Integrated Local Area Planning in Australia

The Riverlife Urban Stormwater Integrated Management (USWIM) project is a joint venture between Marrickville Council, New South Wales, and Monash University. Its goal is to integrate sustainable urban water management into all levels of the council’s management structure, and to develop new guidelines for collaborative water planning with local communities that can be adopted by local government generally. This issue is a priority because of the serious pollution that has affected rivers and waterways and also because of the likelihood of droughts producing severe water shortages in the future.

Marrickville has a population of 76,000 and by Australian standards is quite densely developed. Marrickville Council has a strong record of engaging with its local community (30% of whom are recent migrants).The Council’s Community Plan informed by community engagement has as one of its key objectives to ‘make Marrickville a centrepiece of innercity ecologically sustainable development and environmentally sensitive principles through education, planning, programs, cooperation, and promotion of responsible individual and corporate conduct.’ The USWIM is one way in which the Council aims to achieve this objective.

USWIM is implementing good practice urban water management techniques in partnership with the local community. Improving stormwater management and hence river water quality is particularly challenging in a densely developed older urban area with ageing infrastructure. By engaging the local community the council aims to promote measures to cut water consumption, re-use stormwater and reduce pollution in ways that reflect people’s own ideas, knowledge and values, and that are therefore widely understood and supported.The Council began by convening a community planning forum in one of the five sub-catchments (Illawarra Road) which resulted in a Community Water Vision 2050 and a Sustainable Water Action Plan based on community input and containing measurable interim and long term goals.

To implement the Action Plan the council has sponsored an Illawarra Road Sustainable Water Working Group made up of local citizens, and has also established an Integrated Water Management Group within its own organisation to coordinate the activities of the various departments involved.This inter-departmental group is focused on community engagement, corporate water savings, water-sensitive urban design and revising planning controls. Related initiatives include appointing Sustainable Water Ambassadors (local residents who are champions of better water management); a Sustainable Water Showcase to demonstrate how to use water more efficiently, including stormwater harvesting and re-use; and an education program targeted at ethnic communities.

The Council’s partnership with Monash University is supporting ongoing research into improved planning and new technologies for water management, including producing detailed water budgets for sub-catchments, comparing future scenarios and exploring alternative engineering solutions.

Source: Sansom 2006

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