Toward effective change in urban water policy: the role of collaborative governance and cross-scale integration

Introduction

This report investigates collaboration and integration of governance across scales and organisations, themes that were identified in previous research on innovation adoption processes in the A3.1 Sub-project, Better governance for complex decision-making. The premise of the research is that no individual stakeholder, alone, is able to solve the complex problems of enabling Water Sensitive Cities (WSCs). Rather, individual stakeholders need to collaborate with other water utilities, government departments, and  professional organisations. It is argued that collaboration among such organisations is essential to develop effective and robust solutions that are well supported by policy and regulation  and by community education.