Opportunities and challenges in water sensitive industrial development: an Auckland case study, New Zealand

Abstract

Internationally cities are increasingly applying Sustainable Stormwater Management (SSM) to mitigate urban stormwater problems caused by rapid urban sprawl and climate change. However, a gap exists in specific guidance and supporting case studies for SSM (termed Water Sensitive Design or WSD in New Zealand) at industrial sites. This paper uses a two-step New Zealand case study to identify priority issues to address when formulating guidelines for industrial SSM. The first step, in this paper, reports on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Auckland’s stormwater professionals to gain insight into the practice, motivation, and the benefits and barriers, of applying Industrial WSD (IWSD). The analysis showed that although IWSD could mimic and retain nature to mitigate impacts of changes to stormwater contaminants, flows and volume, as well as enhance aesthetic amenity, comfort level, and human health. The key challenges revealed reasons for these low levels of application were space shortage, lack of cognition and knowledge, lack of official regulations and compliance structure, and maintenance uncertainty. In conclusion, the successful application of IWSD is likely to be a slow process, that requires knowledge and awareness transformation, establishment of a sound regulation and governance structure, and the valuing of WSD in planning and design stages with specific consideration of industrial environments. These findings will inform a second step of this research, formulating guidelines on the application of WSD (and so SSM) to industrial sites and precincts.