An Evaluation of an Integrated Urban Water Management System: Palmyra Case Study

This report was produced for the Urban Water Research Association of Australia, a now discontinued research program.

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Report no. UWRAA 118

March 1997

Synopsis

The document has been prepared as a case study report within a wider project titled Sustainable Urban Water Systems research project funded by UWRAA and undertaken at the Institute for Science and Technology Policy, Murdoch University.

This project has paralleled the development of the concept of Water Sensitive Urban Design which has developed in Perth, Western Australia. The Water Sensitive Urban Design was initiated originally by the Western Australian Water Resources Council and has since been supported by the then Water Authority of Western Australia, the Department of Planning and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Authority. These agencies combined their resources and with additional funding from the Commonwealth Government and commissioned the preparation of the WSUD Guidelines.

Another two documents have been prepared as part of this research project – titled:

Water Sensitive Urban Design: A Tool for Urban Integrated Catchment Management

– A Case Study of Bayswater

Sustainable Urban Water Systems: Issues and Opportunities

Both this document and the Bayswater Case study provide examples of an emerging approach to the integration of land and water management in the urban context. The ‘issues and opportunities’ document sets out the wider context of the changes taking place in the urban water sector. The case study documents should be seen as part of growing body of research and consultancy projects which use the ‘emerging’ approach of Water Sensitive Urban Design. For example the concepts developed in these projects have been applied at a strategic level to the planning of the South East Corridor of Perth in a project for the Water Authority of Western Australia and the Department of Planning and Urban Development – titled:

Stormwater Management Strategy and Plans for Byford & Mundijong: incorporating Water Sensitive Design Principles – prepared by Evangelisti and Associates and Landvision Pty Ltd (November 1994)

This approach has also been applied to an area undergoing redevelopment for the City of Canning, a metropolitan local authority of Perth in a project titled:

From Drains To Living Streams: Canning River Integrated Local Area Planning Study –

prepared by Mouritz Environmental Services, Evangelisti and Associates Landivision Pty Ltd and Thompson Palmer Pty Ltd (June 1995)

While all of this work is in a positive direction it remains to be seen if the ideas presented in these documents and the evolving praxis represent a new paradigm – only history will tell.

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