Towards An Institutional Capacity Assessment Framework For Sustainable Urban Water Management

Improving the management of our urban water environments is now widely acknowledged as an important socio-political objective for a number of reasons. Urban populations are forecast to become sixty percent of the world’s population by 2030 (UNPD, 2001). As the population increases, demand for water supply, sewerage and drainage services also increases. Environmental impacts from urban water management are observed within and outside of most cities, in rivers and catchments that are dammed for water supply, and in rivers, lakes and coastal areas where water pollution negatively impacts ecological health. Climate change forecasts indicate that decreasing water availability and increasing rainfall variability will further stress already over allocated water systems and decrease the security of water to urban and other areas (McCarthy et al., 2001). Developed countries also face the challenge of addressing the end of the infrastructure life-cycle and old, degraded infrastructure due to a lack of investment (Vlachos and Braga, 2001). Substantial research has been undertaken to improve urban water management. This has focused on developing new technologies for improving water efficiency, wastewater and stormwater treatment techniques and investigation of alternative water sources. ‘Soft approaches’ have also been developed such as education campaigns and efficiency standards for appliances. While there has been substantial progress in the physical sciences, there is still a lack of widespread implementation. Commentators such as Wong (2006) and others argue for further research into institutional issues relating to sustainable urban water management. In response to these challenges dedicated water reform has become an important policy priority, particularly across developed countries. This has included considerable investment across tiers of government from the supra-national and national, state and local government levels. Examples of reforms include the European Water Framework Directive and the Australian National Water Initiative, the Victorian Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy and the Western Australian State Water Strategy and local water sensitive urban design policies. 

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