Technological Water Innovations - PIANO project
The PIANO (Policies, Innovation And Networks for enhancing Opportunities for China Europe water cooperation) project presents its preliminary results of both investigation on Technological Water Innovations in Europe and analysis of the main China’s water challenges: water scarcity, surface and groundwater pollution, flood protection and prevention.
Water in China is one of the most pressing issues. As response of the major China’s challenges in the water sector, the Chinese Government issued a policy document (2011 Central Document No. 1) comparable to the European Water Framework Directive. This document aims to implement a strict water resources management system, following the Three Red Lines: water resources exploration, water use efficiency, pollutant discharge management. The identification of the Technological Water Innovations (TWIs) carried out within PIANO aims at selecting the most innovative European water technologies ready to be implemented in China in order to address the issues identified in the PIANO summary document 'Draft notes on China's water challenges'. The survey on water technology innovations was conducted in five thematic areas: (1) agricultural water management, (2) municipal water management, (3) industrial water management, (4) river basin management and (5) water for energy.
In agriculture the most pressing problem is related to water scarcity for irrigation. In China irrigated agriculture uses 63% of the total 618 billion m3 per year (Ministry of Water Resources of the PRC. China Water Resource Bulletin 2013. Beijing, 2015). In most of the China’s territory the irrigated agriculture is related to traditional practices which do not take account of water scarcity.
In this context, the major challenge that the Chinese Government has to face is the rapid implementation of policies and technologies to pursue both water saving and water efficiency. Among these challenges, recovery and water reuse, development of systems for water efficiency in the groundwater resources withdrawal and technologies for precision irrigation must be mentioned.
Among technologies inventoried in PIANO in the agriculture domain, the most incisive are represented by the Decision Support System. Nowadays these platforms are coupled with monitoring systems of soil and plants water content, climatic conditions, effective precipitations, as well as water demand for different type of crop. Decision Support Systems are also supported by data analysis systems and smart platform for cost-effective water delivery to crops (Precision Irrigation Systems, Micro-irrigation, Micro-drop irrigation systems, Underground irrigation, etc ...).
The use of these integrated technologies leads to a water-saving in irrigated agriculture in China up to 30-40% compared to traditional systems.
Managed Aquifer Recharge represents a further opportunity to increase water supply for different uses, not only for irrigation. Moreover, new technologies of wastewater reuse in agriculture close the water-cycle through the reuse of treated water in the urban areas.
In the urban and rural conglomerations, peri-urban areas and rural town and villages, the water challenges are related to water supply and alternative water production (1), treatment for drinking water (2), water use management and efficiency (3), wastewater treatment and sanitation (4), water and wastewater recycling (5):
It has been estimated that by 2013 about 60% of the groundwater in China is unsuitable for drinking water supply because of water pollution (Ministry of Water Resources of the PRC. China Water Resource Bulletin 2013. Bejing, 2015).
This makes necessary the use of advanced water treatment systems for civilian use. Similarly, the problem of environmental pollution requires the use of purification technologies capable of coping with the growing expansion of cities and conurbations.
As rural areas and large peri-urban conglomerations lack sewage collection and treatment systems, as well as a garbage collection and removal systems (Du J. And Luo S., Status and Reasons of China’s Agricultural Environment pollution and its countermeasures. Res Agric. Mod. 90-94, 2013), plants and technologies for wastewater treatment are priorities in China. Among the technologies identified in the PIANO project, these should be mentioned: Membrane technologies, eg. Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR), Sequencing Batch Rector Technology (SBBR), Biological Aerated Filters (BAF), Moving Bed Biological Reactors (MBBR) and others.
Desalination technologies as well as new technologies for alternative water production (eg. by condensation) support policies and practices of water efficiency to hamper water scarcity, particularly in some regions of China.
Moreover, there are many technologies to reduce wastewater in urban areas increasing water use efficiency (Taps devices, new WCs technologies, new eco-city concept, water reuse etc.). Similarly, new technologies (such as water drainage systems, green roof tops, green walls, first-flush storage chambers, new sponge-city concepts) have been developed and implemented in European urban areas to increase surface water drainage in order to contain pollution and flooding; the latter is more frequent in major China’s conurbations.
The industry in China uses about 23% of all groundwater withdrawn. In this domain the most serious problem is represented by industrial discharges with dramatic consequent of environmental pollution. Industrial discharge of waste accounts for about 30% of the total wastewater discharged into the environment.
Experts have criticized Chinese discharges standards for not being sufficiently strict, turning industrial wastewater discharges into significant point sources of pollution. Technologies for industrial wastewater treatment are therefore crucial in the management strategies of pollution, in particular if they are accompanied by Policies and restrictive regulations in matters of standards for water returned to the environmental cycle.
In the River Basin Management domain, the inventoried technologies are strictly related to both Regional planning tools of water resource, e.g. Network monitoring and Decision Support System technologies, and Flood prevention and protection technologies (both proactive and reactive). Among such systems, there are Warning systems and Proactive technologies for land protection, as well as Policies for disseminating flood risk awareness among citizens, for example by using new communication technologies. Finally, Knowledge and Management tools based on Information and Communication Systems to hamper local and regional water pollution and Restoration measures for degraded water resources restoring (eg. Managed Aquifer Recharge, Wetland areas) were analyzed.