and Hewage jointly hold research and industry experience of over 30 years in the area of water supply, infrastructure management, environmental risk analysis, project management, and life cycle thinking. This project will educate and train numerous highly qualified personnel with multidisciplinary knowledge, skills, and experience. The unique knowledge generated from this project will help Canada to be a global leader in the water management sector.