SaRVO framework for urban water utilities: Building resilient, liveable, and sustainable cities

Abstract

People’s engagement with policies and management systems influences their effectiveness in making cities resilient, liveable and sustainable. It is, therefore, crucial to understand people's perceptions and values. We used a novel Stakeholders and actors, Relationships, Values and Outcomes – Urban Water Management (SaRVO-UWM) framework and fuzzy cognitive mapping to examine the differences in perceptions of, and the values attached to, water as a scarce resource by domestic water users living in three settlement types, namely mainstream areas in cities, slums, and peri-urban areas, within Gurugram City, in the northern Indian state of Haryana in Global South. The perceptions and values were ascertained through FGDs to reveal the participants’ values on the liveability concepts of urban water management systems derived from multiple sources. The assessment revealed the differences in the prioritization of values attached to water among the three groups. The relevant drivers across environmental, social, technical, and economic factors were identified with overlaps between them. The study highlights the need for diverse adaptive strategies, such as investing in a secure water supply and promoting mandatory water harvesting, to improve liveability across different urban settlements. It emphasizes the importance of incorporating water-related traditions into urban water management and suggests effective communication tailored to each settlement to foster pro-planet behaviour. Policymakers are encouraged to develop affordable pricing mechanisms for reliable water use and design localized policies that align with global frameworks, promoting equity in building resilient and sustainable cities.