Free Flow

[

] 278

conomic

evelopment

and

ater

tific and physical-scientific implementation of WSUD

must unequivocally be enabled, if there is to be

durable improvement.

Developing countries, where infrastructure and

institutions are not well established, are fortu-

nate in at least two respects: retrofitting of a city is

frequently not an option, because material infrastruc-

ture for water management may be either absent or

apt for wholesale replacement; and the social infra-

structure is often readier to accommodate the new

WSUD strategies. It is imperative that international

aid programmes avoid inadvertently exporting preju-

dices that inform traditional design of water systems.

The greenfield opportunities afforded in developing

countries present substantial challenges, and these

must be met with new thinking. In return, they

provide opportunities for learning that can be applied

in developed countries.

The nexus between food security and water

security is a salient concern in the urban context.

Efficient use of natural resources, such as recovery

and recycling of water and nutrients, is vital for

securing food production. Cities and towns are home

to 70 per cent of the world’s population, and vastly

more food is consumed in them than in rural areas

– from which the bulk of food must be transported.

Communities must bear responsibility for their inef-

ficient consumption of food, water and energy. We

throw away more than 30 per cent of food produced;

and we have scarcely begun to capture wastewater

for appropriate reuse, let alone ‘waste heat’ from

electricity production. Urban sewerage systems

carry substantial nutrient residues, and the recovery

of these will be important to sustaining productive

landscapes. Sewage treatment plants must become

resource recovery plants. Transforming our cities

towards efficient consumption requires innovation

and socio-technical synergies, starting with concerted

efforts at behavioural change and community aware-

ness. District-level trigeneration, reticulation of hot

water and the use of available heat for water disin-

fection are simple examples of pioneering ‘catalytic’

initiatives that exploit the water-energy nexus in

urban development.

The creation of productive landscapes emerges as a

key to developing green urban infrastructure. Cities

are

water catchments: in most Australian cities, the

combined stormwater and wastewater resources

exceed the water consumption. These resources could

support greener cities for a multitude of liveability

objectives, including community gardens, orchards

and urban forests.

The challenges of effective, equitable water

management are among the most serious that the

world community faces. Like problems of popula-

tion and climate change, they must be faced together

by a free flow of experience and knowledge. These

problems belong to no community in isolation, and

the solutions must similarly be shared.

appreciate the need for balance between consumption and conser-

vation of the city’s natural resources. The goal of sustainability

represents a paradigm shift in urban design – as much in the

citizens as in the ‘experts’.

Resilience for water sensitive cities rests on enlightened risk

management, looking beyond the month, the year or the decade.

In developed countries, strategies to meet emerging challenges are

often encumbered by ‘path-dependent lock-in’: narrow horizons

and an institutional legacy that limits the range of acceptable inter-

ventions to those that fit old paradigms. But the old paradigms for

water management have broken down, and there is no turning

back. Many attempted solutions address only the efficiency of

existing urban water systems; but that is not enough. To borrow

from Aesop’s well-known fable, the oak that simply grows larger

and thicker does not gain resilience – which comes, after all, from

flexibility accompanied by a sense of scale and balance. Resilience

is responsiveness. It is adaptation to new scenarios, new visions

and new prospective solutions. Successful urban communities are

extremely complex socio-physical systems that are fully integrated

and constantly evolving. Harmony of the built, social and natural

environments within a city depends on interactions between

social capital and natural resources. Urban communities must be

designed for resilience in the face of climate change, particularly

allowing for the sustainable management of water resources and

the protection of water environments. The ‘wicked problem’ we

face in building water resilience against increased climatic vari-

ability and uncertainty is multifaceted. It cannot be narrowly or

exclusively focused on water management, or on hard separation

of any traditional categories; sustainable solutions will be holistic

interdisciplinary solutions.

Liveability in water sensitive cities may be an outcome, but it is

also a prerequisite. The human-friendly quality of public spaces is

necessary if urban landscape is to enjoy the respect of city-dwellers.

The ecological functioning of the urban landscapes – capturing the

essence of sustainable water management, microclimate influences,

facilitation of carbon sinks and use for food production – cannot

proceed unless it is harmonized with the natural human need for

freedom of access, ease of movement and space for play and refresh-

ment. Liveable spaces are sustainable spaces; they will be designed

to enhance social engagement and cultural expression – incorpo-

rating, for example, water-art features – and the establishment of

biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic corridors.

Assuming that the three pillars are now in place, there remain

questions of implementation. Some broad observations follow.

Greenfield implementation of WSUD is the ‘express’ pathway to

transforming our cities and towns; but there is often an ingrained

conservatism in greenfield development. A reluctance to take

responsibility for innovation leads to avoidance of the challenge

altogether, so that old structures are replicated – forcing retro-

fitting in the long term. Furthermore, retrofitting to implement

institutional and material change for WSUD is always prob-

lematic; but very often there is no alternative. In the end, the

best of greenfield and the best of retrofitting options must be

used harmoniously; they go hand-in-hand for a truly integrated

approach to the organic renewal of cities. To achieve this integra-

tion, accurate policy settings are essential. Policy that enables,

not policy that micromanages, is a necessity for WSUD. Policy

that micromanages in a direct attempt to solve complex problems

defies the very definition of ‘policy’; the apolitical social-scien-