Planning for Water Resources Management

I completed my Honours Thesis last month titled "Cooperative Management of Urban Water Resources: A Case Study of Peterborough". It is an interdisciplinary thesis including fields such as human geography, water management, urban planning, public policy, stakeholder management and some aspects of civil engineering.

One of my firm beliefs about academia is that any significant academic work -whether a thesis, dissertation, journal publication, book or even a research paper- should be shared with all communities and not just restricted to the academy. Indeed, universities produce lots of great and well researched academic work every year, but often the reality is that such work is locked away in university archives, professors' offices or academic departments.

Having said this, it is my very intention to share my Honours Thesis with everyone who reads this blog. After all, blogging is all about sharing information with others (whether academic work, analysis on current affairs or links to interesting sites). You can access the thesis here. The abstract is found below:

Planning for water resources is increasingly gaining significance in Canada. Municipalities across the country are facing challenges in bringing about sustainable water resources management initiatives in order to maintain adequate water quality and quantity for the future. With constrained municipal budgets, the financing of large water infrastructural projects has become even more difficult. A practical and cost-effective approach for dealing with current and forthcoming challenges would be through the creation of an urban water committee that enables the city to more holistically manage its water resources. This study explores whether or not the City of Peterborough, Ontario could benefit from the creation of a committee composed of stakeholders who have professional responsibilities related to water management/planning including the distribution and treatment of water, public education and outreach, public consultation, land use planning/policy and the protection of water resources. By cooperatively discussing and planning water resource issues, the stakeholders can work towards advising city council on preventative and practical solutions to the water resource management process. Using a case study research method and semi-structured interviews, this project examined how the various stakeholders in Peterborough are currently involved with water management/planning and what they defined as some of the current challenges and opportunities. This project shows their perceptions of an urban water committee and how they feel it might or might not work for the city. The results explain how a committee can improve the efficiency of communication and learning between relevant stakeholders across geographic space. Ultimately, the study found that a committee can provide a valuable contribution to municipal water resources management, especially in terms of facilitating the input of different stakeholders in the process.