It’s a question we get asked all the time
Engineers, planners and architects across the country all want to know the answer.
The good news is that there is always someone, somewhere, that has thought of pushing the boundaries. Someone has thought about doing it differently and forging a path for others to follow.
So, here’s a list of innovative water projects
We have now collated a list of innovative projects on water. It’s a reference for you (and us), as we get asked so regularly for examples.
These are not our projects necessarily, but they are good examples that involve several different water and sustainable solutions. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list!
The projects summarised on this page include projects that touch on:
rainwater
greywater
recycled water
stormwater
flood detention
single houses
precincts
microclimates and passively watered street trees
road designs and median strips.
What do they have in common?
They all have one thing in common. They were trialing new distributed infrastructure to adapt to climate change and manage water for multiple benefits and to create a more liveable city.
Thanks to the champions that were involved. To those who did the work to develop the ideas, engage with the stakeholders, and support innovative designs that help all of us make a difference.
1. Roads, swales, stormwater and cooling
City of Merri-bek (Victoria)
The City of Merri-bek, in the inner north of Melbourne, is in the process of delivering 5,000 trees annually to improve canopy cover and cool the urban environment.
An early part of this program was the trial of a passively watered system to water street trees that are planted in situ in built-up and established areas. The trial monitored soil moisture levels and tested a variety of designs to see how the trees responded, with the specific purpose of identifying cost-effective retrofit opportunities for built-up areas. It also helped monitor any associated impacts on the pavement, verifying that trees can grow at twice the rate as normal with minimal impact on the adjacent pavement.
Portland (US)
Raingardens reducing sewer overflows
The City of Portland, Oregon, like many other US and European cities, has a problem with sewer overflows and the high cost of increasing the capacity of the combined system (in the US the stormwater and sewer system are connected together).
To tackle this problem in the 2000s, the city, commenced a program to use ‘green infrastructure’ to reduce stormwater flows from entering the combined system, and provide a local amenity benefit to residents. This green infrastructure is defined as raingardens, green roofs, green alleys, rain barrels, street trees, vegetated swales, wetland ponds, and permeable pavement.
In some instances, residents are offered a financial incentive to divert the runoff from impervious areas on their property to green infrastructure. In other instances, the City and the water authority funded these investments, on the basis that they are a more cost-effective investment than upgrades to large underground grey infrastructure.
Wolseley Grove (Zetland, NSW)
The public realm around high rise developments is a challenge for stormwater management, due to more impervious surfaces, shading from tall buildings, and a lack of green space generally. In the early 2000s, in Zetland in inner city Sydney, a new swale was designed and constructed to introduce more greenery into this built-up environment whilst also passively watering the trees in this central swale. It delivers a reduction in stormwater pollution (through filtering this directly at source), reduces the volume and peak flow of stormwater, and adds more amenity and greenery to the local environment. Now nearly 20 years on, it is still performing well and looking good.
City of Melton (Victoria)
Median swales were used very effectively in Caroline Springs as part of a new development / suburb, constructed in the 1990s. They provide conveyance and shade whilst improving water quality. A good example is Tenterfield Drive, a collector road, that includes a central median strip of approximately 5 metres width. During an audit of all WSUD assets, completed by Wave Maintenance, Council stated this asset is very low maintenance compared to most WSUD assets and the audit confirmed it was functioning very well.
Lynbrook (Victoria)
In Melbourne during the early 2000s, a new development called Lynbrook was designed and built that looked at how to integrate the stormwater system into the public realm and manage water at the surface prior to it entering a high profile lake. They incorporated a central median swale (single lane each way, with parking cut outs) to demonstrate how stormwater could be filtered and support greening of the main boulevard. Some 20 years on this development is still a reference point to simple but effective design solutions for streetscapes. The lake has benefited from this upstream filtering and has a small harvesting system incorporated into it to support watering of a nearby oval.
2. Precincts (stormwater, recycled water, rainwater)
Aquarevo (Victoria)
A large development (450 homes) in Melbourne is aiming to reduce potable water demand by up to 70% compared to business as usual. It hopes to achieve this by utilising a range of water management products and technologies.
Chief among them are Australia’s latest and most advanced version of ‘smart tanks’, allowing real-time monitoring, and critically, the release of rainwater in advance of a significant rainfall event. Water from the tanks are also supplying hot water systems across the precinct, this innovation alone unlocks approximately 35% of a household’s potable water demand by using an alternative source. The development also included water recycling.
This project is led by the water authority, in partnership with a land developer (Villawood). It is demonstrating how water management can be central to good sustainable urban development.
Little Stringybark Creek, Mount Evelyn (Victoria)
This peri-urban catchment has been the focus of a decade-long research project to consider how to restore and improve water quality through rainwater tanks and water sensitive urban design (WSUD) assets in streetscapes.
The site is located at Mount Evelyn, approximately 37 km east of Melbourne. The area has a population of 9,100 and is typical of outer suburban residential areas in Melbourne. The population density in the area covered by this report is approximately 1,400 people/km2 compared to 2,500 people/km2 for inner Melbourne (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006).
The project was aiming to demonstrate how the ecological health of a stream could be improved through the ‘disconnecting’ of impervious surfaces that flow directly to a stream. The research found that as soon as a stream’s catchment has an effective impervious area of between 0.5 and 2%, the stream’s health dramatically declines. The question was: If you ‘disconnect’ most of the impervious, does the health of a stream respond?
It has highlighted the large cost of retrofitting and the fact that it is very difficult to restore waterway health and concluded that preventing its decline is a far better environmental and economic strategy. To date, $12 million has been spent on retrofitting houses and streets, but this has not been enough to completely restore waterway health.
For more details visit Urban Streams (University of Melbourne).
The Paddock, Bendigo (Victoria)
The paddock is a medium-sized (27 home) eco-village in Castlemaine, Victoria. The development utilises greywater systems and precinct scale rainwater harvesting to drastically reduce potable water consumption.
The Paddock is being developed in accordance with the philosophy of the Living Building Challenge and aims to be a zero net impact development, as well as aiming to mimic a natural flow and runoff regime from the development. The development includes a significant area for vegetable growing using water efficient methods.
It is still in the design phase, with construction due to be completed in 2021.
More details available at The Paddock.
Figtree Place (Newcastle, NSW)
Figtree Place is a small urban development (27 units) that tested how to optimise the demand for rainwater tanks to generate potable water savings and virtually eliminate tank overflows. This development, designed and built in the 1990s, was a landmark development and was extensively monitored. It demonstrated that there are innovative ways to manage rainwater and stormwater that benefits the residents and council infrastructure and reduces the impact on downstream waterways.
A peer-reviewed paper on this location is available: Figtree Place: A case study in water sensitive urban development (WSUD). The lead author of this paper is Professor Peter Coombes, a leading researcher formerly with the University of Newcastle, former Chief Scientist for the Victorian Government, author of Australian Rainfall and Runoff, and now adjunct professor at Southern Cross University.
Meridian new development (Victoria)
Meridian is a large (274 lot) low density residential development in a mandated recycled water area of the City of Greater Dandenong (in south east Melbourne) that is serviced by South East Water.
This development utilised recycled water, stormwater harvesting, and a variety of WSUD assets to deliver alternative water sources and manage stormwater runoff. The stormwater harvesting scheme was used to irrigate an urban orchard that runs through the development. Swales were introduced into every street to reduce runoff and stormwater pollution and were in keeping with the green and ‘walkable’ nature of the development.
Aurora (Victoria)
Recycled water and rainwater tanks
A Lendlease development in northern Melbourne is now home to over 7,000 people.
The development was the first to integrate rainwater reuse, swales, and a backup third pipe scheme. The development’s large-scale residential purple pipe (recycled water) system was one of the first of its kind in Victoria. Analysis over a two-year period has shown that slightly less than 30% of total demand is met by the recycled water scheme. Rainwater tanks also supply a similar demand and the remaining supply is sourced from potable water.
The experience with Aurora’s reuse scheme challenged traditional views on water management held within the stakeholder organisations. It also provided an opportunity for organisational learning and change towards sustainability.
Lochiel Park, Adelaide (South Australia)
This urban development in inner north-east Adelaide was a greenfield development with 109 lots delivered in 2010, with a view to creating a template for the industry for net-zero carbon homes.
It also included a lot of innovative WSUD designs and the whole development was planned around achieving a space allocation of 60% for open space (which is achieved through building typologies and master planning). The streets all have streetscape swales and the development has a wetland that is connected to the Torrens River. The development uses 78% less water than a traditional development. More information is available at Water Sensitive SA: Lochiel Park.
Marrickville (New South Wales)
Over a ten-year period, officers at Marrickville Council worked with school representatives to explore how to build a new water sensitive asset (a raingarden, swale with reuse for community garden watering), along with some water play at the school.
In built-up areas of a city, councils struggle with finding available space to filter stormwater runoff and potentially harvest and reuse the water. Catchment and coastal management authorities also have the same experience. Space (and of course budget) is the limiting factor.
But Marrickville Council (now amalgamated into the Inner West Council) found that by working with the school they could find collaborative solutions to meet the objectives of the stakeholders. It must be acknowledged that there is uncertainty as to the maintenance responsibilities and operating budgets for this example.
This is an interesting example of thinking creatively about using all available land to deliver catchment outcomes.
Warrnambool Roof Water Harvesting Initiative (Victoria)
Rainwater is a relatively clean source of water that is available for several end uses in every development, suburb and city. Rainwater is the primary source of all water needs for roughly 2 million people in Australia (who are not connected to a central water supply system).
in 2011, Wannon Water set up and tested a new water infrastructure strategy to capture the roof water off 250 new houses, collect it a central location, and then supply that water back to those same houses. On average this supplies almost all water demand from the houses
This has benefits in terms of managing drainage (and reducing the peak flows of storm events), avoiding the transport and supply of water from reservoirs (often a large distance from the development), reduced energy costs, reduced flooding impacts, and reduced costs to each household.
The supplied water complies with Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2004.
3. Greywater
Inkermann (Victoria)
This 262 unit, 3-5 level, $90 million residential project across six buildings incorporates a range of ecologically sustainable designs (both passive and active), mixed private and social housing, integrated art and public pedestrian access.
It was built in 2003 and was the first at this scale to trial a largescale greywater treatment and reuse system. The water from basins, baths, showers is first collected in a 15,000 litre aeration balance tank to remove suspended solids, and then transferred to a tertiary level treatment in a 10,800 litre Kubota membrane bio-reactor (MBR) tank.
The recycled bathroom grey water is then held in a 45,000 litre storage or back-up tank, then passed through an ultraviolet disinfection unit and chlorine dosing unit before being reticulated by two constant pressure pumps for two uses: irrigation and toilet flushing.
The technical nature of some of the treatment created some issues for the building facilities manager, and some of this system is now in hibernation.
3. Stormwater harvesting
City of Sydney (New South Wales)
The City of Sydney has been a leader in stormwater harvesting for a long time. Their largest project is the ‘Sydney Park’ asset, that harvests water from an urban catchment just south of the Sydney CBD and is linked to irrigation of the park and reuse of treated water in nearby industrial areas.
This project, using a wetland treatment process, and located in an existing park, has enabled The City of Sydney to meet nutrient and water harvesting targets, and increase the amenity of this park.
The project has the potential to harvest nearly one gigalitres a year of stormwater. The supply of treated water to nearby industrial areas is good in theory, but in practice requires an alignment of stakeholders, interests, costs and agreements regarding who owns and maintains the distribution pipe network.
Casey Fields (Victoria)
Casey Fields is regional and premium sports precinct in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The municipal authority, The City of Casey, had access to a recycled water connection and allocation and were using approximately 40 to 60 ML per year of recycled water, but has a demand for approximately 100 ML due to the premium and expanding nature of the sporting facilities at this in the area.
The site has a wetland treatment and storage system, and now has a plan to reduce potable water use by 92% using both harvested stormwater and recycled water, while expanding the number of ovals and buildings that require irrigation.
City of Salisbury (South Australia)
The City of Salisbury started a program of harvesting excess stormwater from upstream urban areas, storing it and reselling the water approximately 30 years ago (, and now have a series of assets that harvest a total of 14 gigalitres a year for reuse.
The City of Salisbury have been able, with appropriate licencing, to sell harvested stormwater to other users at a lower cost than potable water supplied by SA Water. This provides an income to Council. Council also benefits through the use of harvested water for irrigation and therefore avoiding the costs of potable water.
Blacktown stormwater harvesting target (NSW)
Blacktown City Council, in western Sydney, have trialled some large stormwater harvesting, and then in 2020 approved a new strategy with the long term goal of harvesting 2 gigalitres a year of stormwater from urban catchments, for reuse in ovals, reserves and other precincts.
5. Flooding
City of Gosnells (Western Australia)
This local government area in south-east Perth, Western Australia, was subject to increasing urban development that was exacerbating existing flooding issues. Stormwater engineers considered alternative options to augment the stormwater system and with support from the University of South Australia, determined that a cheaper and more resilient method would be to retain water on lots rather than increase the size of downstream infrastructure. This was tested up to 0.01 AEP storms (1 in a 100 year event).
Avoiding upgrades and new underground stormwater infrastructure is forecast to save Council $120 million in capital and maintenance costs and does not include the savings to residents from the use of rainwater.
A reference paper for this is: Argue, J.R. and Tennakoon, A. (2011) Managing Urban Regrowth with an 'at capacity' Stormwater Infrastructure, Proceedings of the 34th International Association of Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research World Congress, Brisbane. This analysis and infrastructure strategy was supported by Prof. John Argue from The University of South Australia, who was admitted to Engineers Australia’s Hall of Fame, and was awarded the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2013.
We are experts in water
Check out our past projects in stormwater strategy and stormwater design work.