Int. J. Water, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2014 149 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Emergence of decentralised water and sanitation systems in Melbourne, Australia Dena Fam*, Cynthia Mitchell and Kumi Abeysuriya Institute of Sustainable Futures, University of Technology (UTS), Building 10, Level 11, 235 Jones St., Ultimo, 2000, Sydney, Australia Fax: +61-2-9514-4941 E-mail: Dena.Fam@uts.edu.au E-mail: Cynthia.Mitchell@uts.edu.au E-mail: Kumi.Abeysuriya@uts.edu.au *Corresponding author Abby Mellick Lopes School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney (UWS), Building BB 1.60, Werrington South Campus, Penrith, Australia E-mail: A.Lopes@uws.edu.au Abstract: In Melbourne, Australia, a shift is occurring in the approach to wastewater management. With increased pressure from landscape drivers such as population growth, urbanisation, and over a decade of extended drought conditions, a new model of wastewater management is being explored by Melbourne’s metropolitan water utilities in the development of their latest Metropolitan Sewerage Strategy (MSS). With input from key industry leaders and a broad range of stakeholders a collaborative ‘vision’ of sustainable sewerage services to Melbourne over a 50 year timeframe was developed with decentralised systems emerging as a key, long-term component of service delivery. Drawing on the multi-level perspective (MLP), we investigate the interrelated and reinforcing factors that have driven this shift in perception toward decentralised systems and serious consideration of alternative socio-technical configurations of wastewater management in Melbourne’s future planning strategy. We then explore the process in which cross disciplinary participants from industry, government and civil society articulated their vision of a long term sustainable sanitation future for Melbourne. Keywords: multi-level perspective; decentralised systems; emergence; transition management; visioning; sustainable development; futures planning strategy; Melbourne Sustainable Sewerage Strategy; cross disciplinary collaboration. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Fam, D., Mitchell, C., Abeysuriya, K. and Lopes, A.M. (2014) ‘Emergence of decentralised water and sanitation systems in Melbourne, Australia’, Int. J. Water, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp.149–165.