Governance of Integrated Urban Water Management in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

The Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) paradigm, including concepts such as water reuse, and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, has become popular within Melbourne, and this has created new governance issues. This paper explores the relationship between changing governance structures and IUWM implementation. It is found that IUWM implementation has predominantly been accelerated by: a major drought, and implementing the Office of Living Victoria (OLV) as an overarching body. Efforts by the OLV have increased inter-agency collaboration, and institutionalised integrated planning. However, there is still no consensus on what the specifics of IUWM planning and infrastructure arrangements should actually look like.