Framing Sustainable Urban Water Management: A Critical Analysis of Theory and Practice

Abstract

Achieving ‘sustainable urban water management’ (SUWM) is a growing goal for many cities globally, particularly in the face of existing and emerging water threats. Water policy reveals particular ways of framing problems and possible actions. By understanding the components of sustainability, we analyse how key water policies for two major cities frame SUWM. London and Melbourne face sig- nifi cant future water threats, and have tried to address these through strategic water policy. However, they have different approaches to water policy, and different cli- matic and built-form contexts. Hence, we review the water policy context shaping London and Melbourne, and analyse to what extent their strategic water policy addresses SUWM. Our study shows that the water policy documents analysed do not defi ne SUWM. Despite this, they addressed a number of components of sustain- ability, strongly focusing on economics and spatial planning, but there were notable gaps such as climate change, uncertainty and complexity. We draw upon the broader water policy context of each city to discuss these differences within the documents. Our results indicate that a broader and more holistic conceptualisation of sustain- able urban water management would be benefi cial in both policy contexts. Doing so will help achieve this important goal, particularly in light of current and future water threats, including climate change.