Principles for Managing the Urban Water Environment in the 21st Century

One of the key ideas of this book is the holism of the urban water environment and its importance to human well-being. As we have seen in Chapter 2, the urban water environment interconnects the built environment—the water delivery and sewage infrastructure and the impervious surfaces that alter hydrology—with the natural environment, comprising surface streams, rivers and lakes, and underground aquifers. Though conceptually simple and logical, these components are rarely considered a whole system.