Applying a carbon lens in evaluating strategic water resource options

What do we mean by ‘best value’ in relation to strategic resource options for public water supply?  How do we ensure that ‘best value’ results in sustainable outcomes for communities and the environment, in ways that contribute to the net zero carbon commitment, whilst delivering the required resilience? 

Eighteen strategic resource options (SROs) are currently being evaluated to alleviate potential future water deficits in England. Solutions are to be developed by the water companies to be ‘construction-ready’ for 2025-2030.  The schemes are set in the context of growth, climate change and abstraction reform at a time when many water companies have committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2030.  These large infrastructure projects offer opportunities for innovation and wider sustainability benefits.

In this Institute of Water magazine Environmental Feature, Stantec's Adrian Johnson discusses some of the findings from the early stages of developing solutions for strategic resource options, the sources of uncertainty and how we might attribute carbon and wider ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ to them.

View the Environmental Feature online and read the Institute of Water Summer Magazine 2021.