Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a land planning and engineering design approach which integrates the urban water cycle, including stormwater, groundwater, and wastewater management and water supply, into urban design to minimise environmental degradation and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal. WSUD is a term used in the Middle East and Australia and is similar to low-impact development (LID), a term used in the United States; and Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS), a term used in the United Kingdom. Common approaches include reducing potable water use and collecting greywater, wastewater, stormwater, and other runoff for recycled use. Infrastructure design may be modified to enable water filtering, collection, and storage.
Background
Traditional urban and industrial development alters landscapes from permeable vegetated surfaces to a series of impervious interconnected surfaces resulting in large quantities of stormwater runoff, requiring management. Like other industrialized countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia has treated stormwater runoff as a liability and nuisance, endangering human health and property. This resulted in a strong focus on the design of stormwater management systems that rapidly convey stormwater runoff directly to streams with little or no focus on ecosystem preservation. This management approach results in what is referred to as urban stream syndrome. Heavy rainfall flows rapidly into streams carrying pollutants and sediments washed off from impervious surfaces, resulting in streams carrying elevated concentrations of pollutants, nutrients, and suspended solids. Increased peak flow also alters channel morphology and stability, further proliferating sedimentation and drastically reducing biotic richness. Increased recognition of urban stream syndrome in the 1960s resulted in some movement toward holistic stormwater management in Australia. Awareness increased greatly during the 1990s with the Federal government and scientists cooperating through the Cooperative Research Centre program. Increasingly city planners have recognised the need for an integrated management approach to potable, waste, and stormwater management, to enable cities to adapt and become resilient to the pressure which population growth, urban densification and climate change places on ageing and increasingly expensive water infrastructure. Additionally, Australia's arid conditions mean it is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which together with its reliance on surface water sources, combined with one of the most severe droughts (from 2000–2010) since European settlement, highlight the fact that major urban centers face increasing water shortages. This has begun shifting the perception of stormwater runoff from strictly a liability and nuisance to that of having value as a water resource resulting in changing stormwater management practices. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, climate change is intensifying water-cycle disruptions—such as altered rainfall patterns and shrinking snowpack—which in turn increases the importance of integrative urban water-management strategies like water-sensitive urban design. Australian states, building on the Federal government's foundational research in the 1990s, began releasing WSUD guidelines with Western Australia first releasing guidelines in 1994. Victoria released guidelines on the best practice environmental management of urban stormwater in 1999 (developed in consultation with New South Wales) and similar documents were released by Queensland through Brisbane City Council in 1999. Cooperation between Federal, State, and Territory governments to increase the efficiency of Australia's water use resulted in the National Water Initiative (NWI) signed in June 2004. The NWI is a comprehensive national strategy to improve water management across the country; it encompasses a wide range of water management issues and encourages the adoption of best practice approaches to the management of water in Australia, which include WSUD.
Differences from conventional urban stormwater management WSUD regards urban stormwater runoff as a resource rather than a nuisance or liability. This represents a paradigm shift in the way environmental resources and water infrastructure are dealt with in the planning and design of towns, and cities. WSUD principles regard all streams of water as a resource with diverse impacts on biodiversity, water, land, and the community's recreational and aesthetic enjoyment of waterways.
Principles Source:
Protecting and enhancing creeks, rivers, and wetlands within urban environments Protecting and improving the water quality of water draining from urban environments into creeks, rivers, and wetlands Restoring the urban water balance by maximizing the reuse of stormwater, recycled water, and grey water Conserving water resources through reuse and system efficiency Integrating stormwater treatment into the landscape so that it offers multiple beneficial uses such as water quality treatment, wildlife habitat, recreation, and open public space Reducing peak flows and runoff from the urban environment simultaneously providing for infiltration and groundwater recharge Integrating water into the landscape to enhance the urban design as well as social, visual, cultural, and ecological values Easy, cost-effective implementation of WSUD allowing for widespread application.
Objectives Source:
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