Rapid urbanisation and climate change are placing tremendous stress on water resources across the world. Australia recently experienced one of the worst droughts in its history which lasted over 14 years and was broken by large floods in Queensland and Victoria. At the same time, the number of Chinese cities affected by floods has more than doubled. Severe and extreme droughts have, however, become more serious since the late 1990s; e.g. chronic water shortages in northern China have led to the construction of an $81 billion water transfer canal from the south to the north.
As a response, Australian cities embraced the concept of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) that, through implementation of green water technologies, provide comprehensive urban runoff (stormwater) management while increasing city liveability. In China, a very similar concept - Sponge City agenda - has recently been announced which aims to develop infrastructure to collect excess rainfall and integrate flood control, while minimising runoff pollution. Under the Sponge City initiative, which is central to the Chinese Government’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–20), nearly 70 per cent of excess rain water will be recycled and reused on greenery, cleaning and fire-fighting in 16 pilot cities. By 2020 more than 20 per cent of urban areas will meet sponge city objectives and requirements, raising runoff management to more than 80 per cent by 2030.
The key Sponge City technologies are biofilters (also known as bioretentions or raingardens), constructed stormwater wetlands and ponds, swales, infiltration basins and porous pavements. Monash University has been working on the development of these so-called WSUD technologies for over 15 years - advancing the science of these nature based systems but more importantly on the development of design and adoption guidelines. The WSUD systems have not only been widely adopted across Australian cities, but also exported to Israel, Singapore and China. For example, over 10,000 raingardens which follow our designs have been installed in inner Melbourne suburbs to protect the Yarra River from polluted runoffs. The first pilot bioretention in Israel was built by Monash University researchers in collaboration with the Kfar-Saba municipality to showcase how polluted runoff can be cleaned and injected into shallow aquifers for consequent use.
The talk will focus on the development and delivery of the green technologies developed at Monash University for capture, treatment and harvesting of polluted urban runoffs.