Our research focus 2012 - 2016

Creating knowledge and solutions that help communities become more water sensitive

Today, many towns and cities face challenges, lack the tools, and confront knowledge gaps that prevent them from being more water sensitive.

Our role at the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities is to provide these tools and address these knowledge gaps, with the help of a diverse talent pool of researchers from more than 20 different disciplines, and based at a wide range of national and international universities, research centres, government organisations, and private industry.

In its first four years (Tranche 1: 2012–2016), the CRCWSC sought answers to some big questions:

How do our culture, institutions, and human systems affect the adoption of new ideas and innovation?
How will changes in our natural environment impact on and affect how we plan and build our cities?
What technologies and information are needed to support delivery of water sensitive cities?
What are the range and appropriate mix of interventions to translate research and knowledge into practice?

Devoted to answering these questions, we have so far delivered 34 CRCWSC research projects through four priority integrated research programs.

Over the next five years, (tranche 2: commencing in late 2016), the focus will shift from answering these big questions to working with regional stakeholders, with the aim to adapt and apply new, innovative concepts and tools to a whole-of-city or metropolitan scale.

Program A

Society

This program will focus on understanding and delivering the social transformations needed to support water sensitive cities, including community attitude and behavioural change, governance & economic assessment practices, management systems and technological innovation.

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Program B

Water Sensitive Urbanism

This program will focus on the influence of urban configurations on resource flows across a range of scales. It will apply green infrastructure and climate responsive design principles to water security, flood protection and the ecological health of terrestrial and aquatic landscapes from whole-of-catchment to street level.

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Program C

Future Technologies

This program will develop integrated and multi-functional urban water systems that manage and/or use multiple water sources at a range of scales. It will deliver innovative technologies for: integrative management of the urban water systems; fit-for-purpose production of water; the recovery of energy, nutrients and other valuable materials embedded in urban water; minimising the carbon footprint and ecological impacts of water systems; and maximising the potential multiple beneficial values of urban water services.

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Program D

Adoption Pathways

This program will deliver a suite of capacity building projects and socio-technical modeling tools that will provide a focus for participants and stakeholders at a national regional and community level to interact, experiment, and learn from each other. This in turn will: improve community engagement; enrich educational and training programs at the professional and sub-professional levels; and support the development of robust science-policy partnerships.

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Our research focus 2016 – 2021