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Water supply and wastewater infrastructures are vital for human wellbeing and environmental protection; they adhere to the highest standards, are expensive and long-lived. Because they are also aging, substantial planning is required. Climate and socio-economic change create large planning uncertainties and simple projections of past developments are no longer adequate. This paper presents the initial phases of a structured decision-making (SDM) procedure which is designed to increase the sustainability of water infrastructure planning and includes various stakeholders in an exemplary Swiss case study. We evaluate the SDM approach critically based on stakeholder feedback, give general recommendations and provide ample material to make it applicable to other settings. We carried out 27 interviews and two stakeholder workshops. We identified important objectives for water infrastructure planning, including all three sustainability pillars and their respective attributes (indicators, benchmarks) to measure how well the objectives are achieved. We then created strategic decision alternatives, including ''business-as-usual'' upgrades of the central water supply and wastewater system as well as semi-to fully decentralized alternatives. To tackle future uncertainty, we developed four socio-demographic scenarios. We used these to test the robustness of decision alternatives in a later Multi-Attribute Utility Theory analysis. Additionally, J. Lienert (&) Á L. Scholten Á C. Egger Á M. Maurer we contribute to the topical discussion of combining scenario planning with multicriteria decision analysis and demonstrate how various scenarios can stimulate creativity when generating decision alternatives. Their internal consistency is ensured by rigorously specifying them using a strategy generation table. Our SDM procedure can be adapted to inform decisions about sustainable water infrastructures in other contexts.

We examined the effects of size and spatial isolation of fens on the isozyme variability of 17 populations of Swertia perennis. This long-lived perennial is a locally abundant fen specialist in Switzerland, where wetlands have been strongly fragmented. Isozyme variability was comparable to other outcrossing plants (A ϭ 1.53, AP p ϭ 2.01, P p ϭ 42.5, H o ϭ 0.113, H e ϭ 0.139). F statistics indicated both inbreeding within and differentiation between populations (F IS ϭ 0.076, F IT ϭ 0.194, F ST ϭ 0.128), with moderate gene flow between populations (N e m ϭ 1.703). Populations in small, isolated fens had reduced genetic variability and the highest withinpopulation inbreeding coefficients (F IS ). Isozyme variability was significantly associated with vegetative fitness traits (MANOVA), and the magnitude of leaf herbivory decreased as the percentage of polymorphic loci increased. These data suggest that the reduced genetic variability of S. perennis in small, isolated populations may reduce plant fitness, thereby increasing susceptibility to herbivore damage. Our study also shows that habitat fragmentation can reduce the genetic variability of populations of fairly common habitat specialists, which so far have attracted less conservation attention than rare species.

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We studied acceptance of a urine-based fertilizer product using a mail survey of 467 Swiss farmers. We distinguished among four production types: organic or IP farming, and with or without vegetable production. Considering that the idea of urine-based fertilizers is new, acceptance among the answering farmers was surprisingly high, with 57% explicitly stating that they thought it was a good or very good idea, and 42% willing to purchase such a product. The farmers of different production types did not differ strongly in their attitude towards urine-based fertilizers. Especially IP and vegetable farmers, who purchased additional fertilizers anyway, seem willing to accept urine-based fertilizers, hereby preferring a grainy, odorless ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Absolutely essential is a hazard-free product: 30% of all farmers had concerns regarding micropollutants. Based on fertilizer data, we demonstrate an existing demand for the nutrients N, P, and K in Switzerland, which could be partially substituted by a recycled urine product. Finally, we discuss methodological requirements of social science surveys. To obtain representative data on an entire population in a mail survey, multiple contacts with respondents are necessary. We argue that information and participation of stakeholders at an early stage is essential for successful technology transfer.