The sustainability of the water services in big metropolises: Lessons learnt from the EAU&3E research project
Résumé
This paper presents a research project on the sustainability of water services in large cities, conducted by the EAU&3E partnership for the French Research Agency's sustainable cities program. After sketching the potential crisis of these services in developed countries, we recall the development of a sustainability approach in various European projects, based on the three dimensions of environment, economics, and equity, later supplemented with a fourth axis on governance. Then we present the specific studies which were done in each of these four dimensions during U years: improving demand forecasting models; measure the social impacts of tariff choices; renew the analysis of long term infrastructure management; present a typology of the ongoing territorial re-arrangements. Lastly we present the final part of the research, devoted to a foresight exercise based on eight contrasted scenarios, supporting a series of strategic questions to be raised by concerned authorities. The conclusion stresses the inherent difficulties of such a project in terms of access to reliable data.