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Headwater streams are disappearing. As urban development expands, these vital waterways—essential for water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem health—are often overlooked in planning, leading to degradation, pollution, and loss through piping or channelisation. Earlier this month, Water Sensitive Cities Australia published the ‘Protection of Headwater Streams: Ideas for Aitken Creek’ report, ……

Publications & reports … Report exploring new planning and design ideas to protect headwater streams like Aitken Creek as urban growth increases.   The Protection of Headwater Streams: Ideas for Aitken Creek report underscores the urgent need to safeguard headwater streams amid rapid urbanisation and climate change. These waterways play a vital role in ecosystem health, biodiversity,…

Guidelines & strategy … Guide to Victorian stormwater quality offsets that explains how offsets work and how they can be used to meet stormwater management requirements. In Victoria, councils can set up stormwater quality offset schemes to help developers to comply with their stormwater quality requirements under Victorian planning rules. When stormwater cannot be fully managed on-site,…

To celebrate World Environment Day (June 5th), Melbourne Water is launching a ‘Litter Prevention Toolkit’!  Drawing on behaviour change research and insights from a stakeholder forum, the toolkit addresses a key gap in public understanding: the link between urban littering and its impact on our waterways. Developed in collaboration with Shannon Behaviour Change and BehaviourWorks Australia, the…

Melbourne Water is committed to sharing news and updates that are relevant to local government, and the work that is done in collaboration to build and support healthy, liveable and resilient communities. Melbourne Water recently conducted a survey with local government customers to understand how councils would like receive news, information and project updates. As a result of the feedback from…

Last week, the Victorian Government released the Victorian  Stormwater Offsets Guidance ! These resources will help Victorian councils understand how to establish and operate stormwater quality offset schemes in their municipalities to manage stormwater quality impacts from urban development. Councils can set up stormwater quality offsets chemes to help developers fully meet their stormwater ……

Sydney will officially host the IWA WaterReuse27 conference in 2027, bringing global water leaders together to explore innovations in water reuse, sustainability, and policy. This conference will showcase and strengthen Australia’s leadership in water management and drive international cooperation on future solutions. Sydney’s world-class water infrastructure, research expertise, and industry ……

This week, the Victorian Government gazetted Amendment  VC281 . The amendment makes changes to the Victoria Planning Provisions and 34 planning schemes by amending clause 12.03-1R (Yarra River protection) to implement stage one of Burndap Birrarung burndap umarkoo, the Yarra Strategic Plan 2022-2032, February 2022 . The amendment also introduces Clause 51.06 to ensure responsible public entities…

Water Sensitive Cities Australia have released a fact sheet summarising their recent rapid review with Alluvium examining the cooling benefits of green spaces in Southern Australia and tropical Asian cities. The results of the review include new data summarising how much cooling can reasonably be expected of parks of different sizes and how far the cooling extends beyond the park boundaries. As…

Factsheets & tools … Calculate the ideal rainwater tank size for your home with Tankulator, a free online tool designed to maximize water savings. Looking for a quick, easy-to-use, online tool for rainwater tank calculations?   The Tankulator is a free online tool which calculates what size rainwater tank best suits your needs. Developed by Renew…