Standards Development

Scope

To establish a new WG under ISO/TC224 to address all issues related to climate change and water services in accordance with the Decision of TC 224 on June 25 including creating a new multidisciplinary WG covering Climate Change and all water service sectors, and to prepare a coordinated suite of standards covering all water service sectors.

Completion of ISO XXXXX-1 commenced under WG 11, which will identify, discuss and set out the principles needed to evaluate proposed or planned responses to climate change impacts on water services.

Completion of ISO XXXXX-2 commenced under WG 11, which will provide guidelines, recommendations and examples of such responses with analysis of how the responses met the principles in respect of stormwater services.

Preparation of companion standards: ISO XXXXX-3 which will provide guidelines, recommendations and examples of such responses with analysis of how the responses met the principles in respect of drinking water services.

ISO XXXXX-4 which will provide guidelines, recommendations and examples of such responses with analysis of how the responses met the principles in respect of wastewater services. 

Purpose

This proposal responds to the recommendation of WG 11 accepted by the TC 224 Plenary Meeting on June 25, 2020 and expressed in TC 224 Resolution 11, recorded in ISO-TC224_N2060.

This expands the purpose set out in N2061 which was limited to Climate Change as it impacted stormwater services, to cover all water services, namely additionally drinking water supply and wastewater collection and treatment services. It does so in recognition that these additional services are essential to customer needs and are likely to be equally impacted by climate change effects on their infrastructure, operations and their ability to deliver services to their customers.

The purpose is to complete the guidance on the principles that should be used to assess possible responses to climate changes that are affecting the effectiveness of water services commenced under N2060 and contemplated in ISO XXXXX, which will become ISO XXXXX-1 Assessment Principles.

The remainder of ISO XXXXX will become ISO XXXXX-2 Guidelines, Recommendations and Examples of Adaptation by stormwater services.

Parallel and complementary standards: ISO XXXXX-3 Guidelines, Recommendations and Examples of Adaptation by drinking water services and ISO XXXXX-4 Guidelines, Recommendations and Examples of Adaptation by wastewater services will be developed.

The justification set out in N2061 remains the justification for this NWIP. Weather events related to Climate Change include flooding due to extreme precipitation (flash floods), resulting in loss of stormwater management facilities, damage to surrounding properties, including habitations, buildings and land, loss of fish habitat due to excessive runoff, etc. Such effects will also impact on the other water services in the area.

In addition, climate change is introducing extreme turbulence conditions (hurricanes, typhoons and tornados) and extreme temperature situations (heat and cold) which combined with precipitation can result in blizzards and hail storms all of which can impact on the infrastructure and operations of water systems and services. Global warming, a cause of climate change, is leading to sea level rises of concern to coastal communities whose water system’s infrastructure is located on coasts, and can impact communities located on lake and river systems. It is also affecting source water quality impacting drinking water supply and may impact on receiving body waters capability to accept wastewater discharges.

Therefore, climate adaptation strategies are essential to make the urban areas more robust for future climate developments and protect the provision of these essential services.

All such services rely on infrastructure, and regardless of their specific purpose or function they can be affected by the manifestations of climate change: e.g. global warming, flooding, high winds, excessive snow or rainfalls and droughts.

Billions of dollars have been invested by the public in municipal water system infrastructures. The capacity of which to meet current and expected service demands is being challenged by the impacts of climate change. Climate change is generally described as global warming and changes in long run weather patterns. These changes result in severe and often unpredictable weather events (tornados, droughts, ice storms, inundations, etc.) which may be short or long term in their occurrence and local or regional in their impact. They impact the infrastructures and the operations of the services.

Municipal services have to respond to these occurrences in order to meet the needs of their service populations. The changes will involve investments in infrastructures and in operations. N2061 indicated that the value of investments in US of $125,5 Billion in US systems in 2017 alone. [https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/local-government-makes-record-high-investments-inpublic- water--sewer-infrastructure-300965488.html]

And further at the global scale: it is estimated that capital investment needs to triple (to reach USD 1.7 trillion) to meet the Water Infrastructure and Investment SDG6 by 2030, and operating and maintenance costs will be commensurately higher. [https://sustainabledevelopment.un. org/content/documents/hlpwater/08-WaterInfrastInvest.pdf] These investments are needed not just to provide continuity of services, but to do so in the face of climate change impacts that affect the general population. The estimated costs of flooding in the US Midwest was $3.4 billion in March, 2019 alone.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/midwest-floods-economic-cost-1.5068037#:~:text=Cost%20estimates% 20indicate%20the%20flooding,%24300%20million%20US%20in%20damage.

The proposed WG and the proposed standards will help ALL water service managers to assess adaption strategies and to find guidelines, recommendations and examples of responses made or being made.