Risk and sustainability assessment framework for decision support in 'water scarcity - water reuse' situations

Decision-makers face major challenges when trying to reduce risks of water scarcity sustainably through measures of water reuse. One of these challenges is the lack of interconnectedness between risk assessment for water scarcity and sustainability assessment for water reuse. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the conceptual integration of risk and sustainability assessments (RSA) in a framework for decision support in 'water scarcity - water reuse' situations. This article follows a three steps approach: (i) defining and interpreting the 'water scarcity - water reuse' situation as a coupled human and natural system; (ii) identifying and defining key concepts relevant for risk and sustainability assessment, and (iii) constructing the integrated RSA Framework for decision support. As a result, the latter provides a conceptualisation of a simultaneous assessment of water scarcity as a risk and the sustainability of water reuse measures according to the social, economic, and environmental dimensions. It contemplates an analysis phase and an evaluation phase to provide unified information on the level of water scarcity risk and water reuse sustainability. The resulting indicates that the integration of risk and sustainability in one joint assessment for decision support is conceptually feasible. It hence paves the way towards a comprehensive and consistent methodological operationalisation and empirical application.