The urban nexus

Energy and Resource Efficiency − Efficient. Environmentally Friendly. Sustainable

© Fraunhofer IGB
Combined sewer overflow on the beach at Da Nang, Vietnam.

Integrated resource management in Asian cities: In eight cities in China, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines Fraunhofer IGB has investigated the state of water infrastructure and identified approaches for a sustainable development.

Many people are being drawn from the countryside into towns. But with this huge growth come several challenges: supplying the population with water, food and energy, disposing of wastewater and garbage, and protecting the populace from disasters are all things which need to be safeguarded. At the same time, the people in cities responsible for these matters ought to ensure that natural resources are protected and that the city is offering its citizens a high quality of life. Only in this way can sustainable development be guaranteed long term. Because of the very dynamic situation, this can only succeed if the thinking is broken down into sectors and innovative solutions are found through synergy (Nexus) between the areas of water, energy and food security.

In the cities Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Santa Rosa, Naga City (both in the Philippines), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Rizhao, Weifang (both in the PR China), Da Nang (Vietnam) and Korat (Thailand) Fraunhofer IGB has investigated the state of water infrastructure and by developing customized, innovative concepts identified approaches for a sustainable development. Examples include the semi-decentralized re-use of purified wastewater for irrigation of urban agriculture and public green areas, the separation of black water and gray water at the source by vacuum sewer systems, as well as biogas production from sewage sludge and organic wastes.

Coordinated by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) the project "Integrated resource management in Asian cities: the urban nexus” was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).