TY - JOUR
T1 - Suitability indices for assessing functional quality of urban surface water
AU - van der Meulen, E.S.
AU - van Oel, P.R.
AU - Rijnaarts, H.H.M.
AU - Sutton, N.B.
AU - van de Ven, F.H.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the professionals who shared their knowledge and practical experiences with TEE, urban transportation or recreation: Gertjan de Joode, Leon van Bohemen, Paul van Aken, Caryl Jonis, Geert-Jan van der Wielen, Willem Post, skippers of the City Supplier, Ivo Leijen and Liesbeth Hersbach. We thank Wim Brink (Municipality Amsterdam), Joost Stoffels and Jan Willem Voort (Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht) for providing datasets, and Benthe Timmermans for digitalizing data. We thank, Pascal Boderie, Rutger van der Brugge, Ronald Roosjen and Rolien van der Mark for discussions and documents on factors that determine suitability for TEE or transportation. This research is funded by the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan Solutions and Deltares. Data archiving is underway. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, data will be made available through the 4TU.ResearchData repository. For the review process, data are provided as Supplementary material.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Urban surface waters are used in many different ways. With increasing demand for human use functions, improved insight is required into the functional quality of these waters. A method to assess this functional quality in a systematic way and for a wide variety of use functions is not available. We propose to use suitability indices (SIs) for assessing the suitability of urban water bodies for a variety of specific human uses. This study provides a new protocol for this, building on the water quality index and ecosystem services approaches in literature, by extending traditional water quality parameters with other characteristics of water bodies that determine suitability for a specific use function. By assessing suitability instead of traditional water quality, the functional quality of a water body for all kinds of uses can be determined in a consistent way. The protocol was demonstrated to be effective in developing SIs for three specific urban water use functions, namely: thermal energy extraction, transportation of goods and primary contact recreation. Application of the suitability indices in a case study in the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, resulted in spatially explicit information about suitability of surface waters for the three selected use functions. Sub-scores per parameter showed which characteristics of the urban water bodies should be changed to improve the suitability for these three functions. In this way, the SI approach for assessment of the functional quality of urban surface waters can be used to support function-oriented planning, design and maintenance of urban surface water systems.
AB - Urban surface waters are used in many different ways. With increasing demand for human use functions, improved insight is required into the functional quality of these waters. A method to assess this functional quality in a systematic way and for a wide variety of use functions is not available. We propose to use suitability indices (SIs) for assessing the suitability of urban water bodies for a variety of specific human uses. This study provides a new protocol for this, building on the water quality index and ecosystem services approaches in literature, by extending traditional water quality parameters with other characteristics of water bodies that determine suitability for a specific use function. By assessing suitability instead of traditional water quality, the functional quality of a water body for all kinds of uses can be determined in a consistent way. The protocol was demonstrated to be effective in developing SIs for three specific urban water use functions, namely: thermal energy extraction, transportation of goods and primary contact recreation. Application of the suitability indices in a case study in the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, resulted in spatially explicit information about suitability of surface waters for the three selected use functions. Sub-scores per parameter showed which characteristics of the urban water bodies should be changed to improve the suitability for these three functions. In this way, the SI approach for assessment of the functional quality of urban surface waters can be used to support function-oriented planning, design and maintenance of urban surface water systems.
KW - Primary contact recreation
KW - Suitability index
KW - Thermal energy extraction
KW - Transportation
KW - Urban water
KW - Water quality
U2 - 10.1016/j.cacint.2022.100079
DO - 10.1016/j.cacint.2022.100079
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85123350891
SN - 2590-2520
VL - 13
JO - City and Environment Interactions
JF - City and Environment Interactions
M1 - 100079
ER -
