Global diagnostics tool helps cities become more water sensitive

Currently used by over 50 cities around the world to make strategic planning decisions, the WSC-I was developed in Australia by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC). Now launching in North America, it is designed to benchmark a city’s current performance against 7 goals of a water sensitive city and illustrates how important urban water services are to a city's livability , sustainability, resilience and productivity. The tool provides decision-makers with a complete view of the water cycle including, water supply, wastewater, and stormwater and helps prioritize actions and investments leading to better outcomes for the community. GHD is the only accredited provider of the WSC-I in North America, which is delivered through a collaborative facilitated workshop.

Today, the urban water sector faces serious issues such as rapid population growth, aging infrastructure and climate change (which we experience primarily through water: changing precipitation patterns, more frequent and severe droughts and more extreme storm events). At the same time, there is growing emphasis on cities enhancing livability, incorporating features supporting environmental sustainability, and ensuring resilient infrastructure.

There is growing recognition for the need to include high quality green, open spaces as well as protection from flooding, drought, climate variability, sea level rise and urban heat. With limited financial resources and data, decision-makers and practitioners urgently need scientifically robust tools to help them identify and prioritize actions and track progress over time.

The WSC-I is scientifically robust and industry tested. It has been developed to guide coordinated action amongst stakeholders and help cities navigating their IWM journey. It comprises 7 goals and 34 indicators spanning the full range of attributes defining water sensitivity including governance, community capital, equity, productivity, ecology, urban design, and adaptive infrastructure. The WSC-I is delivered through a collaborative workshop with the community’s planners and key decision makers, led by an accredited workshop facilitator.

The facilitator presents and explains the WSC-I during the workshop so participants understand and think about IWM concepts and principles in the same way. Participants start by scoring the indicators individually, and then they discuss their scores, allowing participants to present their perspectives and ask questions of each other. All participants agree on a final score for each indicator. The WSC-I then translates these final scores into several measures of city status, to show the city’s progress towards greater water sensitivity. In this way, the WSC-I helps participants identify what steps to take next to improve.

Following the workshop, a WSC-I benchmarking and assessment report is provided, which includes a comprehensive review of the results and evaluation of performance. This information can be used to develop a priority action plan to more effectively utilize limited resources. The tool is supported by a web platform to enable visualizations of benchmarking results for a range of audiences, including policy makers, service providers, and the community.

The purpose of the WSC-I is to assist decision-makers in prioritizing actions for water-related practices to improve water system planning and management, support strategic planning and decision-making, as well as foster stakeholder relationships, collaboration, and learning.

The facilitated workshop process is particularly important in fostering a shared understanding of what IWM principles mean in practice, as well as developing consensus on the community’s current performance. Developing a shared perspective of water today in relation to future aspirations is critical in establishing the understanding, motivation, and capacity between stakeholders to drive their IWM transition. The workshop is an important first step in enabling participants to start developing the collaborative relationships necessary to bring about real change.