Author(s): N. M. Evans; B. C. Phillips; L. Evans
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Hydrology; Wetland; Urban runoff; Stormwater harvesting
Abstract: The Porters Creek wetland is the largest freshwater wetland remaining on the central coast of NSW. It receives runoff from a partially urbanised 55km2 catchment in which further development is planned. An Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM) strategy has been adopted by Wyong Council to protect the wetland by replicating the pre-development hydrological regime. To date the strategy has been based on the distributed collection, storage and harvesting of urban stormwater in a series of storage basins connected via a reticulation network. The basin operations use storage, re-use and overflows to replicate pre-development flows. Funding constraints mean that the current scheme can not be afforded. The further investigations, analysis and design that have been undertaken to achieve a cost-effective scheme that meets the wetland objectives is described. It is concluded that central regional storage would eliminate the need for a costly reticulation network while still meeting environmental flow objectives.
Year: 2011