Integrated Water Management Studies: Barriers and Enablers
A word cloud of responses when attendees were asked to "describe IWMS in one word.”
Recently Thames Water and WSP conducted a suite of three focus group workshops with developers, water companies and public bodies alongside interviews with a variety of consultancies involved with integrated water management studies (IWMS).
The purpose of the workshops and interviews was to gain perspectives from different stakeholder groups on their experiences with the development and implementation of IWMS.
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What is Integrated Water Management?
Integrated Water Management (IWM) is the heart of the Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) project.
IWM is a collaborative approach to land and water governance that integrates social, environmental, and economic factors to deliver coordinated management of water storage, supply, demand, wastewater, flood risk, water quality and the wider environment.
Our current water management system has many components including water supply, flood risk management, water quality, research, and resource planning. Each of these require a input from a variety of organisations with different interests, (developers, land owners, architects, farmers, legislators, etc.), leading to a fragmented sector. This means easier and cheaper solutions have historically been favoured, which significantly impacts our natural environment and misses opportunities for better outcomes.
Achieving Integrated Water Management is fundamental to meeting long-term challenges facing our relationship with water, including flood risk, and river and soil health.
Read more here: https://www.ewsc.org.uk/news-1/what-is-integrated-water-management-j6ntb?rq=iwm
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We asked attendees who they felt were responsible for certain actions within IWMS and discussed their barriers and enablers for ensuring IWMS are created and utilised.
It was hugely valuable to hear from the respective groups, and understand how opinion was shared or divided amongst peers. The next step is to analyse our findings in more detail; we hope to share these widely in the new year.
We asked attendees who they felt were responsible for certain actions within IWMS and discussed their barriers and enablers for ensuring IWMS are created and utilised.
We would like to thank all those that participated in these sessions including:
Public Bodies
Nancy Kimberley - Greater Cambridge Planning
Philippa Illingworth - Essex
Laura Benton - GLA
Dorothee Woollard - Tower Hamlets
Turner, Mark - Greater Manchester
Daniel Curtis - Environment Agency
Louise Bardsley - Natural England
Adam Derham - Essex
Water Companies and NAVs
Graeme Kasselman - Thames Water
Sam Burgess - SDS Limited
Lian Nieto Pacheco - Representing Affinity Water
Katrina Cullen - United Utilities
Ian Fendell - Severn Trent Services
Phillip Stephens - Anglian Water
Debbie Bell - Anglian Water
Developers
David Owen - Taylor wimpey
Philip Harker - Homes England
Yann Vochelle - Homes England
Graham Gribbon - Crest Nicholson
Peter Lacey - Duchy of Cornwall
Gavin Thorne - Barratt
David Robins - People for Places
Josie Cadwallader-Hughes - Thakenham
Consultancies
Siraj Tahir - Arup
Mike Henderson - Arup
Carl Pelling - AECOM
Brendan Bromwich - Motts MacDonald
Richard Behan - WSP
Susie Roy - WSP
Philip Raynor - Jacobs