Sustainable water management strategies A possible tool for decreasing the water-end energy
Alexandra Totoianu 27th of March 2015
1. Introduction 1.1 Background information and presentation of the subject involved The paper is part of the 7th semester of the “Architectural Technology and Construction Management” programme. It analyzes the techniques we could reduce the energy in a building’s usage through the strategic implementation of the water usage by stressing the potable water availability and the ways we could reduce its consumption in a building. The so-called “water footprint” will be my guidance tool for apprehending the water usage divisions in our buildings and for tackling the methods we can apply for creating a sustainable water cycle within our buildings just as in an ecosystem without contaminating the environment. There will be presented the methods through which we can conserve water through recycling the gray and black water, harvesting it from our roofs, mitigating the storm water runoff using the green roofs. For grasping the prerequisite of the sustainable water reuse systems within a building coping together as in an ecosystem, I will be analyzing the Music and Science Building by Opsis Architects. The green roofs’ potential will be discovered through the analysis of the storm water efficiency and innovation of the California Academy of Science by Renzo Piano. The main aim of this paper is to encourage the sustainable water management within our buildings through becoming aware of the energy the water needs in its cycle within our household for potable and non-potable uses (the so-called “embedded energy” concept). The presented solutions should be our response to the water scarcity and a possible solution which we could opt for adapting to the inefficiency of the water treatment’s energy. Through these water conservation strategies, this paper should reveal that we can significantly reduce the energy in our water end-use and the energy needed for treating the waste water. It should also raise awareness in each of the readers’ minds, for being able to grasp alternative solutions for diminishing the water scarcity, ameliorate the energy through understanding better the principles on which nature works for having a high adaptability to the constant changes around us and for preserving the water. We should be able, in the end, to fully grasp the information, the gravity of the problem and to act as soon as possible always having in mind the fact that water is scarce and it is our most sacred resource.
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