Stormwater Harvesting in Melbourne: Potential, Strategies, and Challenges

Civil Engineering 1
CIVIL ENGINEERING
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Civil Engineering 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................4
Scope and description......................................................................................................................5

Civil Engineering 3
Introduction
Stormwater is water that is generated during events of precipitation and snow or ice. The water
can either be held on the surface and evaporate, soak in the soil or even run off and thus end up
in the nearby streams, lakes, river or other surface water bodies. Stormwater harvesting is thus
the collection, treatment, storage and the use of this water from the cities and other urban areas.
Stormwater harvesting is dissimilar to rainwater harvesting in the sense that in stormwater
harvesting, the runoff is collected from the drains as opposed to roofs of buildings (Feldman,
2017, p.275). Stormwater has been identified as significantly untapped resources of water that
has very high potentials of being utilized more productively in such a way that can substitute the
prevailing demands of potable water supplies. Stormwater can also be used in meeting the
demands of new developments beside beings a prerequisite in the conservation and restoration of
urban waterways.
Stormwater harvesting involves numerous procedure and steps that must be undertaken to ensure
that the water is not harmful at the point of consumption. Among the stages of stormwater
harvesting include harvesting, storage, treatment and then finally distribution (Maheshwari,
2014, p.147). Harvesting involves collected stormwater from its sources which is usually the
drains. These drains belong to either the city council of the town or Melbourne Water. Storage
helps in the temporarily holding of the collected water above or below the ground storages. This
holding helps in creating a balance between the demand and the supply of water. This can
constrain a scheme at time factoring in such issues as cost constraints and restrictions with space.
Such factors may limit the amount of water that can be stored. Reducing the levels of pollutions
and pathogens is the aim of treatment of stormwater (Maksimović, 2014, p.197). This aims at
ensuring that the quality of water is viable for the intended purpose and that it does not pose any