Abstract:
The Thesis has developed a 'Sustainability Framework', and associated spreadsheet based matrix, which can be used to include community-desired sustainability outcomes in the decision-making process. The framework consists of six "elements of sustainability"or "well beings" of; cultural, social, institutional, financial, natural environment and built environment. These are grouped in pairs to form three fundamental columns titled, People - Processes - Places'. The columns are combined with five rows based on five hierarchical systems levels; Issues and World View, General Principles of Sustainability, Discipline Specific Principles, Comparison Sustainability Indicators and Progress Sustainability Indicators. The framework and decision-making process have been developed specifically for urban 3- waters infrastructure (stormwater, wastewater and water supply) but the fundamental approach is equally applicable to all disciplines. The Thesis takes a systems approach and uses the basic Brundtland definition to define sustainable urban 3-waters infrastructure as: “urban 3-waters infrastructure systems that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The Thesis is in response to the need for a structured sustainability framework and decision making process to resolve differences of opinion over the wide spectrum of sustainability issues and acceptable outcomes. The Thesis focuses on urban water services infrastructure systems as current thinking mistakenly assumes abundant water resources and the ability to treat and dispose of any amount of polluted waters. The advantages of using the proposed sustainability framework and associated spreadsheet based matrix in the proposed decision-making process are: 1. A structured decision-making process that assists participants to move forward to consensus and closure step by step through the myriad of infrastructure options available. 2. The design of a sustainability framework based on “systems thinking” that provides a foundation where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. 3. The ability to select the most appropriate indicators from the vast field of sustainability indicators by working through the five levels of the sustainability framework to ensure a comprehensive and compact set of indicators covering relevant aspects. 4. A participatory decision-making process encompassing the regulatory requirements of the NZ Local Government Act enabling democratic local decision-making to promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of communities, in the present and for the future. 5. The presentation of the multi-criteria analysis in a clear format highlighting the range of differences for all six elements of sustainability and not just a “one single number” output so that internal “trade-offs’ are clearly articulated. 6. The use sustainability framework and associated spreadsheet based matrix acts as a checklist giving the participants the big picture issues from all six elements of sustainability. The disadvantages consist of: 1. Yet another sustainability framework to add to the array of alternatives within the existing literature. 2. The apparent complexity of expanding the established four “well-beings” of social, economic, environmental and cultural to include two additional well-beings of institutional and built environment, for a total of six “well-beings” or “elements of sustainability”. 3. The inherent problems of internal trade-offs when using any multi-criteria analysis procedures to weight and sum the different indicators into a reduced set of manageable “headline indicators” or “themes”. However, this is a disadvantage of all multicriteria analysis procedures and is not a specific disadvantage with the proposed sustainability framework and decision-making process. The framework and decision-making process were developed through a combined literature search in conjunction with case studies. These case studies involved the author in his capacity as a professional engineer in the water services industry. Application of the framework has shown that the framework and decision-making process developed by the author can provide sound theoretical and practical tools for carrying out sustainability assessments.