Water Sensitive Cities Australia at OzWater2025

Affordable, sustainable and living housing solutions

Affordability and liveability are at the heart of Australia’s housing crisis.

Chris Manning joined Mellissa Bradley (Water Sensitive SA), Shelley Shepherd (Urbaqua), Phillip Birtles (Sydney Water) and facilitator Elsinore Mann (Water Sensitive SA) to explore how water sensitive urban design can deliver the twin goals of affordable housing AND liveable and sustainable communities.

These are some of the key takeaways from the workshop:

• Engage in the planning process early and with purpose, because effective integration of water servicing and land use planning is essential for realising desired outcomes. For example, a WSCA project with the WA Government demonstrates how WSUD principles can be applied to small infill development. The former CRC for Water Sensitive Cities also provided guidance for facilitating water sensitive urban development through planning integration.
• Help build compelling business cases for solutions that capture ALL the benefits WSUD generates over many years, particularly those benefits that can be difficult to value. For example, the Value Tool, the Lifecycle Costs Tool and the Benefit-Cost Analysis Tool can help practitioners identify, measure and assess these benefits.
• Keep fostering the next generation of WSUD champions including among disciplines such as planning, architecture, landscape architecture, health and waterway protection.

Audience feedback suggested the panel achieved its goal in prompting people to think about the problem differently and inspired them to help spread the message.

Nature-based solutions to achieve nature positive outcomes

‘Nature positive’ solutions to water-related challenges – floods, pollution, overextraction of water resources, extreme heat, water scarcity, river and catchment degradation – focus on restoring species, rebuilding ecosystems and regenerating natural systems.

Katharine Cross joined Ryan Yuen (Singapore International Water Week (SIWW)), Dr Mark Fletcher (Arup), Matthew Dadswell (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water) and Meg Cummins (Aurecon) to discuss  'Global insights on nature positive solutions' organised by the International Water Association Australia Committee.

She set the scene for the panel, providing examples of how nature-based solutions (NbS) – e.g. constructed wetlands, green open space, raingardens, green walls, green corridors – can help restore catchments, protect headwaters, regenerate ecosystems, improve water security and increase productivity. She drew on examples from our case studies at Nong Loup Ian in Vientiane (Lao PDR) and Akreiy Ksatr in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), developed with local stakeholders through the Resilient Urban Centres and Surrounds (RUCaS) Program, supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The panel also explored ways to implement NbS more broadly.

• Engaging local communities is fundamental. People care about their waterways and bringing back nature can create community cohesion.
• Recognising traditional knowledge leverages generations of experience in regenerating and repairing the environment.
• Embedding ‘nature positive’ approaches in education harnesses the passion and enthusiasm of young people.
• It's important to provide different options, but the aim is to bring back a more natural balance.
• Australia's nature positive market can help realise NbS at a national scale. It provides opportunities to address nature degradation, as well as opportunities for conservation.

Find out more about our work in Mekong countries, using NbS solutions to generate nature-positive outcomes.