Industrial Sustainability Through Water Sensitive Design: Attitudes, Barriers, and Economic Valuation in New Zealand

Rapid urbanization and a warming climate are intensifying water pressures in cities, and many are turning to Water Sensitive Design (WSD) to respond. Yet public views on applying these principles within industrial parks remain little known. We survey residents living next to Auckland’s industrial precincts to assess local environmental perceptions, identify barriers to WSD in industrial areas, and estimate its nonmarket value using a travel cost approach. Residents with higher education, higher incomes, and shorter residency tend to report greater satisfaction with their surroundings. Access to green space and convenient transport is strongly associated with improved quality of life, while noise and vehicle emissions are linked to lower satisfaction. The most frequently cited obstacles to implementation are ongoing maintenance demands, high costs, and limited stakeholder engagement. Our valuation shows that WSD in industrial areas delivers substantial nonmarket benefits, yielding large annual gains for the industrial areas studied. These results underline the need to embed community preferences and socioeconomic realities in the design, siting, and maintenance of water-sensitive measures, so that industrial districts become cleaner and more liveable while meeting regulatory goals.