Innovative modern urban drainage: from pollution control to resource recycling

The original urban drainage was derived from the need of improvement sanitation and hygienic level of city residents. The function and nature of urban drainage, however, need to be reconsidered and redefined seriously all over the world, especially in the developing countries, so as to address the increasingly serious water crisis. As the largest developing country, China was faced with countrywide water shortage and water quality declination resulted from lack of inadequate sanitations. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new urban drainage to improve the living conditions and recycle the potential valuable resource and meanwhile address the infrastructural investment shortage. The paper, from the ecological and holistic point of view, rethought urban drainage in terms of its function and task, planning and design, integrated urban water system, and urban material balance analysis. An innovative model of modern urban drainage was presented, and the effects of the new urban drainage on local water demand, water environment protection, capital construction investment and economic development were also discussed. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that it is imperative to achieve a strategic shift in urban drainage from pollution control to resource recycling, and the new urban drainage may play an important role in overcoming the roadblocks such as lack of investment, water shortage and water quality decline in developing country.