Abstract
The concept of water sensitive cities emphasizes resilience to uncertain futures, which may arise from
combinations of city dynamics such as urban growth, densification, climate change and variability and
economic development. This paper further develops the resilience concept from a water sensitive city perspective and demonstrates its application through a comparative assessment of three urban water
cases. Here, resilience is considered as the ability of the urban water system to adapt to continue to
function as expected and deliver on broader societal objectives, e.g. supply water, protect public safety,
maintain waterway health and provide urban amenity, despite any manner of system shocks and
surprises. In other words, maintaining and enhancing ‘functional resilience’ is a central tenet of the
concept of water sensitivity. In urban water systems, however, individual structures at particular scales
(e.g. large-scale engineering structures or tightly regulated institutions) can be resilient in a different
manner, in that they maintain their structural identity even when they no longer achieve the desired
functionality. Sometimes transformations are necessary to reduce this ‘structural resilience’ in order to
gain functional resilience under changed conditions – although incremental adjustments will in many
cases be sufficient to maintain or enhance resilience. Not all approaches to enhance the performance of
urban water systems add to functional resilience and some might even undermine the ability to function
to meet societal needs in the face of future challenges. This paper reviews cases of urban stormwater
management in Australia, the Netherlands and Brazil, as examples of such different approaches and how
they affect the system’s resilience. The cross-comparison of these cases provides insight into how
different types of incremental and transformational change in urban water management might enhance
or impair the functional resilience of the system, with implications drawn for how resilience within a
water sensitive city may be achieved.
combinations of city dynamics such as urban growth, densification, climate change and variability and
economic development. This paper further develops the resilience concept from a water sensitive city perspective and demonstrates its application through a comparative assessment of three urban water
cases. Here, resilience is considered as the ability of the urban water system to adapt to continue to
function as expected and deliver on broader societal objectives, e.g. supply water, protect public safety,
maintain waterway health and provide urban amenity, despite any manner of system shocks and
surprises. In other words, maintaining and enhancing ‘functional resilience’ is a central tenet of the
concept of water sensitivity. In urban water systems, however, individual structures at particular scales
(e.g. large-scale engineering structures or tightly regulated institutions) can be resilient in a different
manner, in that they maintain their structural identity even when they no longer achieve the desired
functionality. Sometimes transformations are necessary to reduce this ‘structural resilience’ in order to
gain functional resilience under changed conditions – although incremental adjustments will in many
cases be sufficient to maintain or enhance resilience. Not all approaches to enhance the performance of
urban water systems add to functional resilience and some might even undermine the ability to function
to meet societal needs in the face of future challenges. This paper reviews cases of urban stormwater
management in Australia, the Netherlands and Brazil, as examples of such different approaches and how
they affect the system’s resilience. The cross-comparison of these cases provides insight into how
different types of incremental and transformational change in urban water management might enhance
or impair the functional resilience of the system, with implications drawn for how resilience within a
water sensitive city may be achieved.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | IST 2012 - International Conference on Sustainability Transitions |
Subtitle of host publication | General Papers |
Publication status | Published - 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |