Vision and Transition Strategy for a Water Sensitive Gold Coast

The City of Gold Coast (the City) engaged the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC) to develop a water sensitive city vision and transition strategy for the Gold Coast, drawing on its ongoing research focused on developing methods and tools to guide cities and towns in their water sensitive transition.

The project involved facilitation of stakeholder discussions across a series of five one-day workshops, stakeholder interviews and focus groups, literature review and the application of benchmarking and diagnostic tools to inform detailed analysis. 76 leaders and strategic thinkers in the Gold Coast region from across water, planning, environment, community and other related sectors participated in the project between December 2016 and June 2017. This report presents the key outputs of the project.

The purpose of the vision and transition strategy is to provide a framework for orienting and coordinating strategic action across the many different stakeholders who will need to collaborate for the Gold Coast’s envisioned water future to be achieved. It is anticipated that this summary report,as well as the companion final project report, can be used as a resource to inform the design and implementation of operational programs of action within individual organisations and directorates. In particular, the outcomes of the project are directly informing the development of the City of Gold Coast’s Water Strategy.