Transitioning towards water sensitive regions: just an aspiration or an achievable vision?

Research Summary

Research completed
February 2024

Research rationale
Cities are interconnected with and dependent on landscapes that stretch far beyond their own physical bounds (Serrao-Neumann et al., 2017). This is exemplified by their relationship with and critical dependence on water, which is not constrained by political and administrative boundaries. The concept of a water sensitive city is now extensively adopted in Australia to signify an aspiration of many cities where water plays a crucial role in the planning, design, and development of urban areas (Hammer et al., 2020). Despite over two decades of research, there are still no water-sensitive cities globally, as many urban areas still struggle to integrate water-sensitive practices (Brown et al., 2009; Wong & Brown, 2009; van de Meene et al., 2011). Several scholars (see Cook et al., 2016; Grafton et al., 2018) argue this concept should instead be considered on a wider catchment and regional level for a greater holistic range of beneficial outcomes. Hence, water sensitive cities might perhaps be better managed as water sensitive regions. 

Research objective
Explore how regions can transition to becoming water-sensitive by integrating sustainable water management practices, addressing policy gaps, and overcoming barriers to enhance resilience, sustainability, and holistic regional water governance.

Problems or questions
How can regions transition toward becoming water-sensitive?

Benefit to water sector
By advancing the understanding of water-sensitive regions, a concept that addresses the challenges of traditional urban water management. It explores innovative, regionally integrated approaches, such as water-sensitive urban design (WSUD), to holistically manage water resources beyond city boundaries. By focusing on South-East Queensland, this research identifies practical strategies, policy gaps, barriers, and drivers for such transitions, fostering resilience, sustainability, and adaptability to urban growth and climate change impacts. It provides actionable frameworks and guidance, encouraging collaboration across sectors to implement sustainable water management practices at a regional scale, ultimately supporting ecosystem health, economic growth, and community well-being. The two forthcoming papers will spark crucial discussions on the state of unsuccessful water planning and management.  

Findings to date

• Transitioning towards a water-sensitive region requires understanding the barriers and drivers necessary to assist the transition. The transition pathways towards a Water Sensitive Region would involve these key elements: 
  - Understand: developing an understanding of the barriers preventing transitional change.  
  - Share: establish a shared and common understanding of the barriers.  
  - Inspire: encourage collaboration and innovation to adopt drivers.  
  - Enable: provide direction and regulated tools to support transition.  
  - Sustain: Adopt and maintain best practice that is flexible and adaptive.  
  
  
• Transitioning will not necessarily be a linear process – innovation and enabling factors can help ‘fast track’ and skip transitional pathway phrases. 
  
  
• Enabling factors can help accelerate and facilitate transitional change. These enabling factors would be ‘region-specific’ such as the 2032 Olympics, but also include incentives and funding, water literacy programs, guidelines and regulation, and leaders and champions. 
  
  

Papers arising from the work
Transitioning to water sensitive regions: understanding the role of legislation and policy   – This article details the results of the policy analysis.

Navigating the waters: exploring the barriers and drivers to transitioning towards water sensitive regions – This paper details the results of the semi-structured interviews. 

Figure 1: Gathered barriers and drivers of transition towards a Water Sensitive Region (literature and interview)

Figure 2: Stakeholders suggested to be water-sensitive champions by the interviewees

Figure 3: Transition pathway towards a Water Sensitive Region

References

Brown, R. R., Keath, N., & Wong, T. H. F. (2009). Urban water management in cities: Historical, current, and future regimes. Water Science and Technology, 59(5), 847-855. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2009.029  

Cook, S., Hall, M., & Gregory, A. (2016). Energy use in the provision and consumption of urban water in Australia: An update. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 47, 540–548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.03.083 

Grafton, R. Q., Pittock, J., Davis, R., & Williams, J. (2018). Water-sensitive urban design: Achieving sustainable outcomes. Environmental Science & Policy, 89, 30–36. https://doi.org/10.101 

Hammer, K., Rogers, B., Gunn, A., & Chesterfield, C. (2020). Transitioning to water sensitive cities - Insights from six Australian cities. Melbourne: Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. 

Serrao-Neumann, S., Renouf, M., Kenway, S.J. and Low Choy, D. (2017). Connecting land-use and water planning: Prospects for an urban water metabolism approach. Cities, 60, pp.13–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.07.003. 

Wong, T. H. F., & Brown, R. R. (2009). The water sensitive city: Principles for practice. Water Science and Technology, 60(3), 673-682. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2009.436 

van de Meene, S. J., Brown, R. R., & Farrelly, M. A. (2011). Towards understanding governance for sustainable urban water management. Global Environmental Change, 21(3), 1117-1127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.04.003

Author

Student: Callym Dunleavy, Griffith University, School of Engineering and Built Environment, Nathan Campus, Nathan, Queensland, Australia. 
University email: callym.dunleavy@alumni.griffithuni.edu.au 
Work email: Callym.Dunleavy@watertech.com.au  

Supervisors: Dr Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes and Dr Edward Morgan – Griffith University