Education has been viewed by many organisations as an important non-structural stormwater management tool with considerable investment made to support it. Stormwater education activities have included media campaigns, signage, stormwater drain stenciling and industry training courses. They aim to change the behaviour of sectors of the community whose activities are thought to impact on stormwater quality (and quantity) and the health of waterways. Yet, have these stormwater education programs been effective in changing behaviour and achieve water quality improvements? According to research, the answer is ‘in some cases’. However, there is certainly a formula for effective stormwater education - this is developed in this paper.

1. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
HOW CAN WE MAKE STORMWATER EDUCATION
MORE EFFECTIVE?
Neil Dufty, Principal, Molino Stewart Pty Ltd
1. STORMWATER EDUCATION
Education has been viewed by many organisations as an important non-structural
stormwater management tool with considerable investment made to support it.
Stormwater education activities have included media campaigns, signage, stormwater
drain stenciling and industry training courses. They aim to change the behaviour of
sectors of the community whose activities are thought to impact on stormwater quality
(and quantity) and the health of waterways.
Yet, have these stormwater education programs been effective in changing behaviour
and achieve water quality improvements? According to research, the answer is ‘in some
cases’. There is certainly a formula for effective stormwater education - this will be
developed in this paper.
2. BEHAVIOUR CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Behaviour is what people do. People may perform a host of environmentally appropriate
and inappropriate behaviours every day.
Governments around the world have made numerous legal agreements that commit their
countries to take responsibility for a suite of actions to change and move society
towards sustainability. Such progress to sustainability depends on the behaviour of
people in all walks of life, requiring changes in their way of thinking, living and
working.
Where possible, it is therefore important to place stormwater management (including
non-structural behavior change activities) in a sustainability context instead of treating it
in isolation. This may mean lobbying planners to include stormwater management in
local, regional, state and national sustainability plans.
The advantage of this approach, apart from working towards more holistic goals, is for
stormwater management to benefit strategically and cumulatively from links with other
specialised activity e.g. biodiversity actions such as Landcare. In other words, ‘there is
strength in working towards the common good’. It also helps ensure longevity of
behaviour change strategies by sharing ownership across the community.
1

2. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
Molino Stewart (2004) recently developed a strategic sustainability education
framework for the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie region of NSW. Concentrating on
the ’environmental ‘ part of the triple bottom line, it used regionally acknowledged
sustainability outcomes (see Figure 1) as the basis for the development of behaviour
change strategies (including stormwater education).
Clean Air
Good Quality Water
Conserved Cultural
Heritage
Efficient Resource
Use
Conserved
Biodiversity
HEALTHY &
SUSTAINABLE
ENVIRONMENTS
Healthy Aquatic
Systems
Healthy and
Productive Land
Liveable Urban
Environments
Figure 1: Recommended environmental sustainability outcomes for the
Central Coast and Lake Macquarie region
To effectively direct strategies, a suite of ‘best management practice’ behaviours was
identified for each environmental outcome. An example of the behaviours related to
stormwater management is shown in Figure 2.
Use water sensitive urban design
Mulch gardens
Bin dog droppings
HEALTHY &
SUSTAINABLE
ENVIRONMENT
GOOD QUALITY
WATER
Use fertiliser sparingly
Use pesticides appropriately
Shop with reusable bags
Figure 2: Example of stormwater behaviours linked to regional outcomes
2

3. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
3. STORMWATER EDUCATION AND OTHER NON-STRUCTURAL
TOOLS
There are several classifications of non-structural stormwater management tools. In this
paper, four classes of tools are identified:
1. Regulation e.g. environmental licences
2. Planning e.g. town planning instruments, stormwater management plans
3. Incentives e.g. grants, subsidies
4. Education (including communications)
There may be benefit in combining activities from several of these classes of nonstructural tools to change behaviour. According to Young et al. (1996), prospects for
changing behaviour will always be greater ‘if direct regulatory approaches are overlain
with a web of mechanisms that create a financially attractive and voluntary atmosphere
that encourages cooperation and the sharing of information’.
On the other hand, with constraints such as staffing and budget an organisation may
have to be more discerning and choose activities from only one of the classes. Figure 3
provides a model to help this decision using the four classes as tiers in a triangle. The
lower tiers, including education, are seen as best to address diffuse pollution sources
where appropriate community behaviour is critical. The upper tiers are best suited for
point source pollution issues such as improving sewage treatment plants.
Point Source
Specific groups
Regulation
Planning
Incentives
Education & Communications
Diffuse
Community
Figure 3: Model to help choose non-structural stormwater management
tools to change behaviour
3

4. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
4. STORMWATER EDUCATION IS MORE THAN AWARENESS
The focus on behaviour change to achieve sustainability has led to a re-think of
approaches to environmental education (including stormwater education). Monroe, Day
and Grieser (2000) argue that ‘knowledge alone doesn’t help or harm the environment.
Human attitudes don’t harm or help the environment. Human behaviours, on the other
hand, have greatly harmed, yet hold a great deal of hope for helping the environment.
Those of us who work for environmental sustainability must address human behaviour’.
Similarly, Neiswinder and Shepard (2002) state that to be successful environmental
education ‘programs must go beyond making people aware of the problem and rather
should focus on changing critical behaviours’.
The NSW government through its NSW Environmental Education Plan 2002-05 has
embraced the move from traditional environmental education to that which targets
behaviour change leading towards sustainability. The Plan notes that ’in NSW the focus
of environmental education programs has shifted in recent years, due to a deeper
understanding of the causes of environmental problems and how to prevent them’. It
concludes that these changes in the direction of environmental education may be
described as moving towards ‘education for sustainability’.
Implications of this shift in environmental education focus are summarised in Table 1.
Table 1: Differences between ‘traditional’ environmental education and
‘education for sustainability’ (EFS)
ASPECT
Problem
TRADITIONAL
APPROACH
Pollution/end of the pipe
Education
methods
Environmental
protection
Humans separate from
ecosystems
Present/short term
Awareness and
knowledge
Predominantly
information-based
Learners
Implementation
Audiences/target groups
Mainly top down
Legitimacy
Predominantly technical
expertise
Solution
Connectedness
Time frame
Goals
4
NEW EFS
APPROACH
Pollution/source
reduction
Sustainability solutions
Humans as part of
ecosystems
Future/long term
Changed behaviours,
practices and structures
Participatory and
experiential learning,
community development
and capacity-building
Participants/stakeholders
Through
partnerships/networks
Based on different ways
of knowing

5. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
5. ENABLERS AND BARRIERS
Stormwater education programs can be developed using the EFS approach outlined in
Table 1 yet struggle to be effective because enabling factors (or ‘enablers’) such as
appropriate community capacity, resourcing and institutional arrangements are not in
place. Similarly, the education programs may be constrained by ‘barriers’ such as
language, level of funding and lack of recognition.
Enablers are ‘catalysts’ for stormwater education programs to achieve behaviour change
(see Figure 4). The enabling factors may need to be built, modified, extended or better
coordinated to ensure the effectiveness of the program. Likewise, efforts may need to be
made to ‘break down’ or resolve barriers prior to program inception.
Institutional arrangements
Networks
Education
Programs
Sustainability knowledge
Resourcing
ENABLERS
Partnerships
Behaviour
change
Infrastructure
Leadership
Information sharing
Figure 4: Some factors that enable stormwater education programs to
achieve community behaviour change
6. THE PARTICIPATORY APPROACH.
According to Taylor and Wong (2002), participatory stormwater education programs,
‘promoting community involvement in defining problems and implementing strategies
are seen by most authors as more effective than traditional educational initiatives
developed by experts and imposed on a target audience’. Some drain stencilling and
Waterwatch/Streamwatch programs are examples of the participatory approach.
There has been increasing concern about the use of traditional ‘top-down’ approaches to
environmental education particularly by government agencies and local councils (Baker
2002). This ‘traditional’ approach involves communities receiving information mainly
through one-way dissemination e.g. agency or council media releases, publications. It
can alienate the ‘recipient’ from the decision-making process thus inhibiting sustainable
behaviour change.
5

6. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
Elcome and Baines (1999) have developed a continuum (Figure 5) that shows a range of
community participation levels in environmental education programs.
No influence over outcomes
Informing
Consulting
Total influence over outcomes
Deciding
Together
Acting
Together
Supporting
Community
Decisions
Figure 5: Community participation levels
Organisations should seek to use the more participative levels in the continuum for
stormwater education programs. Allen, Kilvington and Horn (2002) suggest the
‘increased user involvement not only helps keep research and information transfer
relevant, and encourages stakeholders to take ownership of outcomes. It also provides
key people in the wider community who have to work together with new ideas and
perspectives, which they will share with others thus paving the way for improved user
thinking and change’.
Participation in stormwater education programs can lead communities towards
empowerment. Empowerment enables communities to decide on and set their own
pathways towards sustainability.
Page and Czuba (1999) stress that ‘to create change we must change individually to
enable us to become partners in solving the complex issues facing us. In collaborations
based on mutual respect, diverse perspectives, and a developing vision, people work
towards creative and realistic solutions. This synthesis of individual and collective
change is our understanding of the empowerment process.’
7. THE VALUE OF EVALUATION
A major weakness of many stormwater (and environmental) education programs is a
lack of evaluation. According to McDuff (2002), ‘the majority of environmental
education programs do not integrate ongoing evaluation into educational programming’.
In relation to stormwater education programs, Taylor and Wong (2002) have found that
‘the data analysis and reporting’ aspects of evaluation are ’often poor’. Reasons for this
include a change in personnel, lack of resourcing and short time frame of projects.
6

7. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
Evaluation should be planned and commence at the beginning of a program or project.
Where possible, it should be participative involving stakeholders. It should direct
continual improvement throughout the program.
A model for evaluating the appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of a program
integrated with planning is shown in Figure 6.
SITUATION
(Reason for program)
APPROPRIATENESS
OBJECTIVES
(What do we want to achieve)
EFFECTIVENESS
EFFICIENCY
INPUTS
(What we invest)
e.g. staff, time, money,
materials, partners
OUTPUTS
(What we do, who we reach)
e.g. training for Council staff
OUTCOMES
(Impacts)
e.g. learning, behaviour
change, long term benefits
I
N
F
L
E
N
C
I
N
G
F
A
C
T
O
R
S
Figure 6: Elements of the Logic Model for program planning including
evaluation
A particular concern for evaluating the effectiveness of stormwater education programs
is the reliance on self-reporting as an indicator of resultant behaviour change. According
to Taylor and Wong (2002), ‘research indicates that self-reporting of behaviour change
can, in some contexts, be unreliable and misleading’. Self-reported behaviour (e.g.
littering, recycling, tree planting) needs to be verified, where possible, in evaluation.
7

8. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
8. CLOSING TIPS
Everyone’s an educator! This is a double-edged sword: we all are involved in providing
some type of education during our lives but it may not necessarily be effective. The
same rings true for stormwater education: they are many providers but not all of their
programs are effective in achieving appropriate behaviour.
Based on the discussion in this paper, the Figure 7 provides a framework for strategic
planning of stormwater education programs.
STORMWATER EDUCATION PROGRAM
E
N
A
B
L
E
R
S
BARRIERS
BARRIERS
SUSTAINABILITY BEHAVIOURS
SUSTAINABILITY
Figure 7: A framework for strategic planning of a stormwater
education program
More specifically, the following tips are provided to make stormwater education
programs more effective:
•
Identify appropriate behaviours and ways to measure these behaviours
8

9. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
• Link education activities with other non-structural management tools
•
Use a participatory approach with participants to planning, implementation and
evaluation
•
Direct program activities to behavior change and not awareness
•
Identify enablers and strengthen them if possible
•
Identify barriers and attempt to overcome them
•
Plan evaluation as an on-going process leading to continual improvement of the
program
REFERENCES
Allen, W, Kilvington, M., & Horn, C. (2002). Using Participatory and Learning-based
Approaches for Environmental Management to help achieve Behaviour Change.
Wellington, NZ: Landcare Research Report.
Baker, E. (2002). Preparing for Evaluation: Lessons from capacity building for natural
resource management. Paper presented to the 2002 Australasian Evaluation Society
International Conference.
Elcome, D., & Baines, J. (1999). Steps to success – working with residents and
neighbours to develop and implement plans for protected areas. Switzerland: IUCN
Commission on Education and Communication.
McDuff, M. (2002). Needs Assessment for Participatory Evaluation of Environmental
Education Programs. Applied Environmental Education and Communication Vol
1pp25-36
Molino Stewart (2004). The Central Coast and Lake Macquarie Environmental
Education Strategic Framework. Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management
Authority
Monroe, M.C., Day, B.A., & Grieser, M. (2000). GreenCom Weaves Four Strands. In
Day, B.A. & Monroe, M.C. (Eds.) Environmental Education and Communication for a
Sustainable World: Handbook for International Practioners. Washington D.C.:
Academy for Educational Development.
Neiswinder, C., & Shepard, R. (2002). Elements of Successful Stormwater Outreach
and Education. University of Wisconsin Extension Paper. Madison USA: University of
Wisconsin.
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10. Stormwater Industry Association 2005 Regional Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW
SUSTAINABLE STORMWATER: You Are Responsible - Justify Your Decisions.
20-21 April 2005
NSW Council on Environmental Education (2002). Learning for Sustainability: NSW
Environmental Education Plan 2002-05. Sydney: NSW Government.
Page, N., & Czuba, C.E. (1999). Empowerment: What is it? Journal of Extension, Vol
37, No 5, October 1999.
Taylor, A., & Wong T. (2002). Non-structural Stormwater Quality Best Management
Practices – A Literature Review of their Value. CRC Technical Report. Canberra, ACT,
Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology
Young, M.D., Gunningham, N., Elix, J., Lambert.J. Howard, B., Grabosky, P., &
McGrone, E. (1996). Reinbursing the Future: An Evaluation Of Motivational,
Voluntary, Price-based, Property-right and Regulatory Incentives for the Conservation
of Biodiversity. Canberra: Division of Wildlife and Ecology, the Australian Centre for
Environmental Law and Community Solutions.
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