Towards sustainable drinking water supply in the Netherlands

Summary:

The United Nations have set Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 6 on safe and affordable drinking water for all. To achieve this goal, not only worldwide strategies are necessary for a development towards sustainable drinking water supply, but also measures to solve local-scale sustainability challenges.  In this thesis first hydrological measures have been analysed that aim to reduce the impact of drinking water abstraction to the Veluwe water system in the Netherlands. However, for sustainable drinking water supply, other environmental, technical and socio-economic aspects are essential too. In this research the main sustainability aspects of drinking water supply have been identified. Thereafter a method has been developed for comparing the impact – positive or negative -  of potential adaptation measures to these sustainability aspects. This provides insights that may contribute to a transparent balancing of various interests in the decision-making process on adaptation measures towards sustainable drinking water supply.