The sustainable water challenge: building capacity, sharing innovations and supporting information networks
Introduction:
During that last 3 years a capacity building program has been run on water sensitive urban design (WSUD)/sustainable water management for local councils in the Sydney region (WSUD in Sydney Project). A key component of this program has been the “Sustainable Water Challenge”, which has been run for local councils in 2003, 2004 and will be on again in 2005. This paper will detail how the Sustainable Water Challenge was conceived, its aims, achievements and results to date, the feedback evaluation received from participants and conclude with some recommendations on possible improvements and its replicability in other regions.
Purpose:
In its first year (2003) the Sustainable Water Challenge (SWC), was organised as a friendly skill-development (“learning by doing”) competition in which inter-disciplinary teams from Sydney‘s councils designed, planned and/or conditioned practical WSUD/Sustainable Water Management projects on real sites in their municipal areas. It was felt that through a mix of encouragement, support and recognition of council staff team learning in the area of WSUD we could build the capacity of participants, deliver pilot projects for others to see and provide an enabling mechanism for the exchange of practical learning experiences between councils as well as the private sector.
As a result of the success of the 2003 SWC it was run again in 2004 (and will be in 2005) and has been expanded to all councils in NSW.
Method:
In 2003 Sydney councils were approached directly and encouraged to participate in the SWC, which was facilitated/supported by two project officers. In some cases project scoping and selection was facilitated by the WSUD in Sydney Project. Council teams were also supported by a series of technical seminars, one-on-one assistance from the WSUD in Sydney staff and informal expert advice. Project entry requirements and a template for submission was prepared and given to all participants. Projects were entered into the following 5 categories: retrofit, infill, landscaping, greenfield, planning & policy.
Because of resource constraints the 2004 & 2005 SWC projects (in Sydney) have only been supported by one project officer.
Results:
In 2003, 27 projects entered into the SWC with 20 being submitted for judging into planning, landscape, retrofit, infill and green fields categories. The projects were judged by a panel of specialists from academia, architecture, development industry, stormwater industry, consulting and council who had experience with sustainable water management.
The 2004 Sustainable Water Challenge was open to all councils in NSW and was not as actively supported as the 2003 event, but still resulted in 16 projects being submitted into 5 categories. The 2005 SWC is on now and projects will be submitted for judging in late July 2005. It will be open to all councils in NSW and two addition categories have been added (Commercial and Industrial, Community Engagement).
Each year a seminar is held and councils of short-listed projects are required to give a brief presentation on their project, with awards given out in each category. After judging all projects submitted are loaded onto the www.wsud.org website as case studies as examples for others to learn from.
Key Learning Outcomes From the SWC:
1. Involvement of council staff in a sustainable water management “learning by doing” exercise can help build individual and organisational capacity.
2. Providing an opportunity for council staff to share experiences and present their sustainable water management projects can help build networks between individuals and organisations and facilitate more sustainable outcomes.
Conclusions:
The feedback and maturity matrix for those council staff involved in the 2003 sustainable water challenge showed the SWC provided a vehicle for people to gain confidence in technical aspects of WSUD as well as inter-disciplinary team work.
Since beginning this activity, a number of councils have proceeded to implement their projects. Furthermore, many participants have become WSUD/sustainable water management champions within their own councils, and are helping to enthuse other colleagues.
The SWC has proved to be a good vehicle to support capacity building of WSUD and new more sustainable water management practices. It could be easily replicated in other regions and requires only a moderate amount of resources to setup and run.