Creating Water Sensitive Cities

The National Urban Water Governance Program (NUWGP) at Monash University has recently completed a 3 year research project investigating the institutional barriers to sustainable urban water management. Part of the research focused on the governance factors required to transition to what the project referred to as Water Sensitive Cities in Australia. The research by Associate Professor Rebekah Brown and her team highlights the lack of suitable institutional capacity as the most significant issue preventing such a transition.

Insufficient skills and knowledge, organisational resistance, unsuitable institutional arrangements and policy failure, lack of political will, limited regulatory incentives, and lack of a common vision are identified as some of the institutional capacity issues. The research has further identified a series of additional factors required to transition to Water Sensitive Cities. Some of the transition factors include socio-political capital, bridging organisations, trusted and reliable science, scientifically informed binding targets, clear accountability, strategic funding points, demonstration projects and training, market receptivity, champions, and a common vision.

Capacity Building and Leadership Workshops

To address the identified capacity gap, the program is working with the International Water Centre to host a workshop series entitled Creating Water Sensitive Cities in Australia at locations around the country. The two-day program provides an innovative approach to policy development and capacity building. It combines expertly facilitated policy development sessions with technical information presentations from leading scientists working across water, climate, urban design, and social sciences. Aimed at a wide range of professionals including representatives from water utilities, state and local governments, land developers, consultants, research institutions and industry groups; these workshops will provide a unique opportunity for participants to share personal views, experiences and ideas on how Australian Cities can support the transition to water sensitive design. The workshop series offers urban water practitioners from across the sector with an opportunity to actively influence and shape the future direction of water management within their cities and at the national level. Specifically, the outcomes from the policy development workshops will be collated into a series of policy recommendations to be presented to the National Water Commission and senior state government policy advisors across Australia in April 2009. Amongst some of the topics covered:

• Institutional drivers and barriers to sustainable urban water management
• Improving the urban micro-climate and public health through water sensitive urban design
• Updates on the latest research and development in sustainable water technologies
• Innovative urban design options for water sensitive cities
• Triple bottom line assessment tools for water technology and infrastructure options
• Governance for sustainable cities

Capacity building workshops and research dissemination are still to be held in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide. There will also be a one-day summary event in Canberra. Download the flyer or the event program or find out more about Creating Water Sensitive Cities here.