Mitigating the Global Potable Water Crisis: A Systematic Review of Emerging Urban Stormwater Conversion Technologies

The wide-scale management and treatment of urban stormwater is a promising technological advancement to address the ongoing global potable water crisis. About 26% of the global population have unsafe drinking water and 46% have no safely managed water for sanitation. However, the lack of a regulatory framework for urban stormwater usage and the uncertainty in water quality pose significant threats to its wide-scale application. Emerging conversion technologies provide a more efficient and cost-effective means to convert urban stormwater to potable water. Urban stormwater management such as capture in large cisterns and run-off capture provides the necessary means to properly collect and manage stormwater, while engineered stormwater treatment systems such as stormwater biofilters provide high reliability and performance while having zero energy consumption for the treatment of collected stormwater. By utilizing an efficient urban stormwater management system and appropriate treatment technologies, urban stormwater can be used to alleviate the problems with potable water scarcity. This study delves into utilizing urban stormwater for the generation of potable water, evaluates conversion technologies, and presents its application to mitigate the global potable water crisis. Urban stormwater management systems are thoroughly examined and treatment processes are investigated, highlighting the importance of using appropriate technologies in potable water generation. Through conversion technologies, high-volume urban stormwater can be transformed into potable drinking water, addressing water resource management problems and the ongoing global potable water crisis. This systematic review will identify existing conversion technologies and research gaps, and pave the way to more efficient and cost-effective conversion technologies that will use high-volume urban stormwater for the production of potable water.