The purpose of this paper is to examine public perceptions and the voluntary actions that have been taken to address the quality and quantity of water resources over a 32-year period in the Pacific North-west. Mail-based surveys were used to collect data in 1988, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019 in the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. In each survey year, the minimum sample size was 400 adult residents and appropriate statistics were used to evaluate survey answers. Since 1988, a majority of surveyed residents have considered (1) drinking water, (2) wetlands, (3) snowpack, (4) power generation, (5) commerce, (6) industry and (7) aquatic organisms very important. Compared with data initially collected in 1988 (21.6%), over 92% of the survey respondents undertook at least one voluntary action to address water quantity such as installing in-home water- saving devices, reducing water use in the home, reducing water use in the yard and/or changing the way vehicles were washed by 2019. Compared with 1988 (16.2%), over 72% of the survey respondents took one or more actions to protect water quality by 2019. Some of these voluntary actions to protect water quality included better disposal of hazardous household and/or yard chemicals, improved use of fertilizers and pesticides in yards, reduction in yard watering practices to reduce chemical leaching or erosion and proper disposal of used automobile/truck oil products. These surveys conducted over a 32-year period show that less than 10 and 8% of the surveyed public have not taken at least one action to positively address water quantity and water quality issues, respectively. These results are impressive because they show that the public have been engaged in protecting their water resources. Any activity that protects water quality and/or reduces water use makes the water resources of this region, which encompasses more than 26% of the USA’s land area more sustainable.

The sprawling of urban areas combined with the intensification of extreme storm events increases the frequency of floods. The Milan metropolitan area, Italy, is a glaring example of this condition, where floods occur on average two times a year and a new approach for urban water management is required. In recent years sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDs) have been spreading in many cities for lo- cal stormwater runoff reduction, in order to reduce the risk of overloading receiving water bodies and sewerage systems. These natural-based techniques also present advantages in terms of water quality improvement and in some cases also provide benefits at the ecological level. For an optimal river basin management, it is necessary to adopt holistic approaches including river restoration measures and SuDs for the hydraulic risk mitigation and the water and environmental quality enhancement. Previous research analysed the impact of re-naturalization measures on a stretch of the Seveso river on the flood risk for the urban area in Milan (Italy). Particularly, a potential reduction of 16% on the extent of the flooded area for 10 years return period events was assessed. In this case study benefits of additional measures of urban retrofitting based on parking areas de-sealing were investigated. To assess the effects, a rainfall-runoff process and a 2D flow simulation using SWMM and HEC-RAS software respectively were used. Results show, in particular, that transforming only the 2% of the Bresso municipality paved surfaces into permeable ones would achieve a reduction of both the peak and the volume of stormwater runoff, equal to 6.5% and 7.6% respectively, for 10-year return period events. Moreover, a consequent reduction of 3 ha of flooded areas at the river watershed-scale was observed. Management of flood risk by a combination of river restoration and sustainable drainage systems is then confirmed to be a reli- able strategy for the transition towards water sensitive cities also in very dense urban contexts as in the Milan area.

Global markets foster economic growth, but production of traded goods also impacts water resource use. This is especially true for semiarid regions, given that increasing agricultural exports is a crucial pro-poor development strategy. The aim of this paper is to quantify the contribution of agricultural trade in terms of virtual water flows – blue, green and grey – between the state of Ceará-Brazil and its international partners from 1997 to 2012 and to analyse its impacts in the state’s water resources policy. Essentially, all virtual water exported and imported by ceará in agricultural products came from cashew nuts and wheat, corresponding in both cases up to 72% of green water. interestingly, virtual green water has an important role in production but has been underestimated in the state’s water resources management model, which despite successful focuses exclusively on blue water. The results show that the commercial balance of the total virtual water was always negative, meaning that Ceará imported more virtual water than it exported; this outcome is aligned with its water-scarce condition.

A large portion of the most agriculturally-viable land in Canada is in the province of Ontario, particularly within the Greenbelt. Within Ontario, municipal governments are the primary mechanism by which provincial land-use policy is implemented, and virtually all agricultural production happens within the boundaries of an upper-tier municipal government. This means that municipal governments (local and regional governments) are the most local level of government responsible for making decisions and implementing programs and policies related to the agriculture and agri-food sector. However, little is known about the structure, knowledge base, and capacity of municipal governments to respond to agricultural and agri-food priorities and issues. This paper presents the results of research identifying a number of positive and negative factors that contribute to municipal capacity. This capacity is varied and relates directly to the ability to address emerging agricultural priorities. Governments and decision-makers who affect the agriculture and agri-food industry must have the capacity and knowl- edge to support the sector and respond to critical issues as they arise. The decisions of elected officials, the resources that municipalities have, and the expertise of staff are all key elements that affect the implementation of provincial priorities and the consideration given to agriculture when creating policies, programs, and initiatives.

Due to the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon, intense rains occur from January to March on the entire coast of Peru, producing mudflows which flood the coastal valleys, generating great problems for the agriculture of the place by flooding the crops, as well as the obstruction of one of the main highways that connect this part of the country. In this research, a two-dimensional computational simulation of this mudflow flood is carried out, in a Valley called ‘Los Pescadores’. Previously, for this simulation, information and data from the valley were collected, such as the topography, rheology, roughness of soils, as well as the hydrology of the basin of this valley. The flooding flow is a concentration of water and sediment; this corresponds to a non-Newtonian flow. After calibrating the simulation, a solution proposal is presented, in which it is proposed to channel the river that crosses this valley with an embankment dam and the construction of a bridge over the main road. Subsequently, the mudflow was simulated again with the proposed hydraulic structures, obtaining a satisfactory solution. With the final simulation, the magnitude of the flow, the depth, flow velocities and the length of the dike were calculated, as well as the length of the bridge. Finally, the cost of the proposed solution was determined.

The digitisation of urban cultural heritage (CH) is recognised within EU (European Union) policies as an opportunity to make CH a driver for urban transformation towards a sustainable and inclusive future. Various digital platforms are emerging as tools not only to store, retrieve, compare and process different kind of data related to CH for the use of urban planners and administrators, but also as participative tools for distributed decision-making.

The increasing integration between the physical and digital realm through various digital instruments such as the Internet of things, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and natural language processing, has led designers to conceptualise the necessity of merging different smart city dashboards and platforms into an integrated system known as the urban digital twin (DW). This task can be made possible only through the construction of a shared ontology of the city, which allows the interoperability of different data systems.

The DWs, originally developed in mechanical and process engineering, allow to construct a digital model of a physical object or process, to monitor its real-time performance, to perform maintenance tasks and to test the effects of planned changes. However, when extending the notion of the DW to complex cultural and social entities such as cities, it is important to consider also issues of inclusivity and citizen participation. How can the DW be conceptualised not only as a tool of technological control or narrative, but as an instrument to empower not only institutions but also citizens? The experience gath- ered in the construction of the ROCK platform and its participatory ontology, developed within the Horizon 2020 (H2020) funded project ROCK (GA 730280), becomes an important precedent in this task.

Sporting events with a large number of people are an important source of waste. Marathon running is a popular sporting event that attracts competitive runners. Therefore, the race venues are major sources of waste and are difficult to manage. This research aimed to study the management of solid waste from an international marathon running event in phuket. The data comprised the types and compositions of the waste, the characteristics of waste containers, waste storage and collection, waste transfer and transport, and waste disposal. data of the waste materials were recorded on 7–9 June 2019 from two mains activities, 14 sub-activities and 6 distance running events. The total amount of waste within 3 days was 4,168.20 kg which included 3,737.20 and 431.00 kg that were related directly to the marathon running and not related directly to the marathon running, respectively. The rate of waste based on the amount per person was 0.31–0.37 kg/person/day. All waste was separately recorded into compostable waste, general waste, recyclable waste and hazardous waste for each main activity. general waste was the greatest amount and hazardous waste was the lowest amount in each group. Some containers and vehicles did not follow the laws. The waste workers wore unsuitable personal protective equipment. the waste materials were separated into two main groups for disposal: (1) compostable waste, general waste and hazardous waste that were mixed without separation before transfer for disposal and (2) recyclable waste that was separated at the sources before transfer. The first group of waste was removed for incineration and the recyclable waste was taken to recycling shops. However, all waste at a race venue needs to be reduced and classified at the source before transfer for disposal or recycling for the best solid waste management at a marathon.