Drawing up a job in water sensitive urban design

What is water sensitive urban design?

Urban landscapes are largely covered by hard surfaces, such as roads and footpaths, that are impervious to water. This means that rainfall and surface runoff (from hoses, sprinklers, etc) has less opportunity to infiltrate soils, like what would occur in a natural environment. Stormwater is the excess runoff in these urban landscapes, which is drained directly from hard surfaces into our waterways. It often carries untreated urban pollutants, such as oil, fertilisers and litter.

All of this, together with the timing and volume of stormwater runoff, can create harmful conditions for our aquatic environments.

Spotting the benefits

The challenge lies in how urban communities can benefit from this. Urban residents have a suggested daily water use target of 150 litres. They are further encouraged to use water wisely through state-wide permanent water saving rules. We can all play our role too, by remembering water is a precious and limited resource.

We can protect our waterways, improve water security and manage flood risk by reducing the amount of excess stormwater runoff. This integrated approach to urban planning that manages the quantity and quality of water within urban environments is known as water sensitive urban design (WSUD). It is a component of Integrated Water Management.

Capturing stormwater runoff improves our water security by utilising sustainable sources of water where high quality water is not required. For example, stormwater can be captured and used for watering sports fields, parkland and public gardens. The use of stormwater to maintain plant-life in cities can also improve liveability. This is because greenery assists in urban cooling and reduces the ‘heat island’ effect.

Urban greenery also encourages biodiversity by attracting birds, insects and reptiles.

WSUD covers a range of features that can facilitate the harvesting and use of stormwater. It involves designing urban landscapes in such a way that allows stormwater to be naturally filtered by vegetation, gravel or sand, and possibly reused. Some strategies that improve a city’s climate resistance include:

raingardens
rooftop gardens or green roofs
swales and infiltration trenches
raised boardwalks
porous pathways
rainwater tanks.

Case study

Fishermans Bend is developing into Australia’s largest water sensitive city. It uses these urban design strategies to reduce stormwater pollution and boost the urban ecology. This video explains how.

Watch the video

Fishermans Bend Water Sensitive City Strategy Animation (6 min 2 sec)

Meet the expert

Todd Berry of the Department of Transport and Planning discusses Water Sensitive Urban Design, his role on the Fishermans Bend Task Force, and how returning to studies led to a career working in water and sustainability.