Across Australia and globally, academics, waterway managers, and decision makers have developed and applied many different frameworks to prioritise waterway bank naturalisation, restoration, and improvement works. These varying approaches incorporate ecological and socio-economic values into decision support frameworks. However, a key challenge in applying any of these frameworks in an urban context is how to address the scale and diversity of potential waterway improvement opportunities.
This challenge is being addressed in the Parramatta River Catchment Group’s (PRCG) ‘Bank Naturalisation and Priority Corridors project’. The 266 km2 Parramatta River catchment includes approximately 212 km of waterways, ranging from concrete channels to almost completely natural streams. In this context, the project needed to consider equally both socio-economic and ecological values. The project also required a tool which could synthesize and filter information about hundreds of options into a short-list of priorities.
This paper will review established frameworks and their features. It will outline the framework developed for the PRCG and describe how it was applied to 287 waterway sections to identify a short list of 35 priority sections.
The paper will also evaluate how the framework supported the subsequent decision-making process, where the short list was further refined in collaboration with stakeholders, and six sections selected for design development. The six concept designs display geographical and typological distribution and diversity, highlighting decision-making challenges and opportunities.
Many of the lessons learned from the process can be applied in other catchments and by other waterway managers and stakeholders, including local communities.