Economic Environmental Assessment Office - Water Sensitive Urban Design And Rainwater Harvesting

Specific Objectives

Discuss About The Economic Environmental Assessment Office?

This project has focused on identifying cost minimum potential strategies for solving existing challenges in the adoption of Water Sensitive Urban Design in order to manage water resources in the urban region. The issues in the implementation of WSUD have been provided priority in this project.

Following are the objectives for performing this research related to the rainwater harvesting system including minimization of development cost, protection of water quality, integration of rainwater for testing purpose and reduction of peak flow.

Rapid urban growth in Australia in last 20 years have seen various changes in the urban development and provided footprints related to economic, environmental and societal values. In order to maintain the sustainable growth in the country, use of natural resources has been increased. Water, sewage and rainwater harvesting have been developed in order to maintain the ecological integrity of the country (Ward, Memon and Butler 2012). The environmental values that are associated with the ageing infrastructure require coming up with the increase in the population in urban cities. As discussed in the ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design – Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas’, a conference was held in Melbourne in the year of 2000, several participants involved in the water industry have voted for this change (Mun and Han 2012). The rainwater harvesting system has been an important method of proper use of the water in any projects and society. However, rainwater tanks reduce runoff of storm water in an urban system. Therefore, this help in maintaining the water volume in houses for both portable and non-portable purposes. However, there has been a great misunderstanding related to the long-term validity in finance of tanks. WSUD is an approach for managing water in urban areas of Australia (Biazin et al. 2012). This helps in minimizing negative impacts of urbanization. However, the negative impacts of the urbanization include increase in costs, water depletion and risks of natural calamities including flood risks. The increase in the pollutants in water have created several water-borne diseases among individuals in the society. The risks and threats involved in this context include increase in urban temperatures, pollutants, home gardens and floods (Youn et al. 2012). Therefore, WSUD have helped in managing these risks in order to protect the environment from damage.

WSUD differs from traditional urban design style in many ways. The total water management cycle depends upon the rainwater harvesting by the modern approach. The examination of a 75kL tank in different scenarios has helped in maintaining multi-story in the development model tank using rainwater harvesting (Rahman, Keane and Imteaz 2012). However, the cost maintenance of the project has helped in maintaining a proper budget for the project. The government of Australia have been taking interest in implementing this project in the society.

Background

In 2007, Melbourne Water’s Living Rivers Stormwater Program has helped in providing funds for progressing and finalizing Baw Shire Council’s draft WSUD. This program has helped in managing various systems in the water-harvesting model (Hajani and Rahman2014). WSUD can be applied to both rural and urban developments.

Water Sensitive Urban Design has been used for saving water resources and removal of pollutants from rainwater. A successful project helps in managing rainwater in a proper way before going into a drain. Design and infrastructure of the program have been properly integrated in order to maintain a proper architecture for rainwater harvesting system.

The lifecycle in assessing rainwater tanks of 600L together with the 2250L capacity tank with an economic benefit with tank cost from the customer perspective (Alam et al. 2012). As commented by Campisano and Modica (2012), there has been savings estimating billing of 29.6% for a 2250L tank. Low-interest rates have helped in minimizing initial cost if the system. However, rainwater has been channelized into drains and channels for Canberra urban purposes. This has increased the risk of flooding and soil erosion. Therefore, damage to vegetation and agriculture has been a common problem in the state.

It helps in reducing the demand for drinking water by using different alternative sources of water including rainwater and refined wastewater. This help in encouraging water efficient appliances (Hu et al. 2014). It minimizes the generation of wastewater from various sources and helps in treating wastewater for standard use of purposes. The wastewater management has been triggered with the help of this program. The use of this program has helped in maintaining treatment of rainwater management in order to provide fresh water for standard purposes. The use of rainwater in the urban landscape for improving visual and other entity of developments.

This maintains different methodology for maintaining different aspects of the rainwater harvesting. The tanks are used for collecting and storing water during rain. The use of these tanks can mitigate the storing problems of rainwater (Hashim et al. 2013). During this process, rainwater is treated with proper minerals and chemicals. Water management system has been refined in fresh drinking water. During the 1990s, the emphasis has been shifted to place responsibility for water management project.

Sample and Liu (2014) commented that the concept of WSUD involves maintenance of water balance and quality in an urbanized environment. However, the emergence of water management has been increased in the urban areas. An effective use of WSUD strategies has helped to adopt rainwater harvesting system project in the society. 

Water Sensitivity of Rainwater tanks in Urban Designs

The ACT government has helped in reviewing the implementation of water sensitive urban design regulations for changing the environment. The regulation plan under the ACT government has been integrated into with various technologies that have helped in increasing efficiency of water harvesting system (Kim, Han and Lee 2012). The ACT government has published a report importance of the WSUD in the city. The use of the rainwater harvesting has helped in maintaining scarcity of water in the city. The government have helped in providing funding for the project that might help in minimizing the scarcity of water sources in the city (Wu et al. 2015). The WSUD program has been directed by the ACT government that encourages individuals to maintain their work individually. The achievement of targets of the project has been a first priority for maintaining a proper approach to the project (Morales-Pinzón et al. 2012).

The South Australian Planning Strategy has a 30-year plan or Greater Adelaide in order to implement policies and targets seeking to a population. There are various plans for improving the water management process in the city (Palla et al. 2012). The main goal is to maintain a proper approach toward the development of rainwater harvesting system. The State government have approached the post-implementation easements for the development of study related to implementation of rainwater harvesting system with the help of water tanks (Vieira et al. 2014). The stakeholders of the project have been focusing on implementation of the water tanks for storing and collecting rainwater. There might be two types of tanks containing rainwater and fresh water respectively. The use of this task has helped in maintaining the storage of the water in a safe place. This methodology has helped in developing WSUD program in the market. The water management planning recognizes the conservation of water and biodiversity for the future use. It helps in providing alternative sources for water use in the society (Ward, Butler and Memon 2012). The urbanization has created opportunities in rainwater harvesting system for its development and ecological integrity. The structural and non-structural solutions have been recognized for protection of public health and communal values in the society.

There are various potential benefits of the Water Sensitive Urban Design in the market. WSUD has helped in developing a program for the water harvesting system in the market. Therefore, relevant information is required for the development of the program in the market. Following are benefits of the WSUD:

Principles of Water Sensitive Urban Design

Economic: It helps in minimizing the capital cost by reducing the size of off-site pipework and drains. The construction cost is reduced by the implantation and clearing of trees. However, the water quality cost has been reduced by searching different alternatives for water sources. This strategy has helped in increasing the market value of the research (Angrill et al. 2012). IT has improved the resource allocation by offering various cost benefits in various ways that help in maintaining residential development of every individual.

Environmental: WSUD helps in maintaining the hydrological balance in the ecosystem by using natural processes of storage and infiltration. The sensitive area is protected with the help of the WSUD. It helps in water restoration and enhancement of urban waterways. The impact on the reduction of pollution and other damages to the environment. Therefore, it minimizes the impact of the urban development on various aspects of the environment (Imteaz et al. 2012). Different natural habitats are enhanced with the help of the WSUD. The natural diversity is classified into various parts in several landscapes. The level of the groundwater is increased due to the storage of rainwater.

Social: The social changes has been an important benefit of the WSUD. The implementation of WSUD has helped in measuring changes in the society related to use of water for daily purposes. WSUD have helped in acknowledging people about the sensible use of water and rainwater harvesting system (Rahman et al. 2014). The effect of various strategies used in the WSUD has helped in maintaining proper linking to the opportunities in the society.

The sustainability in development has emerged in recent years that have helped in maintaining a growth of the society. The sustainable development of the society has helped in maintaining a future growth of the society. This program helps in providing a unified method for integrating between urban water cycle and urban infrastructure (Steffen et al. 2013). This method is practised in various urban Greenfield development in order to maintain a sustainable growth in the city.

Urban growth and development have been creating pressure on various existing infrastructures. Existing infrastructures requires up gradation and replacement due to ageing problem. However, various water surveyors in urban areas are aged that requires technical replacements. Increase in climatic changes has created several issues including drought and shortage of water (Nguyen et al. 2013). Therefore, people suffer from water scarcity problems. Huge discharge of pollutants from the water sources have created water pollution. These pollutants include hydrocarbons, heavy metals and microbiological organisms. These affect aquatic life and environment with heavier rainfall or drought. The east coast of Australia has been experiencing water shortage problem frequently (Matos et al. 2015). External pressure has helped decision makers in exploring creative solutions to resolve traditional problems. The involvement of the WSUD has provided a new approach for sustainable development of the urban areas.

Government initiatives in implementation of WSUD

This aims at management of rainwater with the hydrological cycles. The external pressure that has been prevailing among the decision makers for exploring innovative methods for maintaining the urban development practices in the city. The WSUD has been routed to a new approach that helps in maintaining the growth of the urban areas. The rainwater management plan has been developed for harvesting rainwater natural flow. As commented by Kadam et al. (2012), most of the managers of urban water are concerned with providing integrity of water environment that helps in discharging storm water. Various respondents have concerned with the perceptions of community and social amenity (Jung et al. 2015). The key drivers of the WSUD implementation are public health outcomes, social amenity and community perception. An efficient storm water management practices require proper ambulation of various elements in the field of infrastructure planning, landscape architecture and urban hydrology.

Technical professionals and experts in WSUD have been lacking in the implementation of WSUD in various locations around world (Thomas et al. 2014). Use of other management plan including Low Impact Urban Design and Development (LIUDD) in New Zealand, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) in the United Kingdom and Low Impact Development (LID) in the United States have helped in expanding the systems (Ghimire et al. 2014). Increase in the awareness of WSUD advantages have helped government for revamping their urban development of storm water management practices. The WSUD policies and their requirements in the country have been mentioned in order to maintain the urban development. The Brisbane City Council has revised planning policy for specifying WSUD in a legal way under the planning scheme. Jiang, Z.Y. and Li (2013) mentioned that this change in the governmental policy has helped in creation of fertile environments leading towards development of urban areas. Absorption of WSUD in planning documents guidelines encourages widespread uptake. However, a key issue of concern related to stakeholders includes lack of technical knowledge and skill. Engineers and policy makers are not aware of the WSUD plan for development of rainwater harvesting system in urban areas (Campisano et al. 2013). However, it stares that the attainment of the sustainable rainwater management depends on the technical knowledge of the stakeholders and development of individuals included in this project. The translation of the integrated elements in real practices although guidelines and policies exist. Hanson and Vogel (2014) commented that the local government acts a local broker in scientific knowledge and present for maintaining urban development. However, the agency is likely to execute new things in order to maintain the innovation and experimentation in building knowledge and skills.

The general users of WSUD development help in influencing community support. However, this support of WSUD in general community before implementation of any WSUD features (Fernandes, Terêncio and Pacheco 2015). Developers of WSUD plan have been focusing on the sustainable development of the rainwater harvesting system. Therefore, there has been the clash among the innovative thoughts of different individuals in the system. Therefore, thus can be described as soft urban design features retaining vegetation and increase in the marketing policy. With the increase in the environmental awareness among the society, the use of WSUD features has been marketed in the form of the valuable assets for the company and assets (Gikas and Tsihrintzis 2012).

Challenge in acceptance of features of WSUD are not only technical perspective but also institutional and social. However, one of major challenges faced by the WSUD is lack of knowledge on the features and its potential benefits. The stakeholders are confused with the knowledge of the WSUD definitions and features (Morales-Pinzón et al. 2015). This has potential challenges for the implementation of this system. The storm water management has been a failure in the society due to lack of awareness. Therefore, understanding perception of drivers and barriers to WSUD help in developing and promoting the integrated of thinking in a form of coherent framework. Therefore, a study of the perceptions of WSUD has discovered that the industry has been rated by their institutional arrangements for WSUD while commitment of implementation of WSUD perceived as low production (Gwenzi et al. 2015).

CONSTRAINTS	OPPORTUNITIES
Lack of understanding among stakeholders	·         Increasing awareness programs ·         Increasing circulation of research and information among stakeholders.
Limited research and knowledge	·         Industry partnerships with research facilities ·         Formation of diverse and multi-disciplinary teams
Lack of common standards, guidelines and technical knowledge	·         Agencies to provide & set standards ·         Workshops & seminars to increase skill levels ·         Formation of diverse, multi?disciplinary teams
Fragmented storm water management agencies	·         Formation of effective regulatory framework linking local & regional ·         levels ·         Efficient communication amongst different agencies
Lack of institutional provision	·         Agencies to confront issues of traditional urban storm water ·         management ·         Absorption of WSUD into planning documents ·         Making WSUD a mandatory feature for new developments
Economic Cost	·         Increasing awareness that long-term benefits outweigh short-term ·         Costs ·         Locality?specific modelling ·         Integration of all aspects of urban water management

Table 1: Constraints and opportunities in WSUD implementation

(Source: Lee and Yigitcanlar 2010, pp.31).

However, current urban storm water management frameworks focus on confining engineering solutions in a length of time. However, these methods are maintaining the government instructions are involved in taking risks in adopting alternative approaches (Silva, Sousa and Carvalho 2015). However, lack of knowledge has created many barriers to the implementation of WSUD in the urban areas. However, stakeholders are convinced of the extension of business and effectiveness of WSUD methods (Liaw and Chiang 2014). Different ponds and water bodies are integrated with the rainwater harvesting systems. These systems used to collect rainwater and filter it into drinking water. This help in maintaining the hydrological cycle in the environment. However, the quality of the tools is not god due to lack of technical knowledge. The use of tool and techniques for filtering water have not been appropriate. Therefore, implementation of inappropriate systems creates risks fir the implementation of a project. 

However, GCC has able to adopt practices of WSUD as their standard policy for providing a strong technical base to the project. On a contrary, stakeholders awareness program have been creating problems for the project, as the stakeholders are busy in gaining knowledge regarding the project the concentration on the development of the project gets distracted (Ghimire, Watkins and Li 2012). This might create challenges in planning and execute the level of the project. However, conducting workshops for stakeholders help in developing their skills related to the need of the project. The ineffectiveness of in the design of the plan has created a major problem in the implementation of the WSUD (Walsh, Pomeroy and Burian 2014). Technical skills and principles have helped in scattering among various professional involved in urban water management.

Mahmoud and Alazba (2015) commented that the lack of the standard practices creates confusion in the local authorities and developers that help in maintaining a proper approach towards the development the rainwater harvesting system. Researchers have found that the people lacking in the technical knowledge related to the perception of this project have been the biggest barrier to the implementation of the WSUD. The linkage between construction and concept of the WSUD has not been implemented properly that has poorly translated on the ground (Stec and Kordana 2015). The disciplinary teams for designing and maintaining WSUD features are based upon specific consideration of local sites. However, integration of urban water management in Australia is fragmented and conducted by the institution. Vialle et al. (2012) commented that a legal framework has been adopted for maintaining the local and regional level of integration of storm water in tanks. Therefore, it creates confusion among the stakeholders and local government related to the storage of storm water in the tanks for the filtering process. A decision maker is busy in making plans for initiating filtering process of storm water.

However, a major concern with WSUD is perception of economic costs at an initial stage and inadequate economic assessment for particular elements (Unami et al. 2015). Initial costs are high for the treatment process in account there are various potential benefits including different structures in the treatment systems. WSUD helps in providing the high level of community protection and environmental support compared to traditional urban rainwater features.

Water Sensitive Urban Development has been a great approach by the Australian government. The use of rainwater harvesting system in country has helped in maintaining the filtration of the rainwater in the tanks. The use of tanks in the treatment process has helped in providing efficiency in hydraulics by saving initial costs (Ghimire and Johnston 2013). The use of various process has been integrated into the stormwater harvesting systems that need to be implemented in the system. However, this report has focused on the implementation of the tanks in the rainwater harvesting system in order to store rainwater for filtration process. Researchers have surveyed properly regarding the use of the tanks in the treatment process (Vieira, Weeber and Ghisi 2013). The consideration of 70-occupant building has been used for 4 stages including laundry, flushing, toilet, outdoor use and hot water. Therefore, this amount of consumption has produced 0.036kL/person/day in toilet flushing, 10kL/person/year in outdoor usage (Belmeziti, Coutard and de Gouvello 2013). However, 10kL tanks had 10% total demand and 100kL tanks having 50% demand that helps in making more larger tanks for storing water. The use of tanks in the treatment project has helped in maintaining and monitoring the flow of water in the tanks The use of hydraulic pressure in flow helps in creating a calculative data in order to filter right amount of water (Vargas-Parra et al. 2014). The analysis of the 75kL tank of rainwater in Sydney has been discussed in the report that helps in providing a better approach towards development of rainwater harvesting system in the country. The analysis of this type of tank has helped in maintaining the cost-benefit analysis of the project in the proper manner. Therefore, the use of various strategies provides an appropriate way to implementtion the project at a low cost and time. The analysis focuses on the result of 60-year-life-cycle using the current water supply price with current interest rates (Campisano et al. 2017). The use of the cost-benefit analysis has helped in maintaining the budget of the project in order to minimize the cist if the project. The budget of the project has been a critical issue in order to monitor various pictures of rainwater harvesting system. However, it has been found that the ratio benefit of cost estimation was found to be 64% - 75% by using current water supply at various interest rates and less conservative with conservative cost estimates (Cook, Sharma and Chong 2013). However, there was the increase in lower interest rates and increase in the price of water in the urban region. This has increased the price of the water and increase in the demand for fresh water in the market. The WSUD has helped in the development of the urban areas and minimizing initial cost of the water treatment plant. 

In this context, life cycle costs help in representing the aggregate cost of ensuring sustainable and delivery of water supply services to an area or individual. Life cycle cost includes the disaggregated unit costs of construction, design and maintenance of a water delivery system along with other undefined costs (Wang and Zimmerman 2015). These costs included all the non-engineered that are overlooked and ignored during creating the budget plan. Therefore, it plays an important role in maintaining the actual cost of the project.

Life Cycle Costs	Description
Capital expenditure-software and hardware	Capital invested in planning and constructing a water services delivery system
Operating and minor maintenance expenditure	Recurrent expenditure on operating, managing and maintaining a water delivery system
Capital maintenance expenditure	Cost of financing a water delivery system taking into account loan repayments
Cost of capital	Unit costs of post-construction support activities to users of a water delivery system
Expenditure on direct support	Expenditure on asset renewal, replacement and rehabilitation of a water delivery system
Expenditure on indirect support	Unit costs of macro-level support, planning and management of a water services delivery system

Table 2: Components of the Life cycle costs

(Source: (Vieira, Weeber and Ghisi 2013, pp.39)

The acquisition sum of cost together with cost of ownership of the life cycle of product is life cycle cost of the system. In the adopted model, rainfall was regarded as inflow, release, and possible spillage as outflow. The release was estimated based on following equations:

 Rt = Dt; if It + St−1 ≥ Dt                              (1)

 Rt = It + St−1; if It + St−1 < Dt                   (2)

 Where D_t is daily demand (m3 ) on day t; St−1 is tank storage at end of previous day (m3 ); Rt is release from rainwater tank (m3 ) and It is inflow (m3 ). Spill (SPt) (m3 ) was calculated from following equations: (Ghimire, Watkins and Li 2012)

SPt = It + St−1 − Dt − SMAX; if It + St−1 − Dt > SMAX              (3)

SPt = 0; if It + St−1 − Dt ≤ SMAX                                                    (4)

where SMAX is design storage capacity (m3 ).The tank storage St at end of day t was calculated using following equations:

St = SMAX; if SPt > 0                                               (5)

 St = St−1 + It − Rt; if SPt = 0                                   (6)

The nominal cost concept together with the nominal rate in the discount. The conversion of nominal cost (C_N) to the stipulated discount cost (C_P) is done below:

Where d_n is the nominal discount rate per annum and y is the appropriate number of years.

Location	Rainfall	Period of rainfall record	Average Annual rainfall (mm)
Campbelltown	068007	1900-2009	743
Hornsby	066158	1936-2009	1325
Parramatta	066124	1966–2009	964
Penrith	067084	1970–2009	940
Richmond	067021	1902–2003	801
Castlereagh	067002	1950–2010	802
Wallacia Post Office	067029	1946–2010	870
West Pennant Hills	067098	1946–2005	1076
Moss Vale	068195	1972–2008	1104
Cataract Dam	068016	1936–2009	1108

Table 3: Study of locations and daily rainfall data

(Source: (Ghimire, Watkins and Li 2012, pp.49)

Figure 2: Average monthly rainfall in the Sydney region

(Source: Vieira, Weeber and Ghisi 2013)

The adoption of the 75kL size of the tank was due to the similarity of the study. However, this tank is able to meet the daily household use of individual of 73 % of the days in a year that has been increased to 98% for a 5kL tank size (Ghimire, Watkins and Li 2012).

Figure 3: Reliability of RWHS at ten selected locations using rainwater for toilet and laundry use

(Source: Kim, Han and Lee 2012, pp. 87)

The reliability for irrigation use of all ten location has been smaller than toilet and laundry as shown in the figure. The reliability values of Hornsby and Campbelltown are 73% and 41% (Kim, Han and Lee 2012). However, data in a favourable condition that create might varies in other conditions. As it is related to natural weather of the location, therefore, it depends upon environmental factors. However, the cost-benefit ratio for different tank sizes for Hornsby. It is analyzed that benefit-cost-ratio values have reached to one indicating value.

Tank Size (kL)	Toilet and laundry use	Irrigation use	Combined use
1	0.614	0.373	0.666
2	0.578	0.524	0.749
3	0.565	0.643	0.846
5	0.527	0.795	0.966
10	0.399	0.700	0.839
50	0.355	0.740	0.861
70	0.256	0.634	0.728

Table 4: Benefit-cost ratio values at Hornsby (based on current Sydney water price of AUD 2.13/kL)

However, the current Sydney Water price has been too low to achieve a benefit-cost ratio greater than one for a RWHS in most of the scenarios. Therefore, there is an increase in the cost-benefit ratio in these locations.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the rainwater harvesting system in Australia has been a great success in order to maintain a proper development of the urban areas. The use of Water Sensitive Design development system in the country has helped in maintaining the development of the urban areas in Australia. The main goal is to maintain a proper approach toward development of rainwater harvesting system. The State government have approached the post-implementation easements for the development of study related to implementation of rainwater harvesting system with help of water tanks. The use various capacity tanks for storing rainwater has been a great success. The life cycle cost analysis has helped in analyzing rainwater use at ten different location. The principles of WSUD have been discussed in the report that helps in understanding the basic goal of the system. The benefits and limitations of the WSUD have been discussed in the report that helps in analyzing the implementation of the WSUD project in the country. The problems of water scarcity in Australia have been provided in the report that initiates the reason for doing then project.

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