Journal
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Volume 25, Issue 15, Pages 4037-4050Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11269-011-9886-y
Keywords
Adaptive capacity; Path dependency; Socio-technical; Urban water regime; Technological lock-in
Categories
Funding
- EPSRC [EP/I029346/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/I029346/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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The many societal benefits provided by traditional, centralised urban water servicing models are being re-examined following recent extreme weather events, climate uncertainty and other variable socio-technical trends. Total water cycle management offers a more flexible and resilient approach to urban water management, however, transformative change in the sector is difficult. A growing number of scholars have identified that the urban water sector is locked-in to the current large-scale, centralised infrastructure model and suggest the sector is unable to accommodate new technologies and management approaches beyond niche projects. Based on extensive socio-institutional research and example cases from Australian and United Kingdom experiences managing urban water under pressures such as modern environmentalism, prolonged water scarcity and sewerage overflows, this paper provides a commentary on common factors exhibited in both countries related to technological path dependency. Three key factors promoting this pathway: political risk, professional agency fear and a lack of a hybrid governance approach are discussed and a future scholarly research agenda is presented.
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