Why and how to track co-benefits or social and cultural outcomes (#103)
Tamara Boyd
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- INtrinsic SCOPE Pty Ltd, Alfredton, VIC, Australia
- Healthy waterways underpin a healthy society and culture. It is vital that managers can communicate the social and cultural benefits in order to build the case for waterway care and investment. In recent years the approach has evolved, however more needs to be done to advance from anecdotes to evidence of tangible outcomes.
- Having scoped the social benefits and consequent economic value of delivering environmental outcomes for Victoria’s waterways, I developed a series of case studies and infographics illustrating the spectrum of ecosystem services which flow from waterway management activities. This lead to the development of quantitative indicators for tracking the social and cultural outcomes of waterway works, for use in long-term MERI planning and performance reporting.
- It is increasingly important that managers can plan for, and provide evidence-based reporting on, the multiple benefits of waterway management. There is reluctance however, particularly if approaches are inconsistent, complex or too expensive to routinely apply. I believe this can be overcome by finding or creating practical indicators that complement existing frameworks and can demonstrate tangible results that are meaningful not only to waterway managers, but also to the community and other key stakeholders.
- Waterway managers often undersell the work they do by not having the information required to convincingly communicate the shared benefits that they deliver over time. The work I’ve undertaken in recent years, together with the insights I’ve gleaned, can contribute to helping practitioners more confidently report the social and cultural benefits of looking after our waterways.
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