Water Sensitive Urban Design

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a set of design elements and on-ground solutions that aim to minimise impacts on the water cycle from the built urban environment. It offers a simplified and integrated approach to land and water planning by dealing with the urban water cycle in a decentralised manner consistent with natural hydrological and ecological processes.

WSUD includes:

• Utilising water saving measures within and outside domestic, commercial, industrial and institutional premises to minimise requirements for drinking and non-drinking water supplies;
• Storage, treatment and beneficial use of runoff (at building and street level, including stormwater);
• Treatment and reuse of wastewater; and
• Using vegetation for treatment purposes, water efficient landscaping and enhancing biodiversity and amenity.

Water Sensitive Urban Design often makes use of biofiltration systems such as wetlands & drainage swales to help clean stormwater before it is released into waterways or used for irrigation, and the City of Onkaparinga has also used a rain garden for this purpose.

Related Pages

• Aquifer Storage and Recovery
• ASR
• Bioretention Swale
• Bioretention System
• D-Spec
• Stormwater Quality Control
• Stormwater Reuse
• Swale
• Swale Drain
• Water by Design
• WSUD

External Links & References

1. Queensland Urban Drainage Manual
2. Planning in South Australia Water Sensitive Urban Design Page
3. Construction and Establishment Guidelines: Swales, Bioretention Systems and Wetlands (Water by Design)
4. Gold Coast Planning Scheme 2003 Policy 11 - Land Development Guidelines
5. Water Sensitive Urban Design: Engineering Procedures for Stormwater Managment in Tasmainia