See water sensitive city principles and tools in practice at the 5th Water Sensitive Cities Conference
We’re opening and closing the 5th Water Sensitive Cities Conference with deep dives into how to apply water sensitive cities principles, tools and processes in practice.
Day 1—Seeing water sensitive cities in action
The first day will include virtual site tours. Each tour will include a video of key features and how they operate, as well as a live Q&A session. One of the tours will be of Aquarevo (Melbourne, Victoria), a unique residential development with homes that include innovative water saving features. In particular, find out how South East Water’s OneBox®+ controller can manage and monitor sensors, irrigation and misting to cool the landscape and mitigate urban heat. Sensors will monitor ambient temperature, ambient light intensity, relative humidity, soil moisture and soil temperature. The research is investigating whether it’s cheaper to cool our cities with water, rather than electricity.
Other tours include:
- Bendigo (Victoria), examining the city’s water sensitive vision and actions it's taken to achieve that vision, including how Traditional Owners are managing waterways in cities
- Wharf Street bio basin (City of Canning, Western Australia), demonstrating how converting a stormwater drain into a smart park unlocked a hectare of open space in the heart of Canning
- East Village at Knutsford (Fremantle, Western Australia), highlighting a new residential development comprising sustainable homes and green spaces that are both productive and cooling
- Unity Park (City of Salisbury, South Australia), exploring the biofilter, constructed wetlands and managed aquifer recharge system that is managing stormwater and providing an alternative water source.
You can join as many site tours as you like.
Day 4—Applying water sensitive city tools and processes
The final day will include virtual training sessions on the CRCWSC’s tools and processes. These two-hour taster sessions provide an overview of a particular topic and then introduce the tools/processes that practitioners can use. Provided by industry practitioners, the sessions are targeted at beginners. So if you’ve ever wondered how these tools work, but didn’t know where to start, join one (or more!) of our training sessions.
These are some of the topics we’ll be covering:
- Economics—Find out about how to apply benefit cost analysis and value non-market benefits, interpret these results and then incorporate them in a business case. Natural Capital Economics will explain how to apply the INFFEWS Benefit Cost Analysis Tool and the Value Tool.
- Urban design—Find out why urban design is important for water sensitive Cities, what factors affect water performance of urban design, and how water performance can be evaluated. Urbaqua will demonstrate the Infill Typologies Catalogue, the Infill Performance Evaluation Framework, and passive irrigation and green infrastructure guidelines.
- Urban heat—E2Designlab will demonstrate how to use the Scenario Tool to design and assess water sensitive interventions. Find how what the tool can do and how to interpret the outputs.
- Urban waterways and groundwater systems—Find out how to manage urban waterways and groundwater systems. Leah Beesley (University of Western Australia) and E2Designlab will discuss water sensitive solutions for high groundwater environments, and how to apply the RESTORE Tool to improve urban waterways.
You’ll find all the details and registration information on our website.
We’re keeping an eye on COVID-19 requirements
In these extraordinary COVID-19 times, we are actively monitoring requirements in each jurisdiction and maintaining an up-to-date COVID plan. Ideally, we will be able to gather face to face in each hub, to share and celebrate our water sensitive experiences and achievements. Currently, our plan ensures we can do that safely, by maintaining physical distance and hygiene requirements for example. But, we also have contingency plans in place to respond quickly if circumstances change.