The water sector must construct infrastructure at scale over the approaching a long time. Forward of her keynote deal with to the Water Trade Discussion board on 25 September, Sharon Darcy, chair of the Linear Infrastructure Planning Panel, says competing calls for with different sectors over allocation of sources means a collaborative method is significant.
The water trade faces a monumental problem: delivering the huge infrastructure wanted to fulfill future calls for, whereas navigating a fancy panorama of competing tasks in power, transport and communications.
Initiatives with strong early stakeholder engagement usually tend to end in success, which is why the Linear Infrastructure Planning Panel (LIPP) works throughout utility sectors, with representatives from group teams, non-governmental organisations and different exterior stakeholders, to develop a typical language and main follow on infrastructure planning.
On the Water Trade Discussion board’s annual dinner in Leeds on 25 September, cross-sector analysis and insights from LIPP shall be shared, which present how planning consent for infrastructure tasks might be achieved, and the way crucial initiatives might be developed and delivered in a cheap method that builds group assist.
Balancing wants
Balancing nationwide and native wants in infrastructure planning selections is notoriously troublesome, however it’s a problem that must be confronted if the water sector goes to ship on internet zero carbon, resilience and different nationwide targets. Based in 2023, LIPP goals to hear and incorporate the views of key public curiosity stakeholders, together with social and environmental teams, within the improvement of excellent follow and moral approaches to the implementation of recent methods, together with algorithms and superior software program instruments, in linear infrastructure planning.
LIPP revealed a white paper in March 2024, ‘Delivering internet zero, resilience and nature restoration: How new instruments and approaches can remodel infrastructure planning’, which has already fed into UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee reporting on sustainable electrification. The report attracts on intensive engagement with key stakeholders and appears on the social, environmental and financial metrics used within the spatial planning of infrastructure corresponding to electrical energy transmission traces and main water pipelines.
It highlights new applied sciences and the adjustments wanted to procurement processes to make sure profitable supply of infrastructure that’s important in assembly internet zero targets and resilience to local weather impacts. The paper additionally explores methods of managing uncertainty when creating metrics in these areas, together with the necessity for strong knowledge and methods of rating and weighing-up completely different metrics.
Knowledgeable decision-making
England faces a crucial land scarcity. A rising inhabitants must be housed, whereas producing sufficient meals, defending nature and tackling local weather change. Regardless of the extreme competitors for land, there isn’t a system in place to handle it successfully.
Attendees on the WIF annual dinner will hear a swathe of insights from different industries, corresponding to power, which might be drawn on to assist the water sector navigate present and future challenges. The power sector is grappling with challenges in grid improvement, with public opposition to the growth of energy traces wanted to move renewable power to inhabitants centres.
The water sector can study from these experiences by integrating technical and spatial planning a lot earlier within the decision-making course of. The latest King’s Speech outlining the brand new Planning & Infrastructure Invoice acknowledges the necessity for superior spatial planning that considers a number of infrastructure sectors.
By becoming a member of up technical planning with spatial planning, studying from different sectors, and thru early strategic stakeholder engagement, I consider the water sector shall be well-placed to streamline the infrastructure planning course of and supply into the following asset administration plan (AMP) interval – 2025-30, and past.
Sharon Darcy will deal with the Water Trade Discussion board Annual Dinner in Leeds on 25 September 2024. To register, go to https://www.britishwater.co.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1841149&group=
