Capacity of urban springs to support emergency water needs, a secondary city case study: Kharkiv, Ukraine

Abstract

The twenty-first century is experiencing the emergence of secondary cities (small-to-medium-sized cities) as major growth areas, especially in low-and middle-income countries. Secondary cities experience rapid, unplanned, and informal growth patterns, creating water issues that influence human insecurity. The Department of State’s Secondary Cities Initiative generates geospatial data through field-based participatory mapping to assist secondary cities to prepare for sustainability issues such as water scarcity. This paper focuses on urban springs in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as an alternative water source during emergencies. These results show the spatial location and discharge of spring water aligns with the population distribution. Twenty-eight percent of people can meet minimum drinking-water requirements from spring water. These results demonstrate the importance of evaluating alternative water sources during times of emergency by using existing data, generating new data through field collection, and using remotely sensed data.