1. Environmental and socio-economic systems analysis
To manage urban water responsibly, an organisation needs to be oriented within its socio-economic and ecological context.
Systems analysis - systematically thinking into the networks of cause and effect - makes a strong contribution to getting oriented. See:
It is almost always useful to lay out an explicit conceptual model - through matrices, flow diagrams, or similar.
The reason for this is that as policy advisers or scientists we make assertions about what is causing what and about how a recommended action will influence the future. When we do this we are relying on our understanding of the system we are talking about. However:
- we will be making assumptions we have not examined, and
- colleagues generally have somewhat different assumptions about how a given system works.
Making our assumptions explicit through a process of systems analysis helps us test our assumptions and understand each other better. In the process it may well identify questions we need to investigate further.
Using simple conventions it does not take long to lay out one's basic assumptions about how a system works.
Systems analysis:
- contributes a disciplined approach to interdependence
- organises one's thinking
- makes gaps in knowledge explicit
- makes assumptions explicit
- directs attention to the origins of problems
- so policy proposals can be evaluated more ‘objectively’
- contributes to communication
- leads us to explain how we see things
- enables us to hear others viewpoints
- provides a focus for negotiation
- about how things are
- about what should be done
There are multiple approaches to environmental systems analysis. A good set of steps is:
| Steps | Methods |
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1. Scoping |
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| 2. Structure | |
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| 3. Dynamics | |
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[In the context of managing a local government authority in NSW ...]
To manage water responsibly a Council must derive its water management goals from an ecological and socioeconomic analysis of the water cycle.
Crucial questions include:
- what paths does water follow?
- what water bodies are impacted by local catchment management?
- who is affected by local water management? ... residents of suburbs and towns, people who boat, swim or fish, farmers, water supply providers, and so on.
Although these questions are obvious when we assume that 'the water cycle' or 'ecosystem dynamics' are our context, in practice this wider context often does not drive Council priorities. Working within an engineering section, land use planning and service delivery priorities frame what you do. Working within land use planning, many factors influence priorities, particularly plans that have already been developed, and local political considerations.
In practice, therefore, there are usually significant opportunities to improve the targeting of Councils' efforts by comparing the efforts that a Council is actually making with the priorities that fall out of an analysis of socio-economic and ecological dynamics.
Systems analysis
- An introduction to urban systems
- A tutorial on ecological systems analysis
- Adaptive Management
- Soft systems analysis - interview with Peter Checkland
- introduction
- full interview (pdf)
- Managing the Cumulative Impacts of Land Uses in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin: A Modeling Approach
Examples of interaction matrices
- Transfer of pesticides (pdf, pages 5 and 6)
- Environmental Impact Assessment (paper, pdf, page 11)
- Environmental interaction matrix for landscape assessment, planning and design
