Civil Engineering: Stormwater Harvesting Strategies for Melbourne

This civil engineering report delves into stormwater harvesting in Melbourne, Australia, addressing its potential as an alternative water source to reduce reliance on potable water. It highlights the collection, treatment, storage, and distribution processes involved in stormwater harvesting, emphasizing its importance for urban water supply, environmental conservation, and waterway restoration. The report acknowledges the government's recognition of stormwater as a valuable resource for non-potable uses like irrigation and examines the factors considered in stormwater harvesting proposals, including catchment area, rainfall value, and social and environmental impacts. The objectives of the study include reducing potable water demand, tapping into untapped stormwater resources, and exploring safe harvesting and distribution methods. It focuses on Melbourne's catchment areas, analyzes their potential, and addresses the challenges of stormwater harvesting, providing recommendations and avenues for further research. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................4
Scope and description......................................................................................................................5

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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

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health risks to the public and the environment. After successful treatment and justification that
the stormwater is fit for the intended purpose, the water can then be distributed to the intended
areas of use among them industrial complexes, wetlands and sports facilities.
Water extraction from waterways or works of Melbourne Water has been maintained at the
current levels of allocation for a long time now in a bid to protect the security of supply as well
as the values of the environment (Sharma, 2015, p.215). The government of Australia has
established that urban stormwater is a highly potential resource that can be used in meeting the
demands of potable supply for such functions as irrigation of race course, golf courses as well as
public gardens and parks. In this regard, the government had adopted and enacted various rules
for the collection and usage of stormwater in the urban areas. When considerations are made in
making proposals for stormwater harvesting, the entire catchment area must be taken into
consideration and the intrinsic value of rainfall be acknowledged with regard to replenishing the
flows of surface water and recharge of the groundwater (Brebbia, 2015, p.312). Also considered
are the social and the environmental values of the harvesting proposals to the urban waterways.
Objectives
The objectives of this study are to:
 Reduce the demand for potable water through the provision of an alternative source of
water supply for use for such purposes as irrigation of parks and gardens (Feldman, 2017,
p.278)
 Tap the potential of stormwater resource that in most cases end up in water bodies,
evaporate or even sink into the soil all of which are of limited help to the public

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 Explore the various ways in which stormwater can best be harvested, stored and
distributed in such a way that it does not pose a threat to the public health and the
environment
Scope and description
This study aims at exploring into details the potential of stormwater in Melbourne and the most
appropriate strategies that can be used in stormwater harvesting in the city. This is aimed at
reducing overreliance on potable water especially for activities in which alternative sources of
water be used. The study covers the entire catchment areas of stormwater in Melbourne city,
analyzing the potential that lies within each and every catchment area. The challenges of
stormwater harvesting in Melbourne are given a consideration in the study as they will form a
basis of making recommendations as well as providing avenues for further research as may be
deemed necessary by the findings of the study (Maheshwari, 2014, p.222). The focus of the
study will be in Melbourne city and will only concentrate on stormwater harvesting as the central
focus. The comparison may be made to other forms of harvesting the water resource though not
to any greater depth.

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References
Brebbia, C.A., 2015. Sustainable Development (2 Volume Set). 2nd ed. New York: WIT Press.
Feldman, D.L., 2017. The Water-Sustainable City: Science, Policy, and Practice. 6th ed. New
York: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Maheshwari, B., 2014. The Security of Water, Food, Energy, and Liveability of Cities:
Challenges and Opportunities for Peri-Urban Futures. 3rd ed. London: Springer.
Maksimović, Č., 2014. Rethinking Infrastructure Design for Multi-Use Water Services. 4th ed.
London: Springer.
Q. Ashton Acton, P., 2012. Issues in Earth Sciences, Geology, and Geophysics: 2011 Edition.
4th ed. New York: ScholarlyEditions.
Sharma, A.K., 2015. Rainwater Tank Systems for Urban Water Supply. 5th ed. Kansas: IWA
Publishing.