Development of decentralized systems in Australia

In recent years, several buildings have been constructed in Switzerland based on decentralized concepts of fully or partly self-sufficient energy and water managment. These forst attempts covered rainwater and snowmelt harvesting, reuse of greywater, brownwater and blackwater, urine separation and recovery of nutrients from urine. They demostrate that in-house technology is now ready to accommodate dramatic changes in urban water cycles to acheive higher levels of environmental sustainabilty. As a rule, the technologies tested in six key buildings usually performed successfully and could be operated satisfactorily over long periods. Some conditions neccessary for constructing such systems and possible reasons for project failures are discussed.