Accountability in planning for sustainable water supplies in South East Queensland

Baldwin, Claudia; Uhlmann, Vikki

doi:10.1080/07293682.2010.508205

Cited by 13 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In the end, the Commonwealth government rejected the proposal due to potential impact on endangered species under its jurisdiction, but not before immense social and economic costs. This was in spite of assessments which showed that demand management and installation of household rainwater tanks could meet current and future demand with far less expense [63]. Furthermore, the constructed works have seldom been used since because they were costly options compared to the pre-existing water sources once the drought broke.…”

Section: The Role Of Demand Management In Water Crisesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Water: Drought, Crisis and Governance in Australia and Brazil

Júnior

Baldwin

Camkin

et al. 2016

Water

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Despite huge differences in population, household income and development levels, Australia and Brazil have some temporal convergences in their water governance systems. Over the last 20 years, both countries have significantly reformed their water policies and practices by introducing a legal foundation for more integrated and participatory catchment/basin management based on the best information available. A critical test of any water reform is how effective it is in meeting the challenges of extreme and unpredictable conditions of drought and floods, which are expected to increase under climate changes scenarios. This paper compared the contemporary water governance frameworks of Australia and Brazil in relation to three elements of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM): integration, participation, and information/knowledge. We focused on insights from Brazil's recent drought and Australia's fluctuating water crises to derive lessons and recommendations for future changes. Among the main recommendations, we stress the need for both systems to improve effective participation and to embrace a more comprehensive approach to cope with water scarcity in future scenarios. Furthermore, water related decisions should be based on a transparent and well informed process, and take into account the lessons from similar situations worldwide in order to avoid unnecessary or ineffective measures. As demonstrated in the Australian case during the Millennium Drought, the most effective initiatives were those involving government, the private sector and society to achieve a more sustainable consumption pattern in all sectors. There is much to learn from the Brazilian and Australia experiences in water reforms and crises, but it is imperative to understand the social, economic and environmental context within which these took place. Continuing to develop the capacity and willingness of researchers and policy makers to work together can make an important contribution towards meeting the growing and spreading challenges in water resource management around the world.

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Section: The Role Of Demand Management In Water Crisesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Water: Drought, Crisis and Governance in Australia and Brazil

Júnior

Baldwin

Camkin

et al. 2016

Water

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“…Effects on fauna and flora/biodiversity [39][40][41] Effects on habitats and protected natural habitat area [14,39,40] Land cover change effects (e.g., habitats affected) [21,39,41] Solid waste quantity and quality (e.g., sludge) [14,21,22,28,39,41] Protect atmospheric ecosystem…”

Section: Objectives Evaluation Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…River and waterbody health Quality of waste water produced and their impacts (contribution to acidification and eutrophication, effects on flora and fauna) [13][14][15][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]28,29,39] Quantity of wastewater produced [15,22,25,29,40] Stormwater runoff [15,25,29] Maintain river, local creaks, and wetlands Effect on environmental flow and surface water [14,18,25,40] Freshwater/portable water saved [13,15,17,24] Effects on groundwater level and pattern (ground water infiltration, recharge, and depletion) [14,19,24,39,41] Protect land ecosystem…”

Section: Objectives Evaluation Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Greenhouse gas and other emissions [13,14,[18][19][20][21]23,26,28,29,33,39,41] Photochemical oxidant formation [13,21,23] Other pollutants (e.g., dust, noise) [41] Efficient resource use Energy use and recovery [14,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]28,33,38,39] Ability to use renewable energy source(s) [17] Fresh water use [19,20,22,28,29,38,39] Land use [14,19,20,29,38,39] Materials for construction [19,23,28,39] Chemical use [19,[21]…”

Section: Objectives Evaluation Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of Sustainability of Urban Water Supply and Demand Management Options: A Comprehensive Approach

Rathnayaka

Malano

Arora

2016

Water

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Abstract:A comprehensive evaluation framework that can assess a wide range of water supply and demand management policy options in terms of economic, social, environmental, risk-based, and functional performance is crucial to ascertain their level of sustainability. However, such a detailed, generic, and holistic policy evaluation framework is not found in the literature. This paper reviews studies to evaluate water supply and/or demand management options conducted during 2000-2016. Primarily, the paper reviews the evaluation criteria used by different studies for decision making given their significant difference and the importance of a comprehensive set of criteria to complete a rigorous evaluation. In addition, a comprehensive set of water supply and demand management options are not considered together for a comparative assessment to prioritise best options for a certain area and time. Further, performance of these options needs to be evaluated for a range of uncertainties arising from changes of spatial and temporal variables of the system. While this paper highlights the important aspects that need to be included in a comprehensive policy evaluation framework, available studies collectively present a rich set of information to support it.

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“…The scoring and benchmarking systems and the content analysis techniques obtain quantitative information from the sustainability reports of water utilities regarding sustainability issues aiming to measure the kind, quality, and quantity of the sustainability disclosure, while interviews and surveys focus on the motivations to report [8][9][10][11]. However, a basic problem in this field is the limited number of studies which focus on water utilities accountability and legitimacy strategy for sustainability issues [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

2018

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Sustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services' context and mainly when supplying a fundamental public resource, like water utilities. While the literature on sustainability reporting in the water sector is scant, there is an increasing need to study the usefulness and quality of its sustainability disclosures to adequately inform the stakeholders about the activities of water utilities to protect this fundamental resource and general sustainable development. This article presents a novel assessment framework based on a scoring technique and an empirical analysis on the sustainability reports of Italian water utilities carried out through it. The results highlight a low level of disclosure on the sustainability indicators suggested by the main sustainability reporting guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative, (GRI), and Sustainability Accounting Standard Board, (SASB)); most companies tend to disclose only qualitative information and fail to inform about some material aspects of water management, such as water recycled, network resilience, water sources, and effluent quality. These findings indicate that sustainability reporting is mainly considered as a communication tool, rather than a performance measurement and an accountability tool, but also suggest the need for a new and international industry-specific sustainability reporting standard.

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Accountability in planning for sustainable water supplies in South East Queensland

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Water: Drought, Crisis and Governance in Australia and Brazil

Water: Drought, Crisis and Governance in Australia and Brazil

Assessment of Sustainability of Urban Water Supply and Demand Management Options: A Comprehensive Approach

A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities

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