AN AUSTRALIAN CASE STUDY: WHY A TRANSDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK IS ESSENTIAL FOR

INTEGRATED URBAN STORMWATER PLANNING

R.R. Brown*, R. Ryan** and R. McManus***

*School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Social Science and Policy, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.

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**School of Social Science and Policy, University of New South Wales and Brian Elton & Associates, PO Box 1488, Bondi Junction NSW 2022, Australia.

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***New South Wales, Environment Protection Authority, PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232, Australia. Email:

ABSTRACT

We outline an argument for a transdisciplinary planning approach for improving the effectiveness of urban stormwater management. This approach is constructive in achieving the principles of sustainable development and the utilisation of preventative approaches to urban stormwater problems. Case study research of an innovative Australian urban stormwater program, involving more than 160 local governments in NSW, demonstrated the value of building catchment-based social and political capital along with strengthening institutional relationships.

KEY WORDS

Integrated planning, urban stormwater management, transdisciplinarity, institutional capacity.

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written over the last forty years, from both academic and industry sources on how to manage urban stormwater problems through planning processes. Over this time the focus has shifted away from a sole reliance on technological or end-of-pipe solutions to more proactive and integrated strategies that focus on changing the social, organisational and institutional relationships that have the power to both cause and minimise urban stormwater problems. The interdependent rise of the modern environmental movement and the development of the international framework of sustainable development have fueled this shift. This new understanding of achieving the future well being of societies within the context of improved ecosystem health has been a catalyst for empowering governments and experts to:

(1) improve their understanding of the impacts of the dominant social paradigm of growth and development on the health of the aquatic and broader ecosystem environment;

(2) be proactive in protecting the aquatic environment through legislative power, policy and planning processes and through improved research and design knowledge; and

(3) acknowledge the (largely underutilized) capacities of community, organizational and institutional norms and practices in both generating and preventing urban water problems.

The urban stormwater industry has responded actively to the first two points listed above, however strategies for harnessing and developing institutional capacity on an ecological scale has so far been under-represented in current approaches. By institutional capacity, we mean the development and integration of routine partnerships and relationships (between all formal and informal modes of governance) focussing on catchment based solutions. Through this social and political capital building, institutional capacity is strengthened, which will, over time, result in increased awareness and changes in institutional decision-making frameworks and societal behaviours leading to improved urban water conditions.

Therefore this requires constituting a new planning framework enabling sustainable collaboration and relationships between all stormwater stakeholders within a catchment (communities, regulators, industry, traditional experts – engineers, environmental scientists, etc). The case study presented below, of the urban stormwater program (USP), is an innovative attempt at building institutional capacity because:

a)  it seeks to implement preventative ideas for addressing urban stormwater problems through focusing on community and organisational contexts,

b)  it seeks to enhance existing and develop new relationships and discourse between all stakeholders within drainage catchments, and

c)  it was specifically developed in response to Agenda 21 and the international framework of sustainable development.

The research reported here identifies the implementation variables effective for building institutional capacity in this case study. The research has been ongoing since the initial implementation of the program in 1998 and has involved extensive collaboration between the University of New South (School of Social Science and Policy and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and the Environment Protection Authority of NSW.

CASE STUDY: THE PLANNING PROGRAM

The Urban Stormwater Management Program

The USP was initiated by the NSW State Government to improve urban stormwater quality. More detail on the structure and components of the USP are discussed by McManus et al (2001) at this conference. This paper specifically reports on the implementation and evaluation of the statewide catchment-based planning for urban stormwater management.

The USP is administered by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) which legally required local councils (third tier of Australian government) to prepare catchment-based urban stormwater management plans. Due to the conflict between municipal political jurisdictions and natural catchment boundaries, a majority of councils participated in preparing at least three catchment plans. Catchment steering committees representing all stormwater stakeholders within each catchment are to be established to facilitate effective collaboration between all stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on engaging residents and community groups in the process. In line with the principles of sustainability the local social, ecological and economic values for the catchment providing the basis for deciding the future implementation strategies, are to be established and negotiated through these local partnerships. The steps or structure of the planning process as proposed in the USP guidance documents is shown in Figure 1 below.


Figure 1 NSW EPA 12-Step Planning policy for Urban Stormwater (EPA, 1997)

EVALUATION RESEARCH

Research Purpose & Key Questions

The purpose of this research is to conduct an exploratory and evaluative investigation into the institutional and organisational processes throughout the planning implementation period and to understand how this influences the practice and outcome of integrated catchment planning. This research is also intended to inform the future development of this formative program to ensure that future programs meet the needs of biophysical, social and economic environment within the catchments.

The object of this three-year research inquiry involved investigating the life cycle of the USP including conception, problem framing, implementation and outcomes. The research questions guiding the inquiry of the work presented here include:

  1. What theory-of-action constitutes this new practice of urban stormwater management?

Question 1 elicits the logic of the program. This reveals what the program designers assumed (but did not make explicit) regarding causality and the expected outcomes of the program. The theory-of-action was not explicit at any stage of the program and today remains poorly understood by many of the program implementers. It is largely through the progress of this research that the key components (listed below) have been identified.

  1. What variables indicate the program’s effectiveness and limitations?

Question 2 is concerned with identifying implementation variables that are instrumental for building institutional capacity and effective planning processes.

  1. How can subsequent practice be improved?

Question 3 critiques the existing conceptual framework for the program and indicates the relationships with the identified implementation limitations. This allows the authors to recommend improvements for USP.

Methodology

Within the study a wide-range of implementation and evaluation research methods were employed and triangulated as discussed by Yin (1989). These included extensive statewide interviews, written surveys, focus groups and workshops, market and industry analysis and organisational case studies. The findings of the research went through a rigorous validation exercise with all key stakeholders including urban water managers from around the state of New South Wales.

EVALUATION FINDINGS

Research Question 1

What theory-of-action constitutes this new practice of urban stormwater management?

The USP theory-of-action reflects what activity the program designers believed their program design needed to generate to appropriately address the urban stormwater problem. The theory-of-action for the USP is depicted in terms of an outcomes hierarchy depicted in Figure 2 below (Brown & Ryan, 2000). This hierarchy of outcomes represents different spheres of activity and reflects the breadth of influence the planning process must achieve to accomplish the expected outcomes successfully. Each of the expected outcomes is discussed in turn below.

Planning Officer Capacity. This refers to the suite of skills and knowledge that officers in each council need to prepare and implement the planning process. The location of this activity is usually within a single council department generally engineering or services. Improving officer capacity at this level with regard to knowledge, skills and commitment to effective urban stormwater management is a prerequisite for improving councils’ organisational capacities (next step in the hierarchy). This depends upon improving the officers’ understanding of and expertise with at-source and preventative management strategies, which need to be addressed through integrated whole-of-council strategies. The program also seeks to improve the officers’ ability to engage community stakeholders.

Council Organisational Capacity. This is higher up the hierarchy as it requires a broader program influence for working across both the horizontal and vertical structures of the council organisation to both identify and improve processes and practices that impact on urban stormwater. These activities aim to foster a whole-of-council approach. The expected outcome is an improvement in council organisational capabilities to overview their own organisational practices. The integration of council activities requires changes in organisational management structures and increased expenditure on stormwater planning and infrastructure.

Figure 2. Hierarchy of Expected Program Outcomes

Catchment-based Capacity. Catchment level planning committees comprise diverse organisations which prior to the introduction of the planning program, had not systematically collaborated to improve stormwater quality. The establishment of these committees required these organizations to work together for the first time. This collaboration, if sustainable, can form the basis for ongoing effective USP. This is where social and political capital is built across the catchment and the strength and the quality of the relationships between these organizations, we argue, is the key determinant of successful USP. Encouraging joint project development and spending between stormwater managers on a catchment-basis is seen as a central element to building catchment-based capacity.

The level of achievement in attaining these outcomes is discussed in the next two sections.

Research Question 2

What variables indicate the program’s effectiveness and limitations?

Table 1 presents a summary of the implementation variables identified as indicative of achieving the expected program outcomes (refer to Figure 2 above). Achieving increased council officer capacity for urban stormwater management was overall the most successfully achieved outcome. As shown in Table 1, program effectiveness was highly dependent on a complex range of social, professional, organisational and political dimensions represented within each catchment. This could be broadly interpreted as the sociopolitical context of the catchment planning process.

Table 1. Variables of planning program effectiveness

Expected Outcome / Variables that influenced implementation effectiveness
Planning Officer
Capacity / ·  Profession and experience with stormwater management
·  Organisational Power/Location
·  Support from Management
·  Relationship with other designated officers from other councils
·  Relationship/values towards the community
·  Expertise with planning processes
Council Organisational Capacity / ·  Profile of the environment and it’s protection within the organization
·  Availability of resources for environmental issues
·  Senior executive support/participation
·  Political support/participation
·  Integration with organisational management processes
·  Relationship with local community and environmental groups
Catchment-based
Capacity / ·  Breadth of expertise/profession of catchment steering committees
·  Number of existing catchment-based relationships
·  Number of local governments within the catchment
·  Level of activity of community and environmental groups
·  Local political/senior management participation

From the implementation variables listed in Table 1, three variables were identified as the most powerfully linked and critical to the outcome of:

(a)  sustainable and effective catchment-based relationships, and

(b)  sustainability of implementation strategies proposed measured in terms of their level of organisational integration and prevention focus within the catchment.

These variables include the council officers’ profession orientation, the officers’ level of organisational power and management and local political support for the planning process.

Professional Orientation: The majority of officers preparing plans were engineers. The professional orientation of engineers privileges technical and scientific knowledge as the foundation for expertise. Integrated USP requires inclusive collaborative processes, which engage diverse stakeholders and foster broad ranging participation. Our evaluations revealed the contradictory nature of these factors. As shown in Figure 3 below, this contradiction had significant negative consequences for community engagement. These negative consequences broadly resulted in low reach and low participation by the community in the planning processes. This also resulted in the officers generally claiming that the community do not care and/or are apathetic about the environment (which is contradictory to NSW state wide community research on community concerns which rate the environment in the top three issues of concern). Skills and experience in community involvement did not appear to be valued by the officers or by the councils at large. However, communities were not attuned to what the stormwater issues were and what the consequences were to their environment before the planning process had started. In this context the community engagement process would not have been able to fully succeed.


Figure 3. Extent of community engagement expertise exercised in the planning process (modified source: Scales 1997)

Organisational Power: Departmental structure based on technical functions such as engineering, operations and maintenance, inhibited the ability of the council officers to effectively facilitate whole-of organization participation in the planning process. As depicted in Figure 4 below implementation generally remained in one functional area of the organization and was not well integrated. For most councils’ a junior officer was given the responsibility of preparing the plan, and they lacked the organisational power, resources and management commitment to enable implementation of the plan across the organization.

Management and Local Political Support: Organisations most successful in achieving integration had senior executive and political support for the planning process which was usually related to the high political profile of environmental issues for the particular municipality. Therefore there was limited achievement in building new management and local political support. However where it did exist the planning process was far more effective.

The research findings indicated that timeframes are significant variable in building successful catchment based relationships (ie, developing institutional capacity over time). This is because the socio-political contexts varied so greatly across councils and catchments. Catchments with three or more councils within their boundaries required external coordination for successful facilitation of the planning process. Also, catchment