The water sector must construct infrastructure at scale over the approaching many years. Forward of her keynote handle 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 assets means a collaborative strategy is important.
The water business faces a monumental problem: delivering the huge infrastructure wanted to satisfy future calls for, whereas navigating a posh panorama of competing tasks in vitality, transport and communications.
Tasks with sturdy early stakeholder engagement usually tend to lead to 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 standard language and main observe on infrastructure planning.
On the Water Trade Discussion board’s annual dinner in Leeds on 25 September, cross-sector analysis and insights from LIPP will probably be shared, which present how planning consent for infrastructure tasks could be achieved, and the way essential initiatives could be developed and delivered in an economical manner that builds group assist.
Balancing wants
Balancing nationwide and native wants in infrastructure planning choices 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 objectives. Based in 2023, LIPP goals to pay attention and incorporate the views of key public curiosity stakeholders, together with social and environmental teams, within the improvement of excellent observe and moral approaches to the implementation of latest 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 rework 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 akin to electrical energy transmission traces and main water pipelines.
It highlights new applied sciences and the modifications 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 growing metrics in these areas, together with the necessity for sturdy information and methods of rating and weighing-up totally different metrics.
Knowledgeable decision-making
England faces a essential land scarcity. A rising inhabitants must be housed, whereas producing sufficient meals, defending nature and tackling local weather change. Regardless of the extraordinary 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, akin to vitality, which could be drawn on to assist the water sector navigate present and future challenges. The vitality sector is grappling with challenges in grid improvement, with public opposition to the enlargement of energy traces wanted to move renewable vitality to inhabitants centres.
The water sector can be taught 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 imagine the water sector will probably be well-placed to streamline the infrastructure planning course of and supply into the subsequent asset administration plan (AMP) interval – 2025-30, and past.
Sharon Darcy will handle the Water Trade Discussion board Annual Dinner in Leeds on 25 September 2024. To register, go to https://www.britishwater.co.uk/occasions/EventDetails.aspx?id=1841149&group=
