Water Sensitive Hornsby

This Water Sensitive Hornsby Strategy defines a vision of a water sensitive future for Hornsby Shire, and outlines the broad steps for Council to take to transition towards this future. The project developed and applied methods and tools of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC) designed to consider a city’s long-term water aspirations, benchmark current water sensitive performance and explore strategic priorities for the short- to medium-term that will be important in pursuing its water sensitive city vision. These approaches have helped situate Hornsby Shire on its water sensitive city transition journey and identified the critical interventions to enable progress.

Since the early 1990s, Council has led the way in the implementation of water sensitive urban design, largely through the Catchments Remediation Rate program. Despite this proactive approach, challenges still exist, such as changing government priorities, impacts from existing and future development and increasing pressure on water systems from climate change. Council needs to plan wisely to adequately service a growing population in a warming and drying climate, while ensuring sustainable, environmental, and liveability outcomes for the region.

The purpose of this Strategy is to provide a framework for orienting and coordinating strategic action across the many different stakeholders who will need to collaborate for Hornsby Shire’s envisioned water future to be achieved. The Strategy provides a snapshot of Hornsby Shire’s performance and transition progress at this point in time and in relation to moving forward identifies actions designed to progress Hornsby Shire’s transition towards a water sensitive city.

The Water Sensitive Hornsby Strategy, adopted by Council in March 2021, fits under the Environmental Sustainability Strategy – Sustainable Hornsby 2040 and is part of the Sustainability theme of the Community Strategic Plan 2018-2028.