Water & Nutrient Cycle Perspective

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Water & Nutrient Cycle Perspective

Find technologies and socio-economic approaches to optimise your local water management and sanitation system.

This perspective is geared to help you find the ideal and sustainable solution to optimise your local water management and sanitation system. It comprises technical instruments and tools (hardwares) as well as economic, political and social approaches (softwares) relating to the main steps of the Water and Nutrient Cycle, namely Water Sources Management, Water Purification, Water Distribution, Water and Nutrient Use, Wastewater Collection, Wastewater Treatment as well as Reuse and Recharge of Nutrients and Water.

Find technologies and socio-economic approaches to optimise your local water management and sanitation system.

This perspective is geared to help you find the ideal and sustainable solution to optimise your local water management and sanitation system. It comprises technical instruments and tools (hardwares) as well as economic, political and social approaches (softwares) relating to the main steps of the Water and Nutrient Cycle, namely Water Sources Management, Water Purification, Water Distribution, Water and Nutrient Use, Wastewater Collection, Wastewater Treatment as well as Reuse and Recharge of Nutrients and Water.

Wastewater Reuse at Home

Domestic water use represents a growing proportion of global water use. Water use optimisation means resistance to chronic and short-term water…
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Surface Groundwater Recharge

Artificial recharge is the planned, man-made increase of groundwater levels. By improving its natural replenishment capacities and percolation from…
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Subsurface Groundwater Recharge

Artificial recharge is the planned, man-made increase of groundwater levels. By improving its natural replenishment capacities and percolation from…
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Stormwater Management

Stormwater management means to manage surface runoff. It can be applied in rural areas (e.g. to harvest precipitation water), but is essential in…
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Co-Composting

Co-composting is the controlled aerobic degradation of organics, using more than one feedstock (faecal sludge and organic solid waste). Faecal sludge…
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Water Distribution Overview

A water distribution systems is one in which the drinking water is transported from the centralised treatment plant or well supplies to the service…
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Water Resources Assessment

Water resources can be neither developed nor managed rationally without an assessment of the quantity and quality of water available. Water resources…
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Water Balance Estimation

Water balance estimation is an important tool to assess the current status and trends in water resource availability in an area over a specific…
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Material Flow Analysis (MFA)

Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is the quantification and assessment of matter (water, food, excreta, wastewater...) and substances (nitrogen,…
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Water Allocation

Water of a desired quality is often scarce, and has to be allocated to different uses such as human consumption, sanitation, the production of food,…
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Water Pricing - General

In July 2010, the UN general assembly proclaimed access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right. At the same time, water and…
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Water Pricing - Decreasing Block Tariffs

Water and wastewater tariffs determine the level of revenues that service providers receive from users in centralised or semi-centralised systems for…
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Advanced Filters

Advanced point-of-use filter systems of various designs, costs and effectiveness are today readily available all over the world. While these systems…
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Treatment Plant Set-up

Centralised drinking water treatment plants treat large amounts of water from many households in one single spot and consequently most often require…
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Slow Sand Filtration

Slow sand filtration is a type of centralised or semi-centralised water purification system. A well-designed and properly maintained slow sand filter…
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The graph shows the water and nutrient cycles and how they are interlinked. It is a simplified and idealised version of the water and nutrient loop that puts humans at the centre. Water coming from water sources is purified, distributed and used in agriculture, households and industry. By using water for these different purposes, nutrients are introduced into the water cycle (e.g. through wastewater, but also in runoff in agricultural systems, etc.). Wastewater, in order to be treated, is collected. The treated wastewater is reused or used to recharge water sources. Nutrients are reused beneficially to produce food or animal feed, thereby not polluting aquatic ecosystems. In this way, both the water and the nutrient loop are closed.

The Water and Nutrient Cycle Perspective recognizes that sectoral approaches are not going to solve the global water and sanitation crisis. Instead, holistic approaches that consider the entire water cycle from source to sea, and that look critically analyse the human influence thereupon are required. It compiles the hardware and software instruments for each step of the Water and Nutrient Cycle, that help you develop a sustainable sanitation and water management system.

The content of this perspective was compiled by seecon gmbh in collaboration with a number of partners:

SSWM Collaboration Partners