Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
within Australia of a post-graduate/professional course focusing on these
social aspects. Further support for expanding tertiary degree curriculum to
ensure water professionals are 'work ready', was identified in a 2008 review
of universities and the water industry (Murray and Seddon 2008).
Since then the NWC has engaged us and others to contribute to their
periodic assessments of progress in implementing Australia's National Water
Initiative
1
. These assessments confirmed challenges arising consistently in
all jurisdictions, some innovative approaches being tried, but an overall lack
of guidance for water planners trying to implement a significant reform in
managing freshwater and groundwater resources. The NWC has gone a long
way in filling knowledge gaps on specific topics in Australia.
While these reviews demonstrate a need for targeted practical guidance
in Australia, our further research suggests that the demand is a global
phenomenon. A tendency in countries around the world is a continuing
reorganisation of institutional arrangements in tandem with electoral cycles,
with some jurisdictions increasing interdisciplinary teams and community
engagement and others taking a pragmatic approach to getting an outcome
with minimal external input. Continuous organisational change leads to high
staff turnover and compounds skill shortages and loss of experiential learning.
In many cases, this has disrupted effective monitoring and evaluation of
processes and outcomes, which is absolutely essential in assessing program
effectiveness. At the same time, assessments of reform and implementation of
integrated water resource management (IWRM) globally (UNEP 2012), of
the EU Water Framework Directive (Bourblanc et al 2012; EC staff 2012),
South Africa's integrated water management approach, and Australia's water
reform policy - the National Water Initiative (Hamstead et al 2008a, b),
have shown much progress, but reinforce the fact that water professionals and
decision-makers around the world are on a steep learning curve.
An international examination of experience of water reforms can provide
lessons as jurisdictions plan in a time of heightened awareness of ecosystem
needs, climate change, and increasing and conflicting demands on water
resources. A greater multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach is needed
to proactively manage uncertainty of climate, long-term implications of
management actions, and the sheer increase in demand from urban growth,
irrigation and mining. Just as important, water professionals need to develop
better ways of using evidence gained from global experiences, to convince
both decision-makers and the community to make hard decisions, weighing
immediate objectives with longer-term outcomes. The insights gained from
this topic should be transposable and instructive for water professionals
engaging in water allocation processes worldwide.
1 The NWC in Australia has contributed substantially to addressing knowledge deficits in relation to
particular themes. While we refer to many of their reports, we highly recommend an avid reader search
www.nwc.gov.au.
