Water sensitive cities principles in practice around Australia

Water Sensitive Cities Australia’s Mainstreaming Program set out to work with industry partners in Victoria and Western Australia to translate research insights into practice. We recently completed several projects, wrapping up the program.

Building climate-resilient water services for Victoria

How can Victoria ensure its water services stay reliable, affordable and resilient as the climate changes? A new report explores exactly that.

In a study commissioned by Water Sensitive Cities Australia, Frontier Economics investigated how Melbourne’s water sector plans and funds resilience investments – and what’s getting in the way. Victoria has strong foundations, but frameworks alone won’t deliver a climate-resilient water future. 

The research highlights three practical shifts that would make resilience investment easier and more consistent:

1. Build capability and confidence – guidance, training and shared data on resilience costs and benefits.
2. Clarify who does what – clear roles, responsibilities and expectations for assessing resilience.
3. Strengthen regulatory signals – clarifying expectations and embedding resilience within Victoria’s performance frameworks.

Valuing the green–blue infrastructure in Perth and Peel

Green–blue infrastructure – wetlands, waterways, parks, bushland, green corridors, stormwater assets and trees – is an important part of the water cycle, and helps create liveable and resilient urban spaces. But often, the value of green–blue infrastructure goes unmeasured or unrecognised because it is difficult to put that value into dollar terms. 

In a recent study commissioned by Water Sensitive Cities Australia, Marsden Jacob Associates investigated how valuable Perth–Peel’s trees, waterways and wetlands are You’ll be surprised!

For example:

Valuing Perth–Peel’s trees, waterways and wetlands

Creating water sensitive infill developments 

Water sensitive urban design – or WSUD – is a key strategy for Perth achieving its waterwise ambitions. But despite being developed in WA in 1992, the process for implementing WSUD, particularly on infill sites, is not widely understood.

Working with the then Department of Communities, the City of Rockingham and Perth’s Water Sensitive Transition Network, practitioners from Josh Byrne and Associates explored how WSUD principles and practices can be applied to a small infill site (fewer than 20 lots) in Perth. It involved developing a concept for the site, and then documenting the iterative and collaborative design process to better understand the barriers to implementation.

The project team identified some key lessons about applying WSUD:

• Appoint a cross-disciplinary project team early.
• Integrate WSUD principles and practices into the development process from the start.
• Develop guiding principles that reflect contextual requirements (physical, environmental, social, economic), client needs, planning policy, built form typology and development aspirations.
• Develop agreed definitions and objectives, and set realistic goals.
• Ensure clear leadership.

They also developed a checklist to help guide the implementation process for other small urban infill projects.