Urban water management

Urbaqua has extensive experience in the urban water management service area. Our familiarity and experience in water sensitive urban design, due diligence services for land development, and integrated catchment management is renowned in the Perth region. In particular, Director Shelley Shepherd is a prominent expert in water sensitive urban design having been the lead consultant in the preparation of Better Urban Water Management (WAPC, 2008). Shelley is also the current Program Manager of New WAter Ways, a capacity building organisation for water sensitive urban design formed in 2006 as a partnership between the Department of Planning, the Department of Water, the Western Australian Local Government Association, the Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA) and the Swan River Trust.

Urbaqua has demonstrated experience in the preparation of water management strategies and plans for state government, local government, and land developers across multiple scales. We also provide supporting expertise in water service planning and optimisation within this service area. Urbaqua provides the following services in urban water management:

  • Regional water management strategies
  • District water management strategies
  • Local water management strategies
  • Urban water management plans
  • Drainage and water management plans
  • Water balance modelling
  • Rainwater tank sizing
  • Water efficiency and conservation optimisation
  • Non-drinking water scheme concept development
  • Non-drinking water approvals process guidance and management
  • Integrated water management strategies and feasibility

Urbaqua is also well placed to advise on, develop and implement a range of monitoring programs in groundwater and surface water systems primarily, having gained extensive experience in monitoring in a variety of environments in the Greater Perth region. We have extensive experience in collecting and assessing water level, flow and quality data by desktop review and in the field, pre-development and post-development monitoring for land developers as part of subdivision conditions, and for local government as part of environmental investigations. Urbaqua has prepared numerous monitoring reports to local and state government on behalf of land developers, as well as advice on improving the environmental health of waterways and groundwater systems based on the assessment of monitoring results.

Urbaqua can provide the following capabilities in this service area:

  • Pre-development and post-development urban water management monitoring
  • Groundwater and surface water monitoring
  • Sampling for water quality analysis
  • Water level measurement and stream flow monitoring
  • Data analysis to understand groundwater and surface water hydrology and interaction of systems
  • Baseline water quality data and monitoring for health of wetlands, rivers and aquifers
  • Monitoring reports
  • Soil sampling to understand hydrogeology and impacts of soil type

Example projects:

  • West Ellenbrook District Water Management Strategy
  • City of Karratha Water Management Strategy
  • Viveash Stage 2 Urban Water Management Plan
  • South Pinjar District Water Management Strategy
  • Bentley regeneration project Urban Water Management Plan
  • Batavia Coastal Marina Stage 2 Urban Water Management Plan
  • Former Shenton Park Hospital Site Local Water Management Strategy
  • North East Baldivis District and Local Water Management Strategy
  • North East Metropolitan Subregion Regional Water Management Strategy
  • Morley Activity Centre Local Water Management Strategy
  • South Metropolitan Peel Subregion Regional Water Management Strategy
  • Water and Wastewater Services Capacity Assessment for Point Samson townsite
  • Review of the draft Non-Drinking Water approvals framework
  • Guidelines for water use efficiency in Pilbara Ports
  • Mundijong-Whitby Non-drinking Water Strategy
  • Maylands Lakes Water Quality Investigation
  • Nutrient Management Feasibility Study for Beenyup Swamp and South Lake Joondalup
  • Forrestdale district scale monitoring program
  • Jandakot Airport groundwater monitoring program
  • Springtime development – water and environmental investigations