Water Governance in Cities analyses the weakness of urban water governance systems. Building on a survey of cities, the finds that significant progress has been achieved over last decade.

Resistance develops in most non-small cell lung (NSCLC) patients treated with anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 based immunotherapy. CVA21 is an oncolytic coxsackie virus that targets ICAM over-expressing tumour cells. Pre-clinical models suggest that CVA21-induced tumour lysis may enhance the clinical efficacy of the anti-PD-1 antibody Pembrolizumab by inducing immune cell infiltration in patients that lack an immune cell rich tumour microenvironment. Previously, the Keynote 200 trial of CVA21 combined with Pembrolizumab reported an ORR of 23% in immunotherapy-naive NSCLC. We report the efficacy of Pembrolizumab in combination with CVA21 in a preliminary cohort of eight pre-treated NSCLC patients with secondary resistance to prior anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 therapy. On progression of prior therapy, IV CVA21 (1x109 TCID50) was administered on days 1, 3, 5, 8, then Q3W for 6 months, in combination with Pembrolizumab (200mg IV from day 8, then Q3W for up to 24 months). Repeat biopsies were mandated prior to cycle 2 of Pembrolizumab. Tumour measurements were calculated using immune-related RECIST. PD-L1 was tested on pre- and post-treatment biopsies using SP-263 (Ventana) and reported using the tumour proportion score (TPS). The majority of patients were female (n=7, 88%), median age 65 years (range 55-75), seven (88%) current or former smokers, five (63%) with 3+ lines of prior treatment, and only 1 anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 naive. Two patients were KRAS mutant, the remaining were wild type for EGFR, ROS1, ALK and BRAF. Two (25%) partial responses (PR) were observed, both in anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 pre-treated patients. Both responders were continuing at data cut-off, 240 and 120 days since commencement. Two achieved SD (overall clinical benefit 50%) and 3 were non-evaluable (1 early non-treatment-related death, 3 awaiting first scan). Early PD at 56 days occurred in the anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 naive patient (n=1). In the two PRs, PD-L1 TPS was 25% and 60% respectively. Preliminary IHC staining of paired biopsies showed an increase in PD-L1% in 2 (33%) evaluable patients at 21 days. PD-L1 TPS ranged from <1% to 80% in pre-treatment biopsies, but was not predictive of response or benefit from combination therapy. An increase in PD-L1 was associated with a trend toward longer disease stability (median 147 days). Combination treatment was well-tolerated with no observed G4/5 TRAE’s. Intravenous CVA21 in combination with pembrolizumab demonstrated encouraging clinical activity in patients who had progressed on prior anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 therapy, regardless of PD-L1 levels.

This chapter provides details of both the vision and reality of the real-world case study and what is possible in urban regeneration. It examines an overview of the development and describes how it progressed from being an abandoned industrial site to becoming Central Park. The chapter highlights some of the difficulties faced, summarises the original visionary sustainability strategy, details two key sustainability components – energy and water management, and discusses some of the key lessons learnt along the way. The green walls that surround the building's facade were designed by Patrick Blanc and provide an immediate visual clue to the sustainable character of the precinct. The aim was to develop an innovative project that would demonstrate what can be achieved in sustainable infrastructure, and where possible, the strategy takes account of economic, social and environmental dimensions. Frasers used environmentally preferred materials and products for the building.

This paper reports on the short- and long-term impacts of online water-use feedback provided via a smart metering trial involving 120 households in New South Wales, Australia. Near-real time water consumption feedback was provided via an online portal to half of the sample. Water consumption was uniquely analysed one year pre- and post-intervention, and in conjunction with login data. During one year of available access, the intervention group saved an overall average of 24.1 litres per household per day (L/hh/d) (4.2%). Regression analysis showed the significant savings of active users related specifically to portal login activity. Significant short-term effects persisted for 42days, averaging at 63.1 L/hh/d. The article discusses the implications for research and practice, including a consideration of how, in addition to providing ongoing access, online portals could be leveraged further by water authorities to help meet urgent short-term supply constraints such as in drought.

The history of urban water reform in Australia parallels the reform of the water sharing and allocation system. This history is influenced by the origins of Australian water utilities as public sector, often local government, entities. The first major reforms of the 1990s separated the regulatory and operational functions of the water utilities and corporatized many of them, as well as heralded a greater commitment to commercial returns and transparent economic regulation. At the same time, the historic focus on supply planning was being supplemented by supply-demand planning, including some explicit targets for reduction of water use through improved customer water efficiency, reduced losses and increased water recycling. This accelerated during the Millennium drought, which triggered a strong recognition of the impact of climate uncertainty on water security. Large capital works programs for increasing supply ensued, including the building of desalination plants, as well as the first application of "real options" planning in the water sector. In the last 10 years, there has been a growth in alternative servicing options for water supply and sewerage provision, including third-party provision. The future is likely to see the emergence of the smart and digital water utility, resource efficiency and recovery, including of energy and nutrients, as well as a shift to a fourth generation of water infrastructure, including greater "fit for purpose" provision of water services and infrastructure, and a greater variation in models of ownership and service provision.

Smart water metering (SWM) introduces new opportunities to engage householders about water use based on detailed information. Water utilities must decide how to embrace these opportunities, but remain hesitant due to limited available experience and knowledge, which risks delaying the benefits of involving householders more fully in SWM and more sustainable water consumption. An implementation framework is developed outlining the key strategic, practical and evaluative elements in decision-making for detailed feedback programs by drawing on the literature and first-hand experiences of two feedback trials involving SWM. Existing approaches are reviewed and recommendations are provided to advance more well-considered approaches and realise benefits regarding sustainable water use.

The impact of global phosphorus scarcity on food security has increasingly been the focus of scientific studies over the past decade. However, systematic analyses of alternative futures for phosphorus supply and demand throughout the food system are still rare and provide limited inclusion of key stakeholders. Addressing global phosphorus scarcity requires an integrated approach exploring potential demand reduction as well as recycling opportunities. This implies recovering phosphorus from multiple sources, such as food waste, manure, and excreta, as well as exploring novel opportunities to reduce the long-term demand for phosphorus in food production such as changing diets. Presently, there is a lack of stakeholder and scientific consensus around priority measures. To therefore enable exploration of multiple pathways and facilitate a stakeholder dialog on the technical, behavioral, and institutional changes required to meet long-term future phosphorus demand, this paper introduces an interactive web-based tool, designed for visualizing global phosphorus scenarios in real time. The interactive global phosphorus scenario tool builds on several demand and supply side measures that can be selected and manipulated interactively by the user. It provides a platform to facilitate stakeholder dialog to plan for a soft landing and identify a suite of concrete priority options, such as investing in agricultural phosphorus use efficiency, or renewable fertilizers derived from phosphorus recovered from wastewater and food waste, to determine how phosphorus demand to meet future food security could be attained on a global scale in 2040 and 2070. This paper presents four example scenarios, including (1) the potential of full recovery of human excreta, (2) the challenge of a potential increase in non-food phosphorus demand, (3) the potential of decreased animal product consumption, and (4) the potential decrease in phosphorus demand from increased efficiency and yield gains in crop and livestock systems.

In recent times the interest in solar tower power plants is increasing with various plants being built in the last years and currently under construction, e.g. Ivanpah and Crescent Dunes in the US and Khi Solar One in South Africa. The higher cycle efficiency leads to lower levelised cost of electricity. However, further cost reductions are required and this paper compares a novel and patented solar tower structure with a conventional concrete tower. The novel solar tower design is cable-stayed which has the benefit that the cables absorb a large part of the wind and buckling loads. A tower that has to cope with fewer wind and buckling forces can have a significantly smaller diameter than a concrete tower, which enables workshop manufacture, sea and road transport, and rapid on-site installation. The case study provided in this paper finds that the tower area affected by wind can be reduced by up to 45%, installation time shortened by up to 66%, and tower cost by 20-40%. The novel design allows the construction and transport of the solar tower in few large modules, which are pre-manufactured including piping, cables, platform, ladders etc. The few modules can be assembled and installed rapidly not only lowering plant cost and construction time but also project risk.

In Australia both natural gas and an excellent solar irradiance are abundant energy sources and its combination is one option to implement concentrating solar power (CSP) systems in Australia’s traditionally low cost electricity market. The recently introduced carbon pricing mechanism in Australia is likely to steer investment towards combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants. This will also lead to further plants being built in high solar irradiance areas where CSP could provide valuable peak capacity. Hybridisation would enable more competitive power generation than standalone CSP systems as hybrid plants share equipment, such as steam turbine and condenser, therewith lowering the specific investment. This paper investigates the novel hybridization of CCGT and solar tower systems to increase the efficiency of integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC). Currently, all ISCC plants use parabolic trough systems with thermal oil as this technology is most mature. However, increases in plant efficiency, simpler solar tower integration as well as further synergies of solar tower ISCC systems, such as joint use of tower as CCGT stack, are likely to enhance the economic viability of new ISCC plants. In addition to a technical concept description this paper outlines the ideal sites for ISCC plants in Australia and presents a 200MWe ISCC case study with 3h molten salt thermal storage for the conversion of the Port Hedland open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) facility in Western Australia into a solar tower ISCC plant.

The waste hierarchy currently dominates waste management planning in Australia. It is effective in helping planners consider options from waste avoidance or “reduction” through to providing infrastructure for landfill or other “disposal”. However, it is inadequate for guiding context-specific decisions regarding sustainable waste management and resource recovery, including the ability for stakeholders to compare a range of options on an equal footing whilst considering their various sustainability impacts and trade-offs. This paper outlines the potential use of Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) as a decision-making approach for the urban waste sector, illustrated using an Australian case study. IRP is well established in both the water and energy sectors in Australia and internationally. It has been used in long-term planning enabling decision-makers to consider the potential to reduce resource use through efficiency alongside options for new infrastructure. Its use in the waste sector could address a number of the current limitations experienced by providing a broader context-sensitive, adaptive, and stakeholder focused approach to planning not present in the waste hierarchy and commonly used cost benefit analysis. For both efficiency and new infrastructure options IRP could be useful in assisting governments to make decisions that are consistent with agreed objectives while addressing costs of alternative options and uncertainty regarding their environmental and social impacts. This paper highlights various international waste planning approaches, differences between the sectors where IRP has been used and gives a worked example of how IRP could be applied in the Australian urban waste sector.

Phosphorus underpins global food systems by ensuring soil fertility, farmer livelihoods, agricultural productivity and global food security. Yet there is a lack of research and effective governance at global or national scales designed to ensure the future availability and accessibility of this global resource. The world’s main source of phosphorus, phosphate rock, is a finite resource that is becoming increasingly scarce, expensive and subject to geopolitical tensions as one country, Morocco, controls three-quarters of the world’s remaining high-grade reserves. Given the criticality of phosphorus and the vulnerability of the world’s food systems to phosphorus scarcity, there is a strong need to stimulate appropriate sustainable phosphorus practices and technologies, and simultaneously, to initiate effective international governance mechanisms, including policy/research coordination and accountability. Sustainability indicators are increasingly being used as tools to facilitate accountability, implementation, evaluation and communication for global sustainability challenges. This paper presents the first comprehensive set of phosphorus vulnerability and security indicators at global and national scales. Global indicators include: phosphate price, market concentration and supply risk, relative physical phosphorus scarcity and eutrophication potential. National indicators include: farmer phosphorus vulnerability, national phosphorus vulnerability, national phosphorus equity and soil phosphorus legacy. Monitoring and tracking such indicators at the national and global levels can ultimately provide evidence of key phosphorus vulnerabilities or ‘hotspots’ in the food system, support effective phosphorus governance to stimulate targeted and effective action, raise awareness of this food security challenge, and evaluate the effectiveness and performance of global or national sustainable phosphorus projects.