Collaborative water planning: retrospective case studies. Water planning in the Gulf of Carpentaria

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This report reviews the water planning process in the Gulf of Carpentaria undertaken between 2003 and 2007 by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water.

The context of the water planning process for the region is briefly summarised, through reference to the social and economic profile compiled as part of the planning process and other profiling processes for the region.

The history of cultivation of water resources in the Gulf is then examined. A description of the water planning process is also provided. This process is then evaluated in section four against a series of criteria based on the literature review in Volume 1 of this report (Tan et al 2008).

These criteria, derived from recent literature on the evaluation of collaborative processes, examine the effectiveness of collaboration:

as a mechanism for improved decision-making, including governance arrangements, due process and the reconciliation of competing knowledge claims;

as a facilitator of social process; including improved relationships, conflict resolution;

as a means of obtaining improved outcomes, including efficiency, equity, and wider social perception of the process; and

as a pathway for catalytic changes in the community.