Water management is a global issue. Like Australia, many of the world’s cities are facing issues of water security, extreme weather events, degrading waterways, and declining biodiversity, along with higher population densities.
The CRC for Water Sensitive Cities has formed a partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the Future Cities Program to apply emerging research outputs (including tools, technical knowledge, urban design, and governance reform) to help transition developing cities in the Asia-Pacific region to sustainable and resilient cities. The CRCWSC is one of only three global research institutions invited to form this partnership.
Our particular focus is on urban water management – encompassing the full spectrum of water supply, sanitation, flood management, and environmental degradation of waterways and waterbodies. However, in recognising that there is more than water that helps shape the sustainability, resilience, productivity, and liveability of a city, the CRCWSC is facilitating an integrated approach to infrastructure planning and delivery within the ADB – an approach that is also linked to the urban planning and design of each city – with the aim to address the aforementioned water management issues and, more broadly, to deliver improved public health, especially for the poor and vulnerable in many of these cities.
So far the CRCWSC has supported the ADB in exploring water sensitive cities solutions linked to existing infrastructure projects in Mandalay (Myanmar) and Suva (Fiji).
Through the partnership, the CRCWSC has introduced the use and application of the Water Sensitive Cities Index. The water security of Mandalay and Suva have been assessed using the Water Sensitive Cities Index developed by the CRCWSC. While this tool is still in the developmental phase, it has provided a useful measure of each city’s current water sensitivity, supported the identification of strategic interventions, and provided a prediction of the anticipated progress toward achieving a water sensitive city as a result of proposed interventions.