URBAN
Background: Over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and the forecast for 2050 is ~70%.
Numbers have been growing rapidly and exponentially during the last half century, and the water and wastewater infrastructure of the existing cities cannot cope with the growth, while in many newer suburbs, it does not exist at all.
The big urban centers and megacities’ influence on the environment is dramatic and global, not only in the close vicinity but spreading to a much bigger circle.
Cities demand much energy and freshwater supply in relatively small areas, which creates the ‘Heat sink’effect along with a high carbon footprint; interestingly, based on EPA reports and others, the overall water and wastewater management demand one-third of the city’s energy consumption such as water supply, wastewater treatment, conveyance, maintenance, etc.
Fresh water demand grows exponentially respectively to population growth and the progressive lifestyle.
The demand causes fast depletion of local aquifers and, in many cases, water sourcing from far away locations.
Used water is being discharged as sewage to far-away treatment locations, and more and more lately is flowing untreated through storm water drains within the city’s limits, causing unpleasant and unhealthy effects, as well as the destruction of what is left of the freshwater aquifers.
Rainwater, even in rainy regions, gets contaminated by polluted surfaces and air and gets lost through the drains, often causing floods and damage.
Many cities, regions, and countries face extreme freshwater shortages, even in rainy zones.
Current technologies cannot cope with the fast-growing problems and often even add to them by overuse of energy or ‘bad’ engineering.
Ayala’s NBS holistic approach is designed to simultaneously give solutions to all the above-mentioned issues. The NBS de-centralized systems are fabricated into the urban different landscapes, free spaces, roofs, canals, walls, and more, treating sewage and storm water on-site, preventing floods downstream through active retention and detention, recharging local aquifers, enlarging carbon capture capacity dramatically by enlarging the ‘active landscapes, recharge the local
aquifers and strengthen the community awareness and involvement.
This ground-breaking energy & maintenance-free solution approach creates stable & resilient cities, sustainably functioning that can smartly support the growing population.
Ayala has designed and executed dozens of systems in urban and commercial centers. Ganei Tikva neighborhood recycling; Ampa Building, Business Center, Tel Aviv; Nice France, watershed rehabilitation; HGA- Hyderabad Golf Association; Rejuvenation of Arkhavathi River watershed, Bangalore, India; Campeche Mexico, sanitary water treatment of community; etc.
