Lead organisation Barwon Water Location Colac, Victoria
Brief description Aligning stakeholder visions for water services in Colac
Technical Detail Low Detail (2/10) Outcomes Setting Objectives
Approvers External
Water services included All services Geographical size 150km2 Population impacted 12,000 Interesting aspects of
this case study
Stakeholder engagement, responsibility mapping
Authors: Lachlan Guthrie, Casey Furlong, Saman De Silva RMIT University
Table 1 – Case study information
APPENDIX A1–TOWARDS ABOTANIC COLAC
2 Water Research Australia Ltd – PhD Project 4504
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Towards a Botanic Colac is an Integrated Water Management strategy for the town of Colac, a rural centre in Western Victoria. This strategy is a high level master plan, strongly focused on aligning the visions and objectives of the various water players in the town. The most interesting component of the strategy is the stakeholder engagement used to create the objectives. The project team achieved strong alignment amongst stakeholders in regards to the vision for Colac. One of the reasons for this success was not discussing options until the latter phases of the strategy. This is different to many of the other case studies in this research program as it means that the strategy was driven by visions rather than solutions.
The intention of this strategy was not to develop an IWCM action plan for Colac, it was to raise awareness amongst those responsible for the long term future of the town that the urban water cycle could be an important contributor to the liveability and resilience of the urban landscape. Prior to this project, Barwon Water believed that these aspects were not likely to be prominent in the preparation of the Colac 2050 Master Plan. This strategy and its cooperative approach brought IWM to attention, demonstrated potential future social, environmental and economic benefits and provided some conceptual opportunities to enable people to get excited about future prospects
On the whole, assessment and recommendation of options was not the main focus of the strategy.
The options that were assessed as part of this strategy appeared as projects: new, upgraded, or repaired infrastructure, or maintenance and rehabilitation programs. There was some implementation planning completed as part of this strategy, however the strategy was not about coming up with an agreed implementation plan, rather the concepts that would stimulate greater consideration of IWCM in a city master plan. The researchers believe that the main value of this strategy was in the alignment of objectives. Because of its nature, the strategy was not required to go into great levels of technical detail.
FINDINGS
1. Aligning visions is often the best way to begin a strategy
From the beginning this strategy placed an emphasis on setting objectives and aligning visions of relevant stakeholders. The researchers believe this is an excellent approach. Investigation into the visions of different parties is a typical conflict management tactic. By analysing the values of two opposing parties often you will eventually find some common ground which you can build upon. This is exactly what this strategy has done to prevent future conflicts and to enable and foster collaboration between stakeholders. Barwon Water noted that they did not discuss the solutions until the 3rd or 4th workshop. This tactic enabled the stakeholders to come together with a vision and move forward as a group so they were all happy with the outcome. The researchers believe that while solutions obviously need to be discussed at some stage, all future strategies should begin by investigating visions and trying to align the visions of stakeholders.
2. Mapping of stakeholder responsibilities is very important for future implementation planning A key feature of this strategy was that it mapped the responsibilities of all involved and relevant stakeholders. The stakeholders have also been brought into this discussion and accepted their areas of responsibility. With the responsibility areas mapped and understood by all stakeholders, future planners benefit in two ways. (1) Key stakeholders are able to be identified quickly and easily when implementation planning begins. Being able to identify stakeholders quickly means that stakeholder engagement can be better planned and targeted to the correct audience. (2) Those key stakeholders have already agreed to what their responsibilities are. This can remove the doubt over who is responsible for what and therefore how much they should contribute. The problem of ambiguous responsibilities has arisen in other case studies. The researchers believe that clear responsibility mapping should become a key aspect of any future strategy.
3. Personal and organisational relationships are vitally important in realising opportunities Towards a Botanic Colac was so successful because it was able to leverage receptiveness from other concurrent strategies. The most important of these was the Colac Otway Shire’s Health and Wellbeing
IMPROVING PLANNING PROCESSES FOR IUWMINFRASTRUCTURE
Water Research Australia Ltd – PhD Project 4504 3
strategy. Barwon Water was able to demonstrate the health and wellbeing benefits of Integrated Water Management and therefore this strategy was seen as higher priority by council. Barwon Water recognised this concurrent timing as a great opportunity. Barwon Water could identify this opportunity because they already had a strong working relationship with the Colac Otway Shire. If this relationship was not present, the opportunity may not have been recognised and this strategy may have not eventuated. The researchers have noted the importance of building and maintaining professional relationships to foster collaboration.
4. In many contexts it is more appropriate to complete a strategy with low, rather than high, levels of technical detail
This strategy has been completed in very low technical detail, something that the researchers believe to be entirely appropriate in this context. From the beginning this strategy was very clear about its objectives. It was not intended to be a technically driven, solutions focused strategy. Rather it was a high level visioning plan. Without being bogged down in the detail, the strategy was able to fully align the visions and objectives of each of the relevant stakeholders. Technically focused strategies are more likely to be appropriate when options need to be assessed and recommended. The researchers believe that future strategies should tailor the level of technical detail to be appropriate for their situation.
APPENDIX A1–TOWARDS ABOTANIC COLAC
4 Water Research Australia Ltd – PhD Project 4504