Susan van de Meene
PhD candidate
Research area
My general areas of interest are the social aspects of water management and social change, particularly related to environmental and sustainability issues. I’m currently undertaking my PhD in sustainable urban water management. Before starting my PhD, I worked as an engineer in a large environmental and engineering consultancy. I undertook a variety of projects involving stormwater management and design, landfill management, environmental monitoring and corporate sustainability.
Project title
Cities as Water Supply Catchments: Assessing Institutional Capacity for Change
Project description
The project aims to investigate the capacity of urban water management institutions to advance sustainable urban water management. With increasing demand for water and increased variability and/or quantity in water supply due to climate change, there is a need for improved water management. Researchers have been active in this area and have developed new technologies and strategies for meeting future demand (eg water sensitive urban design, sewer mining, dual reticulation). To date, these technologies and strategies have been implemented in a piecemeal fashion in urban areas, that is, there are demonstration projects showcasing the technologies and strategies but they are not widely or systematically implemented. It is recognised that the implementation of new technologies requires social systems to accept and facilitate the development and implementation of the new technology. This lack of implementation indicates that the social context of urban water management needs investigation. This project aims to investigate the institutional arrangements for urban water management and identify institutional capacity factors which will enable cities to become their water supply catchments. The case study of Melbourne will be used to investigate these issues.
Research links
This project is part of the National Urban Water Governance Program (www.urbanwatergovernance.com). The National Urban Water Governance Program is comprised of a group of social research projects that aim to provide a credible knowledge base that will effectively inform and assist urban water managers to build institutional capacity, improve water governance and deliver more sustainable forms of water management.
Past research
I undertook my honours research project in floodplain geomorphology at the University of Melbourne. The project involved taking an evolutionary geomorphological floodplain classification and investigating whether it could be used to predict areas of inundation and hydrological connectivity between the main river channel and wetlands on the floodplain. Aerial photographs and information in geographic information systems format was used. The investigation found that there was limited use for the application of this particular model in predicting the above variables.