Introduction
Our communities rely on excellent service from very long-lived infrastructure; infrastructure, which will almost certainly outlast not just our careers but probably our lives.
We all enjoy the benefits provided by these assets and we strive to do even better for future generations.
But we have all experienced the deficiencies in asset capacity borne from the difficulties of forecasting a realistic future for the asset sets we manage.
We can pretty confidently look back and see where our predecessors misstepped in their forecasts and often even identify and understand how and where they went wrong. Such is the advantage of hindsight.
There will be a change in all things, technology, values, and wisdom.
We need to understand this change, embrace and plan for it.
Our communities rely on excellent service from very long-lived infrastructure. Infrastructure that will almost certainly outlast not just our careers but probably our lives.
We all enjoy the benefits provided by these assets and we strive to do even better for future generations.
But we have all experienced the deficiencies in asset capacity borne from the difficulties of forecasting a realistic future for the asset sets we manage.
We can pretty confidently look back and see where our predecessors misstepped in their forecasts and often even identify and understand how and where they went wrong. Such is the advantage of hindsight.
There will be a change in all things, technology, values, and wisdom.
We need to understand this change, embrace and plan for it.
My kingdom for a Crystal Ball!
The future is as uncertain now as it always has been, and we have yet to discover that elusive crystal ball!
Waugh Infrastructure Management was fortunate to have been invited to assist a client who was cognizant of the limitations of the traditional “existing plus growth” approach.
They allowed us to help them broaden and expand their view of possible futures and forecast solutions for water and wastewater services from this knowledge.
How broad is broad?
Very! Broad is very broad indeed. We accepted that the future was unknown and that the views of the people of the future were equally unknown. Their values, thinking, prioritisation and acceptance will be different and possibly quite different.
It’s difficult, but it must be done
The only certainty with a forecast into the distant future is that it will be wrong. Increased knowledge and the combined wisdom of multiple parties was our way to minimise how wrong we would be.
We managed this through collaboration with multiple parties from District and Regional Councils, various Ministries, business and iwi groups, and ultimately scenario development.
The collaboration was supported by research into various legislative instruments, policies and guidance with a focus on the intention rather than the specific application of detail.
“Wisdom is not what comes from reading great books. When it comes to understanding life, experiential learning is the only worthwhile kind, everything else is hearsay” – Joan Erikson
And we learnt and learnt a lot
We became acutely aware of the community’s needs and how the water and wastewater services contributed to meeting those needs.
The needs,
- Public Health,
- Culture and Traditions,
- Ecology and
- Future Needs and Risk,
while not ground-breaking, were no longer disconnected from our
We more confidently understand where new, different or improved services are likely to be needed and, most importantly, why they will be needed.
And we are not finished yet
Armed with collaboratively developed, understood and
Analysis of the District aligning the Needs and Contributions to the community’s unique structure and environment will enable a matrix of solution scenarios to be developed and compared.
Ross Waugh
+64 3 686 6994
CLICK TO EMAIL US
