The role of the private land developer in mainstreaming water sensitive urban design (WSUD)

Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) describes an integrated approach to urban water management for achieving the "sustainability of the water environment" (Mauritz eta/. 2006). Importantly, WSUD can be distinguished from integrated urban water management (IUWM) by its emphasis on the inclusion of urban water management within the built form, and hence urban planning (Wong & Ashley 2006). In Australia, considerable effort has been made in developing technologies that support a WSUD approach. However, despite advances in these technologies, a WSUD approach is yet to be mainstreamed across Australia. Experience to date has been adhoc (Harding 2006) and limited to demonstration projects (Mitchell 2006). Wong (2006: 213) attributes the varied success of implementation to "elusive" institutional reform and highlights the need for further research to facilitate the widespread adoption of these technologies and associated approaches to urban water management. This thesis presents a multiple case study analysis of five private land developers and the factors affecting their decision to adopt WSUD within urban land development projects. Land developers are a critical stakeholder in advancing WSUD with only a few organisations adopting the approach (Brown & Farrelly 2007). However, research specific to the land developer is limited and not specifically targeted at understanding the prevalent factors in the decisions of these organisations to adopt WSUD. Additionally, the existing literature on organisational behaviour and change does not provide an adequate conceptual framework that highlights the factors potentially affecting the decisions of organisations to adopt new technologies, practices, or both (Gonzalez 2009). In lieu of such a framework, the case studies selected were analysed with consideration of the potential factors that could influence organisational behaviour and change towards the uptake of WSUD. These factors were identified from the corporate sustainability, administrative and economic studies scholarship, and were categorised into political (P), economic (E), social (S) and technological (T) themes as articulated in the industry diagnostic tool PEST (Henry 2011). The five case studies presented in this paper are located within metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. The city was chosen for two reasons. First, it has been identified as making "great advances in engaging a range of organisations and the community in the pursuit of WSUD" (Roy et al. 2008: 350). Second, there has been governmental acknowledgment that current water use is unsustainable and that an integrated approach to urban water management is necessary to support the growing population of the city (DSE 2004). The individual case studies were selected using a planning transect, which is a technique used within urban planning literature to describe the ideal transition of development from the central business district to the outer rural areas of a city (Duany & Talen 2002). The five case studies included two infill developments (one commercial and one industrial) and three greenfield developments (two residential and one industrial). Case data was sought from semistructured interviews with personnel involved in the urban development project as well as supporting documentation. The interviews focused on the implementation process with questions designed to elicit whether the factors identified from the literature were present and if so, how important they were in the adoption of WSUD by the organisation. The results revealed that the influential factors for organisational adoption of WSUD operate at two distinct levels. At a broad level, compliance and regulation were important in building awareness of WSUD and setting a benchmark for the industry. At an organisational level, the structure of the land development organisation and its interaction with external resources (such as funding I grants, specialist consultants and current research and development initiatives) affected the extent to which WSUD was adopted. The individuals involved in the case studies (both from the land developer and the relevant approval authorities) were noted as particularly important in this interaction and the success of WSUD adoption. These individuals were important in engaging relevant stakeholders early and continuously through the project to ensure that the concerns of these stakeholders were addressed efficiently. They were also important in knowing where the relevant and most current knowledge on WSUD was located and how to translate this into a business case for adoption that was consistent with the typical landscaping approach, the green vision and culture, or both of the land developer. A series of recommendations for future government intervention aimed at mainstreaming adoption of WSUD across the land development industry were developed from the research. These were based on the receptivity framework of Jeffery and Seaton (2003/2004), and predominately included measures aimed at building awareness and facilitating application, for example through the development of a strategic plan for WSUD across metropolitan Melbourne and a review of existing regulation to identify where a WSUD approach is supported and impeded. Recommendations related to association and acquisition were developed to help ensure the cost of a WSUD approach was competitive with the traditional approach and to foster the transfer of knowledge of WSUD to land developers through trained professionals. Overall, this thesis provides one of the first systematic investigations into the dynamics influencing implementation of WSUD by a private land developer, and suggests a number of possible pathways for enabling more widespread practice across the sector.