Embedded research into collaborative multi-scale water resources planning in England and Wales

My PhD research project is titled ‘Multi-scale water resources planning in England and Wales’. Proposed by an industry leader, it evaluates the importance of scale in water resources planning since the recent establishment of regional and national planning alongside continuing company scale planning.

 

The project is part of the Water and Infrastructure Resilience Centre of Doctoral Training (WIRe CDT). The WIRe CDT’s close ties with industrial partners allows research projects such as mine to be applied in a real life setting which helps increase the impact and allows for skills development across industry and academia. Through this academic-industrial partnership I can benefit from observing the multi-scale planning process in practice.

 

Firstly, observations of the planning process draw from placements embedded in the national reconciliation processes (focused on aligning inter-regional schemes) and regional and company planning. Secondly, semi-structured interviews are being conducted with participants from across the water industry including regional planning leads, regulators, government officials, and water resources planners from water companies and consultancies. Thirdly, lessons learned workshops are being carried out with leads of the five regional planning groups (WRW, WRSE, WRE, WReN, & WCWRG) and regulators, with findings being presented to a national planning coordination group (RCG). Finally, policy and planning documents and academic literature are reviewed and analysed.

 

The data is collated and organised thematically to identify successes, failures, and recommendations in an iterative and collaborative way that follows the planning cycle as it evolves. Lessons learned through this transition to a multi-scale approach have been fed-back in real time to decision makers involved in strategic water resources planning in England and Wales.

 

The recommendations acknowledge the existing gaps and aim to start framing a collaborative, multi-scale model of planning that starts the process of building a better understanding of water requirements and strategies and managing issues as they arise, recognising that time and resourcing is needed to start building the relationships and levels of trust and confidence required for the long term goal of truly integrated management.

 

The emerging governance frameworks are attempting to establish and integrate multiple scales for the first time since the sixties in England and Wales, and ultimately will be judged to have succeeded if there is confidence and trust that the process delivered aligned plans across scales that meet long term water supply needs. Success or failure, lessons learned from this transition to a multi-scale approach may provide wider insight for decision makers involved in complex, long-term, multi-stakeholder decision making under uncertainty.