Benchmarking Success: A Framework for Fidelity Assessment in Local Councils’ Rainwater Harvesting Policy Adherence

Implementation fidelity has been widely assessed in health and policy research, however, its application within the built environment remains conceptually fragmented and inconsistently operationalised. The aim of this paper is to unveil the relationship between regulatory provisions, implementation strategies and fidelity in the context of rainwater harvesting enforcement at the local government level. A comprehensive framework for assessing rainwater harvesting policy adherence across contexts is developed by identifying and synthesising patterns from implementation science literature, prior built environment research and insights derived from two empirical studies in Malaysia. The analysis reveals an outer-setting regulatory layer and two interrelated inner-setting tiers that translate policy inputs into fidelity outcomes: Tier 1 comprises organisational-level implementation strategies (interventions and organisational factors), while Tier 2 represents the individual-level enactment mechanism in which employee characteristics position frontline actors as interpretive mediators whose judgements directly influence adherence. Considered together, these layers demonstrate that implementation fidelity is shaped by the interaction between regulatory design, organisational coherence and the interpretive practices of employees responsible for enforcement, through which policy intent is translated, mediated and at times diluted in practice. The framework further shows that fidelity gaps emerge not solely from resource constraints, but from regulatory ambiguity, fragmented organisational support and discretionary judgement, challenging assumptions that clearer by-laws or additional resources alone can secure consistent enforcement. The framework, therefore, provides a coherent basis for assessing policy adherence. By consolidating key implementation concepts into a structured, consensus-oriented taxonomy, the framework reduces terminological ambiguity and strengthens conceptual clarity for future fidelity research in the built environment.