Sustainable management of the Christchurch-West Melton aquifers: an evaluation of cross-national comparative research

Abstract

Management of the groundwater resource beneath Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains has received much attention recently. Concerns are growing that the water is being abstracted at a rate which is faster than it can replenish itself. Research to date has concentrated on physical aspects of the aquifer system such as hydrology and geology, while management approaches for the city supply have concentrated on implementation of volume-based charges. The problem focus appears to be how to set price structure and price level to effect water conservation.

Given that sustainable management of the resource is the goal, the problem defined and the management approach are too narrow to recognise and include the complex interconnections between the physical, social, economic and cultural systems in the environment. I identified a need for an interdisciplinary perspective in resource management, as a way of broadening the management problem, to include the complex environmental interconnections. I evaluate cross-national comparative research as a possible method for putting interdisciplinarity into practise.

The research approach proves to be sympathetic to interdisciplinarity because of a traditional association with qualitative case studies. In this method situations are examined as whole units. Outcomes and characteristics are usually explained in terms of configurations of features of the environment. Configurations of environmental characteristics require interdisciplinary study to be interpreted.

The evaluation illustrates on a general level that cross-national comparative approaches to research are suitable for gathering information about the complex interconnections of the environment for sustainable management of the aquifers. However, the research is not conclusive. There questions outside the scope of this study which require analysis before the research question can be adequately answered. These are outlined in the research agenda.