Urban Developer can model and assess systems based on multiple and alternative service delivery strategies, for successful Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM). This next generation software tool from eWater challenges the conventional silo approach to modeling the different streams of the urban water cycle of stormwater, waste water, water supply and re-use options.
The National Water Account 2010 contains a set of water accounting reports for eight nationally significant water management regions. Reports are now available for the Adelaide, Perth, South East Queensland, Canberra and Sydney regions with Melbourne to be available in upcoming releases.
A new suburb being built south of Melton in outer Melbourne is set to create a benchmark for Victoria by officially becoming Australia’s first water neutral suburb. Toolern will capture and reuse stormwater and recycled water to greatly reduce the suburb’s demand for potable water, and will be the first suburb in Victoria where a potable water substitution target is being included in its precinct structure plan.
The Big Thirst – The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water takes readers on a journey – from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, where dolphins swim in the desert, and from a rice farm in the parched Australian outback to a high-tech IBM plant that makes an exotic breed of pure water found nowhere in nature – showing that we’ve already left behind a century-long golden age when water was thoughtlessly abundant, free, and safe and entered a new era of high-stakes water. But as dramatic as the challenges are, the deeper truth The Big Thirst reveals is that there is no good reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, smartly.
The National Water Commission has released four reports that look at water pricing options and opportunities for greater competition. For further information see the Media Release and the reports Reviews of pricing reform, Externality pricing, Competition in the urban water sector, and Scarcity pricing in urban areas. The reports are part of a suite of work undertaken by the Commission to support its keystone report Urban water in Australia: future directions.
The National Water Commission has called for Australian governments to consider new directions to reinvigorate the way we manage water in cities and towns. To encourage discussion and provide a platform for change, the Commission has released a major report, Urban water in Australia: future directions. For further information see the media release and report.
The National Water Commission has developed a new Integrated Resource Planning model for water planners around Australia. This web-based tool can be applied to any urban water supply in Australia. A series of manuals is also available to guide practitioners, together with case studies that demonstrate the model’s use in two Australian cities. For more information see the resource papers and project information.
The Bureau of Meteorology is building the Australian Water Resources Information System (AWRIS) to deliver high quality water information essential to managing Australia’s valuable water resources. AWRIS will be spatially enabled using the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (or Geofabric), a spatial framework for discovering, querying, reporting and modelling water information. Read the rest of this entry »