Standardised water accounting: A workable policy tool to improve management of water resources in New Zealand? A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Environmental Policy

Abstract

This dissertation explores the concept of Standardised Water Accounting, and its potential as a workable policy tool to achieve sustainable and integrated water management outcomes in New Zealand at a catchment level. Standardised Water Accounting is a sub-discipline of financial accounting, which seeks to establish a framework by which to record, monitor, evaluate, and publish information about water. The research sets out a theoretical analytical framework to evaluate accounting as a conscious social device employed as a technology of legitimacy and control, and its desirability as a policy tool. An illustrative case study is then presented, outlining the state of water metering in New Zealand and the groundwater modelling techniques employed in the Waikanae catchment to show how such a framework might be informed in practice, and to demonstrate the practical limitations and risks inherent in wholesale simplification of management through the reliance on quantitative methodologies such as accounting. The research finds that New Zealand does not currently have in place sufficient monitoring or metering networks to accurately trace flows of water through a catchment, and modelling techniques contain inherent uncertainties and assumptions that compromise their credibility in providing useful data to supply such a framework. When considered with the social and institutional implications of accounting as a technology of legitimacy and control, it is concluded that such a system may not truthfully reflect the physical realities of hydrological processes and such a reductionist approach to management may compromise management outcomes. The research concludes with a list of recommendations for the hypothetical implementation of a Standardised Water Accounting framework, in recognition of the high likelihood of such a system being adopted in the near future.