Collaborative mutli-scale water resources planning in England and Wales

Water regulators in England and Wales have called on water companies to meet higher standards of supply resilience in response to growing pressures from climate change, environmental needs and growth whilst still maintaining affordability. New national and regional governance structures have been established with the aim of enabling better collaboration across regulators, water companies (also known as public water supply (PWS) abstractors), other abstractors (non-PWS), and wider stakeholders to find and deliver the most efficient and robust water supply infrastructure schemes and demand initiatives.

This study uses qualitative data from interviews, workshops, observations, and planning documents. It identifies successes (e.g., increased ambition, improved consistency, collaboration, and nationally consistent water transfers) and failures (e.g., uncertainty, complexity, and lack of investment frameworks beyond PWS). To address gaps, a phased approach towards an explicit multi-scale governance framework is recommended, starting with national program management and trust-building across regulators, PWS, non-PWS, and stakeholders.

If new forums are set up to improve water resources planning there are difficult choices at each level regarding form, function and funding that require consideration of trade-offs, possible unintended consequences, and feasibility within the constraints of broader structures of decision-making and politics. A process of information gathering and engagement is necessary to bring on board relevant stakeholders. This engagement would provide insight on how best to implement the proposed collaborative multi-scale architecture, and would help clarify (1) the vision, (2) the approach, (3) appropriate metrics and performance indicators, (4) the compliance model, and (5) reporting requirements etc.

Decision-makers will always face gaps in understanding, new issues will continue to arise, and approaches and methods will continually evolve. Therefore, it is important to build adaptive structures of collaboration and scrutiny that can accommodate the changing and imperfect landscape. Transparency is at the core of this challenge, enabling feedback loops to (1) improve our understanding supported by evidence, and therefore (2) refine our objectives, and (3) the rules and governance required to achieve them.

As lessons are learnt through transparent, collaborative engagement with stakeholders across scales, the framework can be built upon to enable a more informed transition to adaptive, integrated water management at multiple scales.