Jumping to the top: catalysts for leapfrogging to a water sensitive city

Abstract

Climate change, population growth and rapid urbanisation have severe implications for cities and the way in which they interact with water. As a response to these challenges the water sensitive cities concept emerged, which supports cities to become more resilient to these challenges while making them more prosperous, sustainable and liveable. A water sensitive city harnesses the whole water cycle through integrated water management solutions, designs beautiful blue and green urban spaces and comprises healthy communities who are strongly connected with each other and with their local environment. Indonesian cities have an opportunity to ‘leapfrog’ towards a water sensitive city and to bypass the negative consequences that have resulted from urbanisation and growth that developed countries have gone through. Contributing to this growing field of research, this paper synthesizes key insights from the transformative change, sustainable urban water management and leapfrogging literature. The paper defines what leapfrogging to a water sensitive city means and describes three catalysts that facilitate this transition: trans-disciplinary science, cross sectoral collaboration and innovation experiments. The paper also introduces a joint Australian-Indonesian research program that develops water sensitive city leapfrogging strategies by translating these catalysts into practice.