Sub-Catchment Planning in Marrickville: The Urban Stormwaer Integrated Management (USWIM) Project

The Urban Stormwater Integrated Management (USWIM) project is a partnership between Council and the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University. It involves a multidisciplinary team working closely with the community to identify sub-catchment stormwater solutions that reflect the principles of sustainable urban water management. The ultimate outcome was the development of a process for collaborative urban-water planning that could be readily adopted by local government. <br><br> The genesis of USWIM was in the failure of local governments to achieve significant on-ground improvements through the first generation of stormwater management plans. Research found that planning deficiencies were the key impediment to sustainable urban water management (Brown and Ryan 2000). USWIM sought to provide a new planning framework that addressed three problems with current water planning: <br><br> - Thinking too small - traditionally, technical experts alone were expected to find solutions to complex urban water problems. Other thinkers are also needed, including social scientists and ecologists. <br><br> - Talking too little - the people affected by urban water problems; residents, businesses and community groups were usually not involved in planning; and <br><br> - Planning too big - plans were designed for whole river catchments rather than created locally with more appropriate, practical solutions specific to the local context.