This paper reviews the drivers, development and global deployment of intelligent water metering in the urban context. Recognising that intelligent metering (or smart metering) has the potential to revolutionise customer engagement and management of urban water by utilities, this paper provides a summary of the knowledge-base for researchers and industry practitioners to ensure that the technology fosters sustainable urban water management. To date, roll-outs of intelligent metering have been driven by the desire for increased data regarding time of use and end-use (such as use by shower, toilet, garden, etc.) as well as by the ability of the technology to reduce labour costs for meter reading. Technology development in the water sector generally lags that seen in the electricity sector. In the coming decade, the deployment of intelligent water metering will transition from being predominantly “pilot or demonstration scale” with the occasional city-wide roll-out, to broader mainstream implementation. This means that issues which have hitherto received little focus must now be addressed, namely: the role of real-time data in customer engagement and demand management; data ownership, sharing and privacy; technical data management and infrastructure security, utility workforce skills; and costs and benefits of implementation.

Safe drinking water and effective sanitation is a basic human right. The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples living on traditional Country in remote Australia can be supported or undermined by these essential services. Despite global and Australian commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, water and sanitation service levels have regularly been identified as unreliable, unsafe, and of a lower standard than non-Indigenous and non-remote settlements. This research sought to identify the optimal conditions to enable consistent delivery of safe water and sanitation in remote Indigenous communities of Australia. Using a combination of literature reviews, interviews with key stakeholder groups and applied research findings, key conditions for improved water and sanitation outcomes were identified. These included technology for water and sanitation that is fit for purpose, people and place; capacity-building, training and ongoing support for local Indigenous service operators; and that all personnel involved in delivery require a level of cultural competency to the local and Indigenous context. These findings are intended to contribute to informing more sustainable water and sanitation outcomes in Indigenous communities.

Blue-Green Infrastructure is widely recognized as one of the keys to addressing climate change impacts and rapid urbanization challenges. Integrating nature-based solutions enhances cities’ resiliency through sustainable stormwater management, mitigating flood risks while providing various ecosystem services. However, despite these multiple benefits and co-benefits, BGI remains far from mainstream adoption. We conducted a selective literature review to explore this practical gap guided by the socio-technical transition theory. We then employed a multi-level perspective to conceptualize the results, as it helps elucidate the complex nature of this problem beyond the standard variables considered in the existing literature on challenges and barriers to BGI uptake. Finally, we argued the necessity of societal and institutional considerations in addition to the technical aspects while investigating it systematically. We categorized the findings into five clusters including institutional and governance, economics and finance, knowledge and experience, socio-cultural challenges, and spatial planning practices. These clusters are highly interconnected and influenced by one another, revealing the complexity of this issue. Based on these findings, we suggest approaching BGI transitions as a complex problem by using systems thinking practices. This would necessitate dynamic interdisciplinary and connective collaborations among different organizations to bridge this gap.