Sustainable Solutions
14 May 2019
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have produced a water management manual based on the principles of green infrastructure. The purpose of the publication is to popularise the solutions, and to present efficient and sustainable projects already in operation that use green or hybrid (traditional – gray and natural – green) infrastructural solutions in the field of water management.
The solutions to today’s complex water management challenges are increasingly furnished by the application of the services of natural or Green Infrastructure.
Green infrastructure solutions endeavour to utilise the services offered by the natural ecosystem in a manner that is more holistic, and which has a more positive effect on other areas of life than built solutions. As a result, green infrastructural solutions can be utilised for the implementation of a number of directives. For instance, retaining the natural condition of flood plains reduces the risk of flooding, but it also has a positive effect on water quality, it replenishes groundwater and has a beneficial impact on fish management and game protection, while also offering opportunities for recreation and tourism. While built infrastructures depreciate in time and their efficiency also decreases, green infrastructural developments are continuously able to utilise everything that the soil and vegetation produce and reproduce.
The use of solutions based on green infrastructure in water management is crucial for reducing the national, regional and global-level impacts of climate change and also in meeting the demands of areas with water shortages. Therefore the demand for their application is complex: on the one hand, urgent, sustainable solutions are needed to counter the accelerating impacts of climate change, while it is also similarly exceptionally important to maintain and secure resources of drinking water, to make investments efficient and to create solutions that are sustainable in the long term from the environmental perspective as well.
One of the most important virtues of the publication is that it emphasises green infrastructure services and the best practices of their utilisation which had not received much attention previously, despite the fact that they can be used to render the water management services provided by traditional, built infrastructures more effective and cost-efficient. The manual also contains a methodological outline for assessing the details of a proposed project, including financial specification, environmental impacts, economic and cost-benefit assessment and risk analysis.
The manual is available for download from the electronic library of IUCN.
The design and implementation of complex water engineering solutions for developing countries has always been and still is a distinguished area of Hungary’s international cooperation. Hungarian experts have several success stories from over the years in providing solutions in – amongst others – water management, well drilling and in irrigation.
S-Metalltech 98 Ltd founded in 1998 works on one hand as a R&D workshop for universities and industrial companies and on the other hand as a manufacturing base of special materials applied in the field of environmental protection, electrical industry, automotive industry and nuclear reactor technology – cooperating with many of home and foreign partners.
The Public Relations Directorate of the University of Szeged has announced that a system for forecasting precipitation and flash floods is being implemented in the Hungarian–Serbian border region. The project will provide valuable assistance for preventing damage in the future.
The water crisis – that is the theme of the year’s most important event in Hungarian diplomacy, the Budapest Water Summit to be held on 15-17 October. Water shortages and the severe pollution of water resources are hazards that many hundreds of millions of people face – preventing the catastrophe is everyone’s shared task and responsibility.
The Sustainable Development Goals – adopted in the Summit of Prime Ministers and Heads of State between 25 and 27 September 2015 – are based on the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
It is a necessity to pay more attention to the ever increasing pollution of the waters. Conventional waste water treatments are not suitable to remove all the incoming pollutants in the treatment plants. That is the reason why Nyírségvíz Zrt. has started a development program.
There is no life without water – this is an unquestionable truth for everybody, but has anyone ever thought of the fact that without water there is no development, either? Talking either about the basic fact that water is essential for the development of plants, or the ingenious inventions of later ages, we have to admit that water significantly determines our lives.
The purpose of the document entitled Groundwater Governance – A Global Framework for Action is to make the importance of sustainable groundwater governance clear to political decision-makers.
At the global level, three of every four jobs are related to water in some way. The 2016 World Water Development Report examines the links between water and jobs, employment and economic development. The key findings of the report are summarised below.
