Integrated water management
The competing demands on water require many trade-offs in complex and challenging contexts. Integrated water resources management aims to provide a holistic approach whereby all social, economic and biophysical aspects of decisions are considered. IWC researchers contribute to the ongoing debates around IWM in implementation and in academia, challenging practice with theory.
IWM aims to establish and improve the links between land and water management sectors. Through the Australian Water Research Facility, the IWC led a research project on IWM for catchment management in Pacific Island Countries, specifically the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Villagers in Vanuatu participating in a risk assessment for their catchment
Example project
Australian Water Research Facility (AWRF) Catchment Risk Assessment in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
Researchers from The University of Queensland, the IWC and Monash University investigated how Australia, supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), could assist developing countries to move toward sustainable water management.
The research team involved representatives from groups affecting and affected by water in the catchment, including traditional landowner clans, and government and non-government organisations, in the development of a catchment model. Models developed took into account the entire water cycle moving from the atmosphere, through the landscape, various human and natural uses, and back into the atmosphere. The research involved understanding the catchment from a systems perspective including the complex cultural and management systems in place and their impact on the natural system. The participatory modelling process elicited whole-of-water cycle concepts and assessment of risk.
(photo courtesy of B.Powell)
Impacts
The participatory modelling process improved communication between people with different educational backgrounds, identified current gaps in measured data, and allowed water managers to compare the impact of different management actions such as water treatment for sediment or for disease.
Local project partners from government agencies are now looking at using similar modelling and participatory engagement techniques for other catchments with assistance from the IWC research team.
Example project
Global Indicators — Linking Water to Human Health and Poverty
IWC partners Griffith University and The University of Western Australia and international collaborators used existing databases to develop indicators, which include environmental outcomes, human health and economic benefits. This project developed the first worldwide synthesis to jointly consider human and biodiversity perspectives on water security using a spatial framework that quantifies multiple stressors and accounts for downstream impacts.
The water wealth index provides a scientifically based, defendable process of aid prioritisation as decision support for allocation of water-related aid. The index has five major components—agricultural productivity, institutional capacity, food security, environment and human health—each containing quantitative data on issues such as infant mortality, safe drinking water, threatened species and nutrient enrichment.
(photo courtesy of B.Powell)
Impacts
The project offers a tool for prioritising policy and management responses to the crisis facing freshwater resources. It underscores the necessity of limiting threats at their source, instead of through costly remediation of symptoms, in order to assure global water security for both humans and freshwater biodiversity.
Key partners
- The University of Queensland
- Griffith University
- Monash University
- The University of Western Australia
- SOPAC (Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of Secretariat of The Pacific Community)
- University of the City of New York (CUNY)
Indicative publications
Bunn, S. E., (2009), ‘Global indicators of river health: mapping threats to humans and nature’, paper presented at the Launch of the International WaterCentre Knowledge Hub for Healthy Rivers and Aquatic Ecosystems.
