resource library
ArrayAnalysing water sensitive urban design options
10/01/2019
Using water mass balance to analyse hydrological performance of water sensitive urban design options in infill development
With city growth, infill development is becoming a dominant mode of development. As such, planning for ‘water-sensitive’ infill development has become a priority for sustainable urban development in Australia.
However, the current ‘knock-down-rebuild’ approach to such development will undermine resource efficiency, liveability and urban amenity, particularly for natural water systems.
This research paper demonstrates how a ‘water metabolism’ perspective can be used to generate water efficiency and performance indicators to assist water resource management.
To test the utility of the urban water metabolism evaluation framework in infill development, the paper:
- models water performance (water mass balance) with different WSUD scenarios; and
- assesses the hydrological performance of each option and analyses how they mitigate high volume runoff and spatial variation
Download the Water e-journal from the AWA website.
