Sustainable development indicators for urban water systems? Case studies on prerequisites and demand.

Paper i proceeding, 2005

Research on the use of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) within organizations and companies shows that the present management of sustainability information is often poorly coordinated and lacking in focus. The goal of this project is to conduct an analysis of the information needs of stakeholders in the water sector and to formulate a specification of requirements for effective and efficient sustainability information systems supporting different applications. This is to be achieved through a series of case studies of Swedish water companies/organizations. The first case study was performed within a municipally owned and governed water organization serving approximately 190 000 people. Employees at different levels of the organization were interviewed on their view on sustainable development and the role of information and indicators in this context. The results show that most of the informants consider the present urban water system to be well in line with their vision of sustainable development. There are numerous financial and environmental indicators in use for monitoring and reporting within the organization, but no indicators connected to targets of sustainable development or integrating the different aspects of sustainability. There is a request for such indicators among planners and strategists, but little interest among other informants.