Papers by Megan A Farrelly
ABSTRACT In a time of climate uncertainty and drought in Australia, improved urban stormwater qua... more ABSTRACT In a time of climate uncertainty and drought in Australia, improved urban stormwater quality management practices are required not only for protecting waterway health, but also as a fit- for-purpose supply source. To conceive of urban stormwater as an environmental threat as well as a water supply source requires a substantial shift in our traditional linear supply and wastewater structures towards more hybrid and complex infrastructure systems. To understand what drives and limits treatment technology adoption for stormwater management, over 800 urban water professionals in three Australian capital cities completed an online questionnaire survey in November 2006. Using the conceptual framework of receptivity assessment, the results revealed the professional community to be highly associated with the importance of improving stormwater quality for receiving waterway health, yet they do not consider that politicians share this perspective by placing a substantially lower level of importance on stormwater quality management. Significant acquisition barriers within each city, including institutional arrangements, costs, responsibilities, and regulations and approvals processes were all identified as constraining more sustainable practices. Capacity building programs, fostering greater socio-political capital and developing key demonstration projects with training events are recommended as useful policy interventions for addressing current institutional impediments.
Global Environmental Change-human and Policy Dimensions, Apr 1, 2013
ABSTRACT Learning nurtured through experimentation is very important for enabling sustainability ... more ABSTRACT Learning nurtured through experimentation is very important for enabling sustainability transitions. Over the last decade, different strands of research have investigated social learning and its associated processes to better understand learning efforts aimed at socio-technical system change. While some necessary process considerations to enable social learning have been established, actual design and organisation of experiments that aim to create a social learning situation remain largely unexplored. Against this background, this paper presents an empirical, mixed-method study that investigated a governance experiment within the Australian urban water sector. This experiment enabled widespread learning, resulting in socio-technical system change. The research reveals that social learning in particular is more complex in reality than in theory and that not all system stakeholders need to learn the same to achieve system change. Further, this paper develops a framework that outlines enabling starting conditions and features for designing and organising social learning situations. The framework comprises focus projects, multi-organisational peer groups, distributed facilitation, adaptability and flexibility, time and science/research. The key findings provide practical strategies for designing and operationalising policy and governance reform agendas that embrace learning situations.
Water Science and Technology, May 1, 2010
Urban Water Journal, Jun 18, 2013
ABSTRACT Today's modern cities' ‘big-pipes in, big-pipes out’ potable water suppl... more ABSTRACT Today's modern cities' ‘big-pipes in, big-pipes out’ potable water supply approach does not offer society the resilience for adaptation to future climate challenges. One approach towards building resilience would involve cities adopting diverse, alternative water supplies; such as recycled wastewater, greywater and stormwater, within a fit-for-purpose philosophy, incorporating a mix of centralised and decentralised technologies. Globally, modern cities have limited on-ground experience with such complex approaches, despite ad-hoc policy rhetoric to the contrary and multiple technological options. Through considering the implicit and technocratic hydrosocial contract underpinning the current ‘big pipes’ approach, it appears the judgement and advice of ‘water experts’ is a significant determinant regarding opportunities for realising more resilient water supplies. Contrasting primary and secondary survey data from water experts and communities across Australian cities in relation to their receptivity to alternative water supplies; it is evident that community members are far more receptive than water experts expect. Thus, this difference in perception is potentially a significant barrier to realising a resilient approach. Path-dependant decision-making and practice is pervasive throughout the urban water field, and while the physical artefact of the traditional water supply system remains largely invisible and disconnected from communities, it is the implicit hydrosocial contract that keeps water experts disconnected from communities. Based on evidence presented in this paper, shifting the current hydrosocial contract to a more resilient approach is vulnerable to business as usual. Recommendations are offered for fundamentally reshaping this contract through deliberative processes that work towards enabling co-governance, co-design and co-management of this alternative and complex water supply approach into the future.
WSUD 2012: Water sensitive urban design; Building the water sensiitve community; 7th international conference on water sensitive urban design, 2012
There is wide recognition of the paradigmatic changes needed to move toward water sensitive citie... more There is wide recognition of the paradigmatic changes needed to move toward water sensitive cities, and water management discourse often views institutions as barriers to such a shift. Institutions are social constructs which guide and tie societal activities, providing building blocks for collective action. This broader definition of institutions provides opportunities to address the multiple facets of water management, by understanding the institutional settings and dynamics that underpin adaptive governance. This paper seeks to identify such arrangements by exploring the institutional setting behind the rise of stormwater harvesting in Adelaide. This innovative practice change enabled an empirical exploration of the institutional dynamics that underpinned this change. Data from practitioner experiences, gathered through interviews and focus groups, was used to identify the formal and informal 'rules-in-use' of the institutional setting. Preliminary results reveal that flexible rules at an operational level enabled practice innovation, while a 'collective-choice' level of institutional activity cemented innovation into mainstream practices by changing rules-inuse. Actors interpreting and enacting the rules-in-use within and between these two levels of institutional activity created the interplay that lead to rule change. Understanding these institutional dynamics provides ingredients for building adaptive governance arrangements and to develop pathways to water sensitive cities.
Routledge eBooks, Jul 1, 2022
Routledge eBooks, Jul 1, 2022
In the water sensitive city, a hybrid mix of centralized and decentralized water systems and sour... more In the water sensitive city, a hybrid mix of centralized and decentralized water systems and sources will operate at a range of scales to provide fit-for-purpose water services that will safeguard environmental quality, intergenerational equity and landscape amenity. Governance of these systems is likely to differ from the traditional arrangement, involving multiple stakeholders who must work together to manage risk. Trust will be essential to effective governance. This study explored attitudes of Australian urban water practitioners towards ownership and management of different water systems that might comprise the water sensitive city, including who they would trust to manage the associated risk. Results support the status quo, in which risk management responsibilities lie with state and local government or corporatized water utilities. Although practitioners support ownership and management of lot-scale water systems by homeowners, they trust them only to manage the risks associated with rainwater tanks. These results can be interpreted as risk perceptions, which are influenced by trust and knowledge. Implementation of decentralized water systems should be accompanied by governance arrangements that include strategies to enhance trust between stakeholders, including maintenance and operational knowledge for homeowners.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 29, 2018
Building a pathway to achieve widespread institutionalisation of water sensitive urban design req... more Building a pathway to achieve widespread institutionalisation of water sensitive urban design requires, among other elements, a shift in conventional governance and management practices. Current academic scholarship regarding broad governance trends focuses predominantly on appropriate modes and principles for practice, with little attention directed towards developing operational pathways for change. This paper draws on critical insights from three major research phases of a national, social research program undertaken between 2004 and 2011, which collectively aimed to assist urban water managers in generating socio-institutional change towards water sensitive cities. Through detailed historical and contemporary research, which investigated the institutionalisation of water sensitive urban design in Melbourne, the importance of experimentation and learning, and current governance practices in Australian cities, eight key attributes for enabling a governance shift were identified. The key attributes included: establishing a narrative and metaphor; organisational and individual leadership; policy framework and institutional design; regulatory and compliance agendas; an economic and business case; capacity building and demonstration; public engagement and behaviour change; and, research and policy/practice partnerships. Importantly, these eight areas of operational governance demonstrated a strong interplay between core governance structures and processes; suggesting there is a need to have all factors aligned before a system-wide transition can be successfully expedited. These key operational governance factors provide the basis of a future reform agenda related to mainstreaming water sensitive urban design in Australian cities.
Water Science and Technology, Apr 1, 2013
Environmental innovation and societal transitions, Jun 1, 2015
Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the interconnected challenges o... more Transitions towards sustainability are urgently needed to address the interconnected challenges of economic development, ecological integrity, and social justice, from local to global scales. Around the world, collaborative science-society initiatives are forming to conduct experiments in support of sustainability transitions. Such experiments, if carefully designed, provide significant learning opportunities for making progress on transition efforts. Yet, there is no broadly applicable evaluative scheme available to capture this critical information across a large number of cases, and to guide the design of transition experiments. To address this gap, the article develops such a scheme, in a tentative form, drawing on evaluative research and sustainability transitions scholarship, alongside insights from empirical cases. We critically discuss the scheme's key features of being generic, comprehensive, operational, and formative. Furthermore, we invite scholars and practitioners ...
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Papers by Megan A Farrelly