Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) can be defined as “an approach to urban planning and design that integrates the management of the total water cycle into the urban development process”. Four leaders in this field will present on the progress in WSUD in South Australia, with an emphasis on stormwater management.
Mellissa Bradley will describe opportunities for SA to consider with regard to urban design, capacity building, decision support tools, and on-line assessments that together could create a pathway to WSUD adoption that is more efficient, achieves measurable benefits for the environment and enhanced liveability outcomes for our communities. Mellissa is currently the Program Manager with Water Sensitive SA – a capacity building program for WSUD.
Dr David Kemp is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Water Management & Reuse, University of South Australia. David will outline current research that is being undertaken by the centre to support the implementation of WSUD, with a focus on the impact of infill development and the ways to address it.
Ruth Ward and Linda-Marie McDowell are senior environment protection officers at the EPA. They will discuss the Adelaide Coastal Waters Quality Improvement Plan, which was developed in response to the Adelaide Coastal Waters Study (2007). Implementation of many of the strategies is well underway, with the Catchment to Coast project comprising six sub-projects including demonstration sites and Rain Garden 500. Linda-Marie and Ruth will outline these projects and why we need to rethink how we engineer stormwater infrastructure to reduce environmental impacts.