The EWSC Model

How can we enable WSCs?

The EWSC Model encompasses the three essential building blocks for Water Smart Communities: value, stewardship and assets.

Technology alone cannot deliver WSCs. Solutions for enabling WSCs will need to combine technology with regulation, institutional and social practices, and ways of imagining society, now and in the future.

Across water and housing stakeholders there are many perspectives, aspirations, priorities, obligations, capacities and capabilities that inform how individuals, communities and organisations act. Enabling WSC within this complex delivery environment requires action across multiple systems and scales.

Through explorations of existing WSC initiatives, and the limitations for their delivery, it emerged that for a WSC to exist and thrive, the value, asset and stewardship building blocks must be in place.

The Emerging EWSC Model

The three building blocks of WSC are highly interlinked. When considered together, they can unlock enabling actions within a complex delivery environment, across multiple systems and scales.

Each actor can discover their own entry point and pathway towards WSC. The EWSC model is deliberately not directional: it doesn’t dictate a set step-by-step process but recognises the importance of context.

Understanding the values that shape, motivate and drive individuals and organisations to act, align and collaborate. Appreciating the value, both monetary and non-monetary that supports the case for individual and collective action.
Stretching conventional definitions of assets across water and housing and rethinking asset design, delivery and management in the context of whole-life stewardship.
Building new models for asset stewardship. Supporting resilient long-term governance, investment and legacy creation. Building agency and capacity, underpinned by mechanisms for sharing duties, risks, liabilities and value.

Rethinking Values

The actions of citizens and organisations are primarily driven by their core — 'must do’— obligations. Values shape the direction and priorities for action beyond this towards voluntary — ‘should-do’ and ‘could-do’ — actions. In practice a strong individual value case, either monetary or non-monetary, is the primary enabler for action beyond ‘must do’ activities.

Some outcomes might be best achieved by changing ‘should do’ actions to ‘must do’ and reviewing ‘can’t do’ boundaries. Sometimes system-scale incentives may be more effective, influencing value cases to encourage action.

Individual value cases are increasingly interdependent. New models of shared value creation and exchange are required to enable place-based outcomes, capture long-term ‘total’ system value and articulating the benefits to those involved. Clarity and honesty as to how and why actions are taken is key to both individual value cases and for building trust with others.

EWSC has identified that models for pooling and distributing shared value to support local action and investment may be best brokered at local government scale, working with local place-based anchor institutions, including water companies. Clear shared missions around water and housing could play a key role as catalysts and enablers in this space.

Individual Value Case

Where there is no mandatory obligation, actions tend to be more values driven. In practice, however, these optional actions are normally dependent on a strong individual value case, supported by holistic outcomes/value frameworks such as Six Capitals, SDGs, ESG criteria etc.

For citizens or organisations 'Must-do' actions - mandatory obligations and duties - will often be strongly linked to values, and the value created. They may also create 'wider value'. This is not a necessary condition, however, since these are not optional actions.

Shared Value Case

Establish individual role and value case

Understand core obligations, and case for investment in non-mandatory outcomes.

Align around shared values and value

Identify and align actors with complimentary values and drivers for action. Build a shared value case

Shared value case and resilience governance

New shared value and governance models to enable and protect long-term outcomes

Rethinking Assets

Effectively designing, delivering, and managing assets is critical to long-term sustainability. How assets are defined by different actors impacts what they design and value, how they invest, what they might own manage and maintain, and the returns they expect.

Assets can be physical and non-physical and exist at different scales, from a household or community to a water distribution and treatment network or wider catchment or region.

Conventionally, physical assets has tended to dominate the water and housing delivery and there is less focus on social, organisational, and governance structures as assets to be developed and maintained. Investment in non-physical assets such as digital services, knowledge, information, culture, community groups, jobs, skills, and local economy are fundamental to EWSC.

To enable water smart communities, assets that are designed, built, managed and maintained by different organisations must be considered together as part of a fully integrated approach.

The focus of this project is on enabling WSCs through the delivery of new housing. Whilst individual developments may be the typical entry point, an integrated approach to water systems highlights interdependencies beyond site boundaries.

A focus on enabling integrated assets at community-scale will therefore require new ways of working, collaborating to achieve greater integration across systems and scales.

Rethinking Stewardship

Stewardship is essential to looking after water as a common good and unpins the enabling of water smart communities. Three stewardship principles have emerged as critical to EWSC: a strong shared culture, good governance and a clear understanding of desirable outcomes.

The first principle is about strengthening our relationship to water as a common good. It considers the collective cultural shifts required to foster a new care and respect for the water environment.

The second principle considers the specific roles, responsibilities and enabling mechanisms that establish and sustain investment and governance of water cycle assets. It looks to align roles, risks and liabilities to capacity and capability, supported by new financial and legal instruments that are resilient and protected over the long term.

The third principle considers how stewardship of the integrated water cycle can act as catalyst and enabler of for outcomes across multiple other systems.

Embracing the EWSC principles of stewardship will encourage a move from siloed management approaches to an understanding of interconnected roles and responsibilities. The principles support the other building blocks of ‘value’ and ‘assets’ and delivering better long-term outcomes.