Please cite this article as: Farooqui, T.A., Renouf, M.A., Kenway, S.J., A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance, Water Research (2016Research ( ), doi: 10.1016Research ( /j.watres.2016 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Urban areas will need to pursue new water servicing options to ensure local supply security. 18Decisions about how best to employ them are not straightforward due to multiple considerations 19 and the potential for problem shifting among them. We hypothesise that urban water metabolism 20 evaluation based a water mass balance can contribute to this, and explore the utility of this 21 perspective and the new insights it provides about water servicing options. Using a water mass 22 M A N U S C R I P T
A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTbalance evaluation framework, which considers direct urban water flows (both 'natural' 23 hydrological and 'anthropogenic' flows), as well as water-related energy, we evaluated how use 24 of alternative water sources (stormwater / rainwater harvesting, wastewater / greywater recycling) 25 at different scales influences the 'local water metabolism' of a case study urban development. 26New indicators were devised to represent the water-related 'resource efficiency' and 27 'hydrological performance' of the urban area. The new insights gained were the extent to which 28 alternative water supplies influence the water efficiency and hydrological performance of the 29 urban area, and the potential energy trade-offs. The novel contribution is the development of new 30 indicators of urban water resource performance that bring together considerations of both the 31 'anthropogenic' and 'natural' water cycles, and the interactions between them. These are used for 32 the first time to test alternative water servicing scenarios, and to provide a new perspective to 33 complement broader sustainability assessments of urban water. 34