University of Manchester Workshop: Understanding Sustainable Water-Related Practices

Guest Post from the EWSC Manchester Project with an update on their current research relating to the enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) project.

At the University of Manchester, our research contribution to Enabling Water Smart Communities (EWSC) is to understand how sustainable water-related practices can be enabled by thinking about how residents interact with water, the local environment, and water-related infrastructure and technologies.

We investigate how everyday practices, like gardening, travelling, and showering, are affected by planning and design practices through every stage of the development of new homes and communities.

So, by taking a holistic view of everyday life in new developments and involving both professional stakeholders and potential future residents in our research, we are looking to support more sustainable practices and water use in water smart developments.

Insights from the Change Points workshop

During 2023, we hosted an initial workshop with ESWC partners and stakeholders using the Change Points process to unlock insights into sustainable ways of living and conducted a review of existing visions for future home life with water in the UK. The Change Points workshop identified a wide range of stakeholders who could play important yet diverse roles in tackling environmental, social, infrastructural and governance challenges through water smart communities.

Proposed areas of action for these stakeholders included regulation and certification, financing, capacity building, and building the evidence-base for water smart communities. Meanwhile, analysis of existing visions highlighted the need for greater cross-sector thinking about the effects of these visions on water resource consumption.

The review also found substantial opportunities for professionals to think more deeply about the social dimensions of new build homes, such as the diversity of residents and their everyday practices, particularly in relation to water.

Examining priorities for future homes using Q-methodology

Building on these insights, we are currently examining the priorities that professionals and would-be future residents have for new homes and developments, and the implications of these for everyday life and water use. To do this, we are using an approach called Q-methodology.

Q-methodology is an established mixed method that is used to uncover different ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’ a particular situation or set of problems. It involves participants conducting a Q-sort, where they prioritise a series of statements about future homes.

This task allows participants to reflect on the relative importance of issues explored in the EWSC Enabling Action projects, such as the role of residents in the stewardship of water smart communities and different technologies and infrastructures, such as onsite water reuse. The results allow us to uncover patterns in the ways that different groups of people ‘think’ about a problem or challenge – in this case, future home life with water.

Understanding the priorities of professionals and future residents

Through this research process, we are interested in understanding the relative priorities of professionals and would-be future residents of these new build developments.

We are working with professionals involved in the planning, regulating, building and maintenance of new build homes and developments, as well as with members of the public as would-be residents of these developments. Each group takes part in the same exercise, allowing us to identify similarities and differences.

The Q-sort is followed by interviews and discussion-based visioning workshops, which allow us to dive deeper into people’s views and expectations and develop more specific visions for water smart communities.

This triangulation of data will enable a deeper reflection on opportunities for water smart communities and contribute to the development of solutions towards long-term social and environmental outcomes.

Key contacts at the University of Manchester:

·        Dr Ella Foggitt (EWSC Manchester Research Associate) ella.foggitt@manchester.ac.uk

·        Dr Claire Hoolohan (EWSC Manchester Project Lead/Primary Investigator) claire.hoolohan@manchester.ac.uk

·        Professor Alison Browne (EWSC Manchester Project Co-Investigator) alison.browne@manchester.ac.uk