Meredith Dobbie

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Verified

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• BSc(Hons), MLArch, PhD
• Adunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University (Australia)

Context. Raingardens are being retrofitted in cities worldwide to contribute to urban sustainability and resilience. They must function both technically and aesthetically. Although technical design guidelines for raingardens are available, aesthetic design guidelines are limited. Objectives. Understanding how raingardens are aesthetically experienc...

Raingardens are increasingly common in sustainable stormwater management in cities around the world. Implementing raingardens will change the appearance of conventional urban streetscapes and this is especially important when retrofitting raingardens into existing streets. Raingardens need to fulfill both technical and aesthetic functions. Aestheti...

Carrum Carrum Swamp was a vast wetland to the south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at the time that it was first sighted by white colonists in 1803. By 1878, the colonists had commenced converting the swamp to dry land for agricultural and horticultural pursuits, and 100 years later it was predominantly residential land. Shifting values in...

Context Ecological design used for stormwater management—referred to as Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD)—exemplifies how urban environments can benefit from mimicking natural processes to create multifunctional urban spaces. However, for WSUD to be successfully adopted, it must respond to community landscape perceptions and incorporate their pre...

In the developing economies of the Global South, a fundamental challenge in the transition of settlements from rural or periurban to urban is increased environmental contamination as a result of poor sanitation and sanitation management. With governments’ limited ability to connect all neighbourhoods to a city’s existing municipal water, sewerage a...

Challenges associated with managing urban water, particularly in rapidly growing cities, have given rise to the visions of Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD). Our aim in this chapter is to understand the major barriers to achieving these visions. We begin with a literature review to clarify these vision...

Academia and industry increasingly recognise the need for multifunctional urban spaces. But how do we meet this need? Emerging responses point to the promise of transdisciplinarity. We critically reflect on this claim by analysing the role of transdisciplinary practice in the successful conversion of a Sydney laneway into a multifunctional urban sp...

Transdisciplinary practice is considered essential for achieving multifunctional landscapes in cities. But we lack empirical evidence and frameworks that could help us clarify its role and scope. This study seeks to offer empirical evidence by comparing the role of transdisciplinary practice in two projects delivering multifunctional landscapes. Wh...

Before effective drainage and flood protection systems were built in the early twentieth century, areas of inner Melbourne close to the Yarra River were prone to flooding. An over-abundance of water and a need to limit its impact on lives, livelihoods and the built environment drove changes in the engineered structure of a rapidly growing city. Thr...

In the water sensitive city, a hybrid mix of centralised and decentralised water systems and sources will operate at a range of scales to provide sustainable fit-for-purpose water services that will safeguard environmental quality, intergenerational equity and landscape amenity. Governance of these systems is likely to differ from the traditional a...

Bringing together stakeholders with different backgrounds and interests to create new understandings and relationships is essential to advance the sustainable management of urban water. This is a transdisciplinary challenge, with multiple benefits but also obstacles and uncertainties in its applicability. Although transdisciplinary practice is beli...

Retrofitting raingardens into residential streets is an important way to improve water quality of urban catchments. However, such raingardens will change the appearance of the streetscape, which residents might not appreciate or accept. More broadly, the changes might be at odds with community expectations, with ramifications for the widespread imp...

Open-space networks in cities in disaster-prone environments can be designed to facilitate recovery. This study explores residents’ perceptions of urban wetlands in earthquake-prone Concepcio´n, Chile. Two scenarios were posed, one representing everyday life and a second representing life after an earthquake, in which wetlands were perceived in ter...

In the water sensitive city, a hybrid mix of centralized and decentralized water systems and sources will operate at a range of scales to provide fit-for-purpose water services that will safeguard environmental quality, intergenerational equity and landscape amenity. Governance of these systems is likely to differ from the traditional arrangement,...

Cultural ecosystem services are critical to the sustainability of integrated urban water management in the water sensitive city. A full reckoning of ecosystem services provided by water sensitive urban design (wsud), including cultural ecosystem services, is essential for informed and effective decision-making in moving towards this city future. Re...

Wetlands are an important landscape element in the sustainable city, providing valuable ecosystem services that can be harnessed in alternative urban water management systems. To ensure sustainable wetland management, community preferences for wetlands in (sub)urban landscapes must be understood. Thus, public aesthetic preferences were examined for...

Stormwater harvesting systems involve risk shared amongst stakeholders, whose risk perceptions are likely to differ with their social and cultural identities, knowledge and attitudes. Different risk perceptions will challenge implementation and management of these systems. Analysis of survey data revealed a complex relationship between four attitud...

Connecting actors and creating new understandings and relationships are essential for Water Sensitive Cities. Despite the broad academic research discourse in transdisciplinarity, it is unclear how it looks like in practice and how actors interact and engage in different practices to obtain effective environmental outcomes. The aim of this paper is...

Sustainable urban water systems are likely to be hybrids of centralized and decentralized infrastructure, managed as an integrated system in water-sensitive cities. The technology for many of these systems is available. However, social and institutional barriers, which can be understood as deeply embedded risk perceptions, have impeded their implem...

Transition to a sustainable water future such as the water-cycle city will necessitate shared, diversified risk management, which acknowledges the subjective risk perceptions of all stakeholders, including water practitioners. Such risk perceptions might vary with personal and professional characteristics. This study explores the influence of these...

Transition to a water-cycle city, a sustainable urban water management future, requires the implementation of centralised and decentralised systems to augment potable water supply, protect waterways and enhance urban liveability. Risk is simultaneously driving and impeding this transition. However, risk perceptions of water practitioners and how th...

To be effective, wetland management must understand public perceptions, including what people notice when they look at wetlands. Previous studies have investigated wetland perception in terms of attitudes, knowledge and values. None have revealed what people ‘see’. Thus, this study applies a novel methodology associated with Personal Construct Theo...

Risk assessment of traditional stormwater systems has focused on public health issues but, for stormwater harvesting and treatment, risk management is likely to involve a broader range of risks. Although risk perceptions are acknowledged in ranking management priorities, covert risk perceptions need to be understood to allow critical reflection on...

Stormwater harvesting and treatment will be critical systems within water-sensitive cities. Although water practitioners acknowledge the importance of developing stormwater as a water source, their risk perceptions might be barriers. Risk perceptions can be understood within a receptivity framework, with awareness, association, acquisition and appl...

Wetlands are an important landscape element in the water-sensitive city, often managed for their ecological sustainability. However, survival of urban wetlands depends also on their cultural sustainability – that they are preferred, valued and desired. Conventional wisdom holds that aesthetic preferences for wetlands are low, but this has been litt...

Stormwater harvesting and treatment will be a critical system within the water-sensitive city, contributing to water supply, protecting waterways, mitigating heat, reducing drainage infrastructure requirements and enhancing visual amenity. Although water practitioners acknowledge the importance of developing stormwater as a water source, their perc...

Sustainable urban water systems are likely to be hybrids of centralised and decentralised infrastructure, managed as part of the total water cycle in water-sensitive cities. However, social and institutional barriers, including deeply embedded risk perceptions, have impeded their implementation. Current understanding of risk perception is limited i...

Deeply embedded risk perceptions associated with public health and fear of failure have impeded the implementation of sustainable water systems in Australian cities. Technical risk assessment guides risk management in the water industry. Although risk perception has an acknowledged role in this process, in ranking risks to set management priorities...