Water management in cities of the future using emission control strategies for priority hazardous substances

Cities of the future face challenges with respect to the quantity and quality of water resources, and multiple managerial options need to be considered in order to safeguard urban surface water quality. In a recently completed project on “Source Control Options for Reducing Emissions of Priority Pollutants” (ScorePP), seven emission control strategies (ECS) have been developed and tested on a semi-hypothetical case city (SHCCA) for selected European priority pollutants (PPs). The SHCCA approach was chosen to facilitate transparency, to mitigate data gaps and to decrease the level of uncertainty in the results. The selected PPs differ in their uses and environmental fate and therefore accumulate in different urban environmental compartment. To achieve the required reduction in PP levels in urban waters the full implementation of existing EU regulation is essential and appropriate combinations of managerial and technological options (source control and treatment) can be highly relevant.