Current Water Sensitive Performance
Performance against the goals of a water sensitive city
Bendigo’s water sensitive performance was benchmarked using the WSC Index in October 2017, at workshop attended by 36 industry participants.
Bendigo achieved it’s strongest result for the goal of Achieve equity of essential services (4.0/5.0). Areas for improvement included Improve ecological health (2.0/5.0) and Ensure quality urban space (2.2/5.0).
Bendigo has high amenity and liveability values along with good access to water-related green infrastructure assets. New developments are incorporating water sensitive urban design (WSUD) features, but WSUD is lagging in established suburbs.
Achieving city–states
Bendigo’s results against the 6 city–states highlights its strong performance in providing basic services. It has equitable water supply and sanitation services that are safe, secure and affordable (100% Water Supply City and Sewered City). The community is also protected against floods (100% Drained City).
Bendigo also performs well in providing environmental sustainability services (82% Waterways City). The most scope for improvement relates to using water to increase resilience (31% Water Cycle City) and liveability (8% Water Sensitive City).
The city’s Water Cycle City rating could be increased by government, business and the community co-managing water systems to facilitate access to water sources at local scales as part of an integrated system. Indigenous knowledge is important to water system planning and management in Bendigo, and the Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Owner group is actively involved in water management.
The Water Sensitive City rating could be improved by creating more green infrastructure and urban habitat to support biodiversity.
Change strategy: how to become more water sensitive
- The Vision and Transition Strategy for a Water Sensitive Bendigo defines a vision of a water sensitive future for Bendigo and outlines the broad steps Bendigo can take to enable a transition towards this future.
- Benchmarking, Envisioning and Transition Planning for a Water Sensitive Bendigo: Final Case Report brings together the results of interviews and workshops with industry, government and community stakeholders as well as detailed analysis undertaken by the CRCWSC’s research team.
- Bendigo Transition Strategy (IRP1-TS5) contains information on the industry and community workshops used to inform the transition strategy.
- A Water Sensitive Bendigo cross-agency partnership was created, following the development of the Vision and Transition Strategy, to ensure Bendigo becomes a thriving inland city where water innovation supports healthy people, green environments and resilient systems.
Research relevant to Bendigo
- The role of community champions in long-term sustainable urban water planning is based on a case study of community participation in the Bendigo water planning process. A key finding was that community champions are keen to learn and contribute to urban water planning in their local context.
- Transitioning to water sensitive cities: insights from six Australian cities including Bendigo, compares and contrasts cities’ unique experiences and relationships with water, and articulates their collective future aspirations.
- The Wanyarram Dhelk—Bendigo Creek restoration project aims to improve the water health of the Bendigo Creek and its tributaries using traditional ecological knowledge combined with water sensitive urban design.
- Principles for engaging communities in water sensitive city transitions provides practical guidance for policy makers and practitioners. The guidance is drawn from critical reflections on the CRCWSC research projects and refers to the results of the Bendigo transition planning process.
Projects to mainstream water sensitive practice
Mainstreaming projects help water sensitive approaches become standard practice, supported by strong
community demand, robust science, technical capability, sufficient funding and supportive governance.
