Making the Case for Increased Interventions on the Parcel Scale for a Holistic Water Infrastructure Management Practice

With the current challenging state of the water infrastructure, massive amounts of investment will be needed to keep providing the same or better services to consumers. A decision will have to be made whether to maintain the status quo, which is investing in the existing infrastructure, funding investments at the parcel scale, or some mix thereof, which ultimately will affect water, wastewater, and stormwater networks regardless of the primary purpose of the intervention(s) selected. Relevant parcel-level interventions include green technologies such as green roofs and rain gardens, or rainwater harvesting systems and even greywater and wastewater treatment systems. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the effect that interventions may have on the water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure system overall. The results show that for a better management plan, interventions on the parcel scale have to be part of the decision making process to accurately gauge future needs.