Development and user testing of the ICT-platform Visual Water supporting sustainable municipal stormwater planning

Abstract

The need to develop sustainable stormwater management is intensifying due to climate impacts and urban densification. Such complex planning processes require insights into disparate issues, connecting heterogeneous actors. While many decision-support tools are developed to facilitate such planning, research assessing their usefulness is requested. This study introduces and assesses one such ICT-tool; the Visual Water platform, aiming to support sustainable stormwater planning in Swedish municipalities. The study aims to identify critical points to consider for developers of related decision-support tools and to detangle requirements and tradeoffs in making them relevant and user-friendly, building on test-sessions with Swedish practitioners. Results show that the platform responds to challenges within municipal planning as outlined by Swedish practitioners. However, though the platform content is considered relevant, its application in real-world planning is perceived as somewhat unclear. The paper discusses ideas for how sustainability-related decision-support tools better can respond to user demands.