There are many aspects of urban design that can be improved by including stormwater, groundwater, and wastewater management into the design process in order to reduce environmental degradation as well as increase aesthetic appeal. WSUD incorporates these aspects into the design process in order to achieve these goals. Low-impact development (LID), a phrase used in the United States, is related to sustainable drainage system (SuDS), a term in the UK. WSUD is a term used in the Middle East and Australia.
Landscapes are transformed from permeable vegetated surfaces to a network of impervious surfaces that are linked. This results in significant amounts of stormwater runoff that need to be managed. As in other developed countries, Australia has considered stormwater runoff as a burden and an annoyance that poses a threat to both human health and property. There is a considerable emphasis on the construction of stormwater management systems that quickly transmit stormwater runoff to streams with little or no consideration on ecosystem preservation. As a result of this management strategy, the urban stream syndrome is born. [3] As a result of heavy rainfall, streams are contaminated with pollutants, nutrients, and suspended particulates from impermeable surfaces that have been washed away. By altering the shape and stability of the channel, an increased peak flow also reduces biotic diversity and speeds up sedimentation.
There was a shift in Australia’s approach to stormwater management in the 1960s because of an increased understanding of the urban stream syndrome.
As part of the Cooperative Research Centre initiative, the federal government and scientists collaborated to improve public awareness in the 1990s.
Many city planners now recognize the importance of an integrated management strategy to potable water, waste water and stormwater management to help cities adapt and become more resilient in the face of population expansion, urban density and climate change. As a result of Australia’s dry environment and its reliance on surface water resources, as well as one of the worst droughts (from 2000–2010) since European colonization, the country’s major metropolitan areas face growing water shortages. Changes in stormwater management strategies have resulted from this shift in perspective of stormwater runoff from a liability and annoyance to a valuable water resource.
WSUD guidelines were initially released by Western Australia in 1994, based on federal government research conducted in the 1990s. New South Wales collaborated with Victoria to create best practices for environmental management of urban stormwater, and comparable materials were produced by Brisbane City Council in 1999. As a consequence of cooperation between the federal, state, and territory governments in Australia, the National Water Initiative (NWI) was signed in June 2004. One of the main goals of the National Water Initiative (NWI), which is a national plan to enhance water management in Australia, is encouraging the use of best practices in water management, including WSUD.
Conventional urban stormwater management is not the same as this
Urban stormwater runoff is viewed as a resource by WSUD, not a problem or a risk. The way natural resources and water infrastructure are handled in the architecture and development of towns and cities has undergone a paradigm change. The concepts of WSUD see all waterways as a resource having different effects on biodiversity, water, land, and community use of rivers for recreational and aesthetic purposes.
