Our water systems will be impacted by climate change. Engineers are vital in designing and implementing solutions to improve and protect our water.
Carbon Accounting Guidelines for Wastewater Treatment: CH4 and N2O
This document provides guidelines for accounting for methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from municipal wastewater treatment, discharge and sludge processing in New Zealand. Emissions from on-site septic tanks are also covered. The guidelines build on methods published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2019) that can be used by local wastewater treatment plant providers to develop greenhouse gas estimates in a standardised way.
Water and climate change podcasts and webinars
The impact of climate change on our water infrastructure is explored through a series of podcasts and webinars, curated by Water New Zealand’s climate change group.
Find out more about water and climate change
Māori Worldviews, Climate & Carbon Pathways Webinar
The Water New Zealand Climate Change Group has suggested a pathway to transform how Aotearoa New Zealand’s infrastructure is designed, managed and operated to appropriately adapt, mitigate and decarbonise sector services. This webinar was created to start the conversation about how this can be done in a way that is aligned with the aspirations of Tangata Whenua, Te Mana o Te Wai and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership agreements at local and national governance levels – and was made possible by collaboration with The Sustainability Society.
Navigating to Net Zero: Aotearoa's Water Sector Low-Carbon Journey
This resource establishes key principles and frameworks to reduce emissions in the water sector and minimise the extent of anthropogenic climate change. It introduces changes required, case studies of good practice, resources to help organisations create or test their climate change strategies and highlights gaps in understanding.
Mitigating climate change at the carbon water nexus
This paper explores a case for environmental engineers leading the development of climate change mitigation technologies at the carbon-water nexus (CWN). In this article, Clarens and Peters put forward a call to action for the environmental engineering community.
Impact analysis of climate change on water resources
This paper reviews the relationship between climate change and water resources. It summarises the methods for analysing the impacts of climate change on hydrology and water resources, such as generation technology for climate change scenario and hydrologic simulation.
