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Sustainability indicators have become essential tools to deal with compartmentalized resources planning and management in cities. The development of water, energy, and food nexus (WEF nexus) indicators is a prominent goal of current research, but the focus is mainly on economic issues and material flows. Attention to the local scale and context, social aspects, and the inclusion of non-academic actors is mostly lacking. To address these gaps, this paper reports and reflects on the co-creation of sustainability indicators related to the WEF nexus in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. With a transdisciplinary approach, non-academic actors were included in the different stages of the process using the Urban Living Lab methodology, to improve the usability of the produced indicators’ set. The case of São Paulo concerned on-going actions in the peri-urban and rural areas of the city which seek to improve environmental protection by stimulating more sustainable forms of agriculture. Thirty-four indicators were developed through a sequence of interactive activities, such as workshops, meetings, and field trips. The presented process aims to strongly enhance usability by actively involving users from the start, connecting the nexus approach to previous knowledge and familiar frameworks, paying attention to the local scale and context, and to social aspects, and by anticipating future use in various ways.

Infrastructure service affordability has become a burgeoning concern over the past years due to the recent economic crisis and the growing role of tariffs in funding the services. Pressure on utilities to promote social assistance programs in addition to an efficient service has risen toward providing water as affordable as possible. This study shows the positive impact of efficient services on families' water affordability by analyzing the new Brazilian water loss goals and the potential effect of water loss reduction on total expenses reported in the Brazilian utilities' National Water and Sanitation Information System. The total service cost for water and sanitation (before and after the aforementioned goals) was then translated to average tariff per cubic meter and affordability ratios. The potential water volume saved in physical losses can reach up to 16.6% of the water consumed in the country, and although the impact on water affordability was timid, the positive results indicate utilities have an important role in assuring water and sanitation for all, and regulators must be involved toward taking a deep look at local conditions.

The current model of water resources management in Brazil is decentralized, participative and integrated, and adopted the river basin as a planning unit. It is based on the performance of watershed committees; each committee has its own composition and rules of procedure, governed by its statute. The basic principles of this management have been established by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 and detailed by the National Water Resources Policy in 1997. At the State level, São Paulo enacted its water resources policy in 1991. This paper examined the participatory process in basin committees of the São Paulo State and its implications in the implementation of the instruments of water management, based in a case study of the Tiete - Jacaré Watershed Committee, using questionnaires filled by the Committee’s members (2009 - 2011). Engagement and integration among the stakeholders was observed. Still, the interviews’ results have shown that the Committee’s statute should be reviewed due to differences between the Federal and the State legislation, mainly regarding the participating sectors and representatives. It also showed a need for more information about water resource issues in this basin and in the State of São Paulo, as a whole. At the same time, it is recommended that representativeness of the institutions within the water council management be improved and that the work produced by the technical chambers be recognised at the committee decision-making level.

The control of water loss in distribution systems has been highlighted in multiple discussions in the field of water and sanitation. However, there are few scientific studies on this topic that have focussed on loss control performance in developing countries. With the intention to expand the limited scientific framework investigating the management of water losses in economic scarcity scenarios, this paper provides an overview of which practices directed to water loss control are being conducted in a Brazilian region. Data were collected from 42 water utilities and show there is a direct relationship between the utilities' performances and the number of water loss practices adopted. The divergences in the number of practices applied by the water utilities may be influenced by technical–operational, planning and management factors. The paper brings greater robustness to the loss management debates in regions with economic scarcity, being able to support the action of utilities operating in similar scenarios.

Brazil and Colombia are rich in terms of water supply, ranking as world leaders in the supply of water resources. Despite this, both countries have problems of relative scarcity of this vital liquid in highly populated areas with much economic activity. Establishing policies and legal environmental standards has long tradition in both countries. However, although there are provisions and instruments for water management at the water basin level, these do not necessarily follow the conceptual development of integrated water resources management (IWRM). As a result, the two countries have partially implemented IWRM elements but with different characteristics both in its structure and instrumentality. In Colombia the State Government, through the Regional Environmental Corporations, implements IWRM (concessions, fee for water use, pollution rate, basin plans, etc), with no formal involvement of civil society management. In Brazil, however, IWRM management structure and tools are decentralized and participatory, as are the Water Basin Committees, entities where the State Government, municipalities and users participate, those with the greatest weight in water management. In Brazil, however, this model is not yet implemented in all watersheds. Thus, the aim of this paper is to compare the institutional and legal aspects of water management models in Brazil and Colombia with regard to the integrated water management concept. For the latter, we worked with a case study for each country regarding Nima River watershed (Colombia) and Tietê Jacaré (Brazil).

The main purpose of this article is to identify access to: social assistance inclusion programs; assistance from health agents; public water supply services; and water saving practices, in areas of irregular occupation in Brazil. A stratified random sampling technique by clusters was adopted with a simple sampling strategy. In the universe of 14,079 households, 68 community leaders were identified, representing 6,800 households on average, in a normalized distribution (mean zero, standard deviation 1), deemed to include situations covering 96% of the cases with a margin of error of + or - 1% of the average. The theoretical approach proposes a reflection and verification through questionnaires on the mechanisms of exclusion. Poverty perpetuates the vicious circle of inequality, risks to health and the environment, and it is necessary that these should be considered in the policies and procedures for urban expansion. As a conclusion, various challenges were identified for serving areas of social-environmental vulnerability - the needs to: improve the low quality of health and water services in subnormal agglomerations; modify the behavior of the population accessing the networks in a clandestine manner; and to put inclusive governance mechanisms in place.

The adoption of principles of equality and universality stipulated in legislation for the sanitation sector requires discussions on innovation. The existing model was able to meet sanitary demands, but was unable to attend all areas causing disparities in vulnerable areas. The universal implementation of sanitation requires identification of the know-how that promotes it and analysis of the model adopted today to establish a new method. Analysis of how different viewpoints on the restructuring process is necessary for the definition of public policy, especially in health, and understanding its complexities and importance in confirming social practices and organizational designs. These are discussed to contribute to universal implementation of sanitation in urban areas by means of a review of the literature and practices in the industry. By way of conclusion, it is considered that accepting a particular concept or idea in sanitation means choosing some effective interventions in the network and on the lives of individual users, and implies a redefinition of the space in which it exercises control and management of sewerage networks, such that connected users are perceived as groups with different interests.

The University of São Paulo is a public University and the largest in Brazil. It is broadly organized into distinct campuses that are installed in different cities of the state of São Paulo, each one with its specific aspects. There are more than 95 thousand undergraduate and graduate regularly enrolled students, standing out as one of the best universities in Brazil and Latin America [2]. The performance of the University of São Paulo at the “UI GreenMetric World University Ranking” has improved considerably in 2017 (28 th position) on the general ranking. The sustainability management process for USP is carried out considering the strengths each campus presents, but the USP governance process ensures standards and good practices are applied similarly to all areas under the university responsibility. As for example, the recent approval of the USP Environmental Policy, which process engaged the whole USP community, working together to understand the complex context of all campuses, what resulted at the end in very innovative arrangements for researching, teaching and practice for sustainability. Different of the past rankings, data provided for GreenMetric 2017 Ranking contemplated USP as a whole, because it is not possible to assess the university environmental sustainability performance in parts. This approach allowed showing the different enhanced efforts of the University as a whole. In addition, the USP’s environmental policy-making process brought about more integration between the campuses and effective actions were put into practice, helping to consolidate USP as a sustainable university. The highlight in the score was \"Setting and Infrastructure\": there are 76.4km 2 of total area and only 2.6% from them are built-up. The University has been prioritizing the protection of green areas and biodiversity, in São Paulo city campus, totally surrounded by urban environment, but also in the other campuses in the countryside, some of them located in rural environment. This shows that USP’s campuses are environmentally responsible, providing students and staff with enjoyable, healthy and in close touch with nature places. On the topic “Transportation”, the University of São Paulo stands out also. Incentives to improve choice for public transportation and biking within the university community are among the constant concern of the University of São Paulo, which will be keeping up efforts for that.

Aquaponics technology has recently been offered as a good option for sustainable food systems among small-scale farmers, particularly those seeking an organic production or dealing with land quality constraints, such as urban farmers. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence for the capacity of small farmers to adopt the technology. The unique requirements of aquaponics may create technical, economic and even cultural constraints and opportunities. This paper uses empirical evidence gathered with small-scale farmers in São Carlos, State of São Paulo, Brazil, to present the capacity of adoption for the technology, including possible limiting factors and incentives for farmers. The study conducted interviews with owners of ‘ agriculturas familiares ’ (Portuguese for small family owned farms) within 30 km of São Carlos. The interviews revealed that there is widespread interest in the potential profitability of aquaponics systems, significant interest in environmentally friendly practices, familiarity with organic production and hydroponics and a large base of agricultural knowledge in the community that can drive adoption. However, lack of initial financing, limited human power and concerns about product placement were significant barriers to adoption. For settlement farmers (those working on land formerly abandoned) poor soil quality and water scarcity are key issues that could be alleviated by the technology. The city of Sao Carlos present program for purchasing specific types of products from these farms could be used as a model for increasing aquaponics adoption and relieving success concerns.

Abstract In concerns of non-revenue water in water supply systems, the benefits arising from the reduction of their indexes directly impact social, economic and environmental spheres, including the expansion of access to clean water. Benchmarking is a management tool already adopted by some countries in this context, aiming to reduce the amount of non-revenue water. The present study aimed to gather information about the application models of this tool, as well as to compare the performance with other countries in which it is also not applied. It was observed that the ideal benchmarking structuring model capable of minimizing these indexes includes less than annual application frequency, partial regulation, absence of confidentiality, gratuity, open and restricted reports to service providers and mean interactivity of the results release. It was also concluded that the countries where benchmarking is practiced have better performances regarding lower levels of non-revenue water. Resumen En el contexto de las pérdidas en los sistemas de suministro de agua, los beneficios derivados de la reducción de sus índices influyen directamente en aspectos sociales, económicos y medioambientales, incluida la universalización de los servicios de saneamiento. El Benchmarking es una herramienta de gestión ya adoptada por algunos países, con el propósito de reducir las pérdidas. El objetivo de este trabajo es recopilar información sobre los modelos de aplicación de esta herramienta, así como comparar el rendimiento entre los países donde se aplica o no. Se observó que el modelo ideal de estructuración del benchmarking capaz de minimizar estos índices incluye frecuencia de aplicación inferior a la anual, regulación parcial, ausencia de confidencialidad, gratuidad, informes públicos y privados a proveedores de servicios e interactividad media en la cuenta de resultados. También se concluyó que los países donde se practica el benchmarking tienen los mejores rendimientos en cuanto a pérdidas. Resumo No contexto das perdas em sistemas de abastecimento de água, os benefícios oriundos da redução de seus índices influenciam diretamente em questões sociais, econômicas e ambientais, incluindo a universalização dos serviços de saneamento. O benchmarking é uma ferramenta de gestão já adotada por alguns países nesse setor, visando à diminuição das perdas. O presente artigo objetivou levantar informações sobre os modelos de aplicação dessa ferramenta, bem como comparar o desempenho entre os países onde há ou não a sua aplicação no âmbito do controle de perdas. Foi observado que o modelo ideal de estruturação de benchmarking capaz de minimizá-las inclui frequência de aplicação menor que anual, regulamentação parcial, confidencialidade ausente, gratuidade, relatórios públicos e restritos às prestadoras de serviço e interatividade média na demonstração dos resultados. Concluiu-se que os países onde o benchmarking é praticado possuem os melhores desempenhos referentes às perdas de água.