Objectives

The overarching objective of the LSC project is to test whether catchment-scale stormwater retention could restore the hydrology, water quality & ecological structure and function of a degraded urban stream. But, in addition to restoring the health of the LSC, the project also has the following broader objectives:

• Increase the adoption and effectiveness of new approaches to stormwater, urban water and stream management
• Trial alternative community engagement and market-based instruments
• Evaluate costs and benefits of stormwater harvesting, treatment & retention at different scales
• Develop new stormwater control measures (simple, cheap, robust), and
• Develop new stormwater management performance targets (for incorporation into state and national policies)

BACRI design

The LSC Project was designed as a BACRI (Before After Control Reference Intervention) experiment, where, in addition to LSC (catchment shown as red in the adjoining map), 6 other streams are monitored for their condition. This includes 3 control streams (yellow catchments) that are similarly degraded urban streams but without our stormwater retrofit works and 3 reference streams (blue catchments).