Catchments as Asset Systems: a Transdisciplinary Approach for Integrated Water Resources Management

There is a growing recognition that meeting the goal of sustainable water resources management requires improved integrated catchment management (ICM) and novel conceptualisations of catchment systems and of their processes (Hester et al., 2013, Macleod et al. 2007, Toit 2005). The new paradigm of ICM transcends sectorial boundaries (Nafi et al. 2014). Therefore, there is a need for approaches that enable the integration of policies, science and implementation measures. In these grounds, the talk explores how the synthesis of methods and tools from a spectrum of disciplines can serve as a mechanism to reintroduce catchments as complex asset systems. The holistic and structured modelling type approach allows for the interactions and interdependencies between the natural and built capital of the catchment to be mapped and studied and the integration of ecosystem services in water resources planning. The novel and transdisciplinary modelling schema serves as a mechanism for the water industry to integrate natural capital in their portfolio and make a step towards fulfilling their resilience duty (Defra 2016, OFWAT 2015). It enables water companies to face their current challenges in terms of their asset management practices, environmental compliance and economic planning. <br/

Thinking Catchments: a holistic approach to asset management in the water sector

The hypothesis of this work is that the application of life-cycle thinking at a catchment scale will assist in the evaluation of natural capital and the integration of natural assets into the asset management portfolio of water industries. Drawing from literature on asset management and ecosystem services, this paper demonstrates the need for a holistic asset management strategy in the water sector. Through a detailed analysis, an approach coupling Integrated Catchment Management and Life Cycle Thinking is proposed. Within the paper, the background to the challenges facing the sector is described, followed by an analysis of the methods used to define the approach and the techniques required to undertake the analysis. The main focus of the work is the water sector in the UK. In order to evaluate the approach research is undertaken with Wessex Water Services Ltd

Structuring Integrated Asset Management in the Water Sector

The paper briefly describes the traditional asset management planning and practice of the UK water sector and introduces a structured approach for accounting for both natural and built assets in strategic decision making

Catchment Metabolism: Integrating Natural Capital in the Asset Management portfolio of the Water Sector

The policy of the water sector demands integrated and resilient asset management. The majority of current research focuses on urban or community asset systems. To provide a fully integrated approach, one needs to delineate the focus of asset management at a catchment scale, to include the natural capital. The research described in this paper introduces such an approach, with the Environmental Regional Input-Output (E-RIO) analysis at its core. The novelty of the work is the conceptualisation of a catchment as a complex asset system, comprising of multiple subsystems. This expands the application of Industrial Ecology and functional modelling techniques in Integrated Catchment Management and Water Accounting. The Catchment Metabolism modelling schema presented serves asset, water resources and catchment management purposes. The schema forms the grounds for structured collaboration among experts for integrated water resources planning and decision-making. In this paper presents the process of creating the modelling schema along with the techniques used are presented. A ‘live’ industrial example from the UK water sector is used to demonstrate its application. <br/