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
Wetland Forest Restoration
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Recent posts
Not all leaky tanks are good
Maybe that’s just me. Can any leaky tank be good? Well, for many years, starting with the Little Stringybark Creek Project, we have been promoting tanks that leak for passive irrigation, as a good stormwater management solution. A well-designed leak (to an adequate garden space) does little to alter the…
Pump pitfalls
The self-seeded pumpkins have taken over the front raingarden. The grapevine’s leaves are turning brown and slowly shedding in the back. The raingardens’ productive summer ends with us in lockdown, giving me time to reflect on the raingarden news I have let slip over the last year. A year ago,…
A new home for our apps
The shiny apps that urbanstreams.net has been hosting are migrating to a new server at tools.thewerg.unimelb.edu.au. Three are there now, with the rest to come on line soon. We are also in the process of migrating urbanstreams.net to a new server, where it will become primarily a repository for my…
Sharing the raingarden joy
The raingarden‘s vine has provided us with great shade from our horrible, hot summer, and come March, it has provided us with a bumper crop of grapes that we have struggled to keep up with. As we reach the end of the season, the local lorikeets have discovered them. They…
This site is maintained by Chris Walsh,
Principal Research Fellow in the Waterway Ecosystem Research Group,
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at The University of Melbourne.
He lives in Richmond, where he obsesses about his
house's stormwater runoff.
His research contributes to the Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership.
Other resources for Chris's research include:
Google Scholar,
The Open Science Framework,
GitHub,
The University of Melbourne's 'Find and Expert' page.
Contact details.
Waterway Ecosystem Research Group,
School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences
The University of Melbourne Burnley Campus
Building 903, 500 Yarra Boulevard
Burnley Victoria 3121, Australia
Tel: +613 8344 9155
Fax: +613 9349 4218
e-mail: cwalsh@unimelb.edu.au
For directions to the WERG,
click on the pointer in this version of the map.
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