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What is integrated water management?
Over time, as our cities have evolved, we have altered the local water cycle and created a range of water challenges.
To support our growing populations, we have needed to import freshwater to our cities. However, with changing climates, these supplies are declining while our urban demand for water keeps rising. Our cities then use this water and generate large amounts of wastewater which must be treated before it enters our waterways and oceans.
Urban environments are highly impervious and prevent rainwater soaking into the ground where it falls, instead draining it away rapidly, impacting the health of our waterways and increasing the risk of flooding.
We have tended to focus on each challenge separately, creating separate governance structures to manage and optimise solutions for each one. However, as the water cycle and urbanisation are deeply interconnected, this has led to unintended outcomes and missed opportunities.
Integrated water management (IWM) is a collaborative process that considers the water cycle as a whole in the planning and design of urban areas. It brings together water supply, wastewater and stormwater management into one integrated water management approach, while also influencing urban development and placemaking to deliver multiple benefits for communities and our environment.
Instead of tackling water challenges one at a time, this approach enables the water industry and urban planners to address multiple issues simultaneously. For example, adding more green spaces in flood-prone areas of a city can help capture water to reduce flooding, enhance amenity by providing additional green areas for residents, and filter stormwater before it enters local waterways. Whereas local wastewater reuse could reduce pressure on the wastewater system and reduce pollution, while providing a drought-resilient water supply that enhances urban greening and natural cooling during heatwaves.
Integrated Water Management intersects the water supply, wastewater management and stormwater management through collaboration, commitment, and capacity building. It has multiple benefits for cities and communities, including water security, flood resilience, and healthy waterways.
Successful integrated water management aligns with and enables four cross-cutting priorities for the future of our cities: placemaking, circularity, resilience and stewardship.
Placemaking: IWM strengthens placemaking in cities by providing opportunities to celebrate water locally and to create greener, cooler and multi-functional spaces.
Circularity: IWM enables a circular economy by using ‘alternative water sources’ such as stormwater and wastewater which would otherwise be waste streams.
Resilience: Many of the impacts of climate change are felt through water. IWM provides opportunities to holistically build the resilience of cities by simultaneously risks relating to water security, flooding, environmental pollution and heat wave vulnerability.
Stewardship: IWM drives collaboration, strengthening inter-organisational relationships, embedding stewardship of water within communities and potentially unlocking co-funding to realised shared benefits.
