Management of urban waterways in Melbourne, Australia: 1. current status

Urban waterways (rivers, wetlands and estuaries) are highly valued assets in cities throughout the world, and for this reason there is now increased global interest in the effective management of these assets. This paper uses a review of the historical evolution of urban waterway management in the city of greater Melbourne (Australia) over the past 50 years to draw out the major practice changes and lessons learned that we believe will be relevant to other cities. Further, we have used this information to develop a conceptual framework for urban waterway management consisting of three broad components: enabler actions (policy/management strategies; links to catchments; links to urban planning); outcomes (enhanced environmental values; community values; indigenous cultural values); and knowledge to assess progress with the strategy implementation and potential area for modification (adaptive management). In a companion paper we consider future challenges, due to climate change, population growth and increased urbanisation, and the need to more closely link urban waterway management and green city planning (Hart et al., in preparation).