Ten primary trends and their implications for water utilities

Posted January 2006

By Edward G. Means III, Lorena Ospina, and Roger Patrick

Ten primary trends and their implications for water utilities, featured in the July 2005 edition of the AWWA Journal, provides an overview of the top ten water utility future trends identified through an assessment of the literature, interviews with public water supply community leaders, and a futures workshop featuring futurists and scenario planning exercises.

Utilities can use the discussion of these trends—including aging infrastructure, advancing technology, climate changes, and increased security risks—as guidelines during strategic planning. On the basis of the findings of this trends assessment, the authors conclude that future utilities will likely be operationally efficient; be engaged in the community; and integrate water management, treatment, environmental sustainability, and public policy decisions in a way that leverages regional opportunities and relationships and economies of scale.

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