Towards a socio-technical framework for mapping and diagnosing transformational dynamics in urban water systems

As the stress on urban water systems from climate change impacts, population growth and resource limitations continues to grow, the need to transition to sustainable urban water management is being increasingly acknowledged. However, understanding of how strategic planning should be made operational to enable this transition is limited, as the links between strategic action and the processes of transitional change are poorly understood. This paper reports on a social research investigation that aims to develop a diagnostic tool that can be used to inform the design of strategic action in urban water systems from the perspective of dynamic transformative change. A meta-analysis of literature that proposes frameworks for understanding the sustainability of complex socio-technical systems was undertaken in relation to an empirical case of recent transformational change in the stormwater management system of Melbourne, Australia. Each framework revealed useful insights but none were sufficient to fully map, explain and predict the transformational change in the case study. Comparison of the frameworks identified their distinct aims and key strengths and each was located within a schema that highlights how they could most usefully be used within an overall diagnostic process.