Integrated catchment management plans and catchment management plans - what have we created?

In simple terms, Integrated Catchment Management Plans (ICMPS) and Catchment Management Plans (CMPS) are intended to be tools for managing water resources and land use on a catchment scale. However, there is a wide range of differing interpretations and thus confusion about both what these plans are intended to do and how they should be applied. This has resulted in issues with their effective implementation and lost opportunities in achieving environmental benefits and infrastructure integration as well as a plethora of such documents being produced at great cost with very little national consistency and real challenges for those responsible for their implementation. This paper will explore these and other issues identified through our national experiences with ICMPs and CMPs. The paper will conclude with a series of suggestions on how the ICMP and CMP process and implementation can be improved to ensure that ICMPs and CMPs are understood in terms of their purpose and thus effectively developed and implemented.