How to prepare a plan

ANZECC guidelines
These guidelines provide recommended water quality ranges for a number of receiving water environments. These figures should only be used as a guide as receiving environments of a similar type can have naturally differing water quality characteristics (Dept of Environment and Heritage, Australia)

Catchment Management Plans

Regional Environmental Strategies
This is an interactive training tool that guides the user through processes that will assist in preparing and implementing environmental strategies (Australian Local Government Association)

Guidelines for preparing a Waterways Management Program / Catchment Plan (WA Water and Rivers Commission)

Watershed management facilitation (US EPA)
[And more on national / state / local coordination ....]

Putting together a watershed management plan - US site, but generally applicable to Australian conditions.

Controlling sediment and nutrient movement within catchments (CRC Catchment Hydrology)

Watershed Management: Planning and Managing a Successful Project To Control Nonpoint Source Pollution (USA)
Gives a basic project management framework.

Challenges for catchment management agencies: lessons from bureacracies, business and resource management (Zambia)

New Strategies for America's Watersheds (e-book)

NSW Catchment Management Plans

Stormwater Management Plans

Introduction to Urban Stormwater Management in Australia (EA)
a very comprehensive introduction to stormwater management.

Four very good international manuals:

[For the directions to Councils in NSW to prepare Stormwater Management Plans see Existing Plans.]

Preparing Customised Stormwater Plans for Sub-catchments
The sub-catchments are separated into the types of receiving waters that are likely to be affected by stormwater discharge including water supply, estuaries and urban lakes. In order to access this page you will need to click on 'Fact Sheets' and then 'Land Planning' (Stormwater Managers Resource Centre, USA)

Environmental Planning for Stormwater Management in Catchments
A guide to using both environmental and municipal planning tools for stormwater management. Also contains a useful process diagram of steps required for evaluating the environmental characteristics of a catchment before stormwater designs are developed (Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Canada)

NSW Stormwater Management Plans

Water Cycle Management Plans

Australia

NSW Local Government Association's policy on Integrated Water Cycle Management

Water Cycle Management - A Draft Position Paper prepared by the National Committee on Water Engineering for the Institution of Engineers, Australia

Papers on Integrated Water Cycle Management from the 2004 Local Government Water Management Conference

Strategic planning for total water cycle management (conference paper; pdf)

Integrated Water Cycle Management Guidelines for Water Utilities (DEUS, NSW Govt)
For context and more details see Water (DEUS, NSW Govt).

for water cycle management in urban areas, see also Urban Water Cycle Management

United States

Analytical Methods and Approaches for Water Resources Project Planning (e-book)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources Planning: A New Opportunity for Service (e-book)

Review Procedures for Water Resources Project Planning (USA) (e-book)
"Corps of Engineers feasibility studies for such projects are today generally more comprehensive and more complex than in the past, and they are often conducted in a politically charged environment. [...] The complexity of some Corps planning studies and the challenges to some of these studies [...] led Congress to request the National Academies to provide advice on implementing improved review procedures for Corps water resources planning studies."

Managing Wastewater in Coastal Urban Areas (e-book)

NSW Water Managment Plans

Checking in ...

We suggest checking in with yourself, as you plan, taking time to notice and explore any places where you feel uneasy or unsure ...

This is a practical application of 'listening to ourselves' - allowing our tacit, implicit, knowledge ... our 'feel' for what is going on to inform what we do ... As Polanyi, Gendlin and others have underlined, we each know more than it is easy to say.

For more on how to 'use gut feel skillfully', see Listening to ourselves.

Have you contemplated sourcing additional funds so you can take a more innovative approach?	Funding and financing
Who will be affected by your plan?	Who has a stake in catchment management
Does your plan make ecological sense? What will its ecological outcomes be?	Environmental and socioeconomic systems analysis
How will you negotiate agreement on the plan's contents?	Principled negotiation
Have you considered the importance of uncertainty and surprise in developing your plan? Is your plan likely to be reslient and flexible?	Adaptive management