urbanstreams.net

Featured paper

Walsh, C. J., Imberger, M. J., Burns, M. J., Fletcher, T. D., & Bos, D. G. (2022). Dispersed urban-stormwater control improved stream water quality in a catchment-scale experiment. Water Resources Research, e2022WR032041.
An outcome of the Little Stringybark Creek experiment, which aimed to test if creeks downstream of stormwater drainage can be restored. 100s of rain-gardens that allow to water soak into surrounding soils and be taken up by plants, and rainwater tanks for harvesting, were installed in two suburban catchments. Comparing water quality before and after installation, in experimental streams, and in urban control and reference forested streams, we showed that filtering and harvesting stormwater reduced summer temperatures and reduced concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen, critical contaminants for healthy streams. The reductions were greatest in dry weather, and after small amounts of rain. To achieve water quality similar to forested streams, we need rain-gardens and harvesting systems that catch runoff from nearly every roof and road upstream. Achieving that will require reserving space near pipe outlets to streams for final treatment systems, and finding ways to use the excess water generated by roofs and roads. DOI: 10.1029/2022WR032041

Projects

Little Stringybark Creek Project

Can catchment-scale stormwater retention restore the hydrology, water quality & ecological structure and function of a degraded urban stream?

Wetland Forest Restoration

Reversing decline of the wetland forest in the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve by reinstating a more natural flow regime

My Raingarden diary

Building and living with a household stormwater retention system that protects the local river and reduces local flooding, while providing shade, water, food, and occasionally, wildlife.

A larger-scale digression

The prime minister of Australia believes we have quite enough National Parks. Politicians around the world see economic growth as their primary goal, and (while economic growth is not necessarily linked to human population growth) in Australia, the idea of aiming to limit human population growth is virtually a taboo…

Environmental Benefit Calculator resurrected

I posted a new beta version of the Environmental Benefit Calculator on urbanstreams.net today. The R package ‘Shiny’ has made the rewrite remarkably easy (and yet it has taken me forever). I still need to ‘prettify’ the page, but it seems to be mostly functional – doing all of the…

One small step for urbanstreams.net for Christmas 2013

Finally, urbanstreams.net is on-line full-time after a long frustrating search for the cause of the server’s random rebooting problem. The multitude of websites out there that advise on random rebooting problems suggest numerous possibilities, but I didn’t find a pointer to what turned out to be my problem: a faulty…