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 new year, a new server, a resolution of sorts

The desktop box that is urbanstreams.net is getting old. We are in the process of migrating the contents of this site to a more stable and secure location. The move has begun with our apps. Because he who is last will be first, the most recent app is the first…

Definitive Melbourne stream network now available

It’s been a long time between posts (I’ve been away for much of the year: more on that later). This return to the blog is to announce the completion of the Melbourne Water Stream Network v1.0, now available at tools.thewerg.unimelb.edu.au/mwstr/*. The stream network is a spatial database, comprising a stream…

A spring raingarden update

I’ve added another entry to my raingarden diary today, primarily spurred by (an old picture of) the raingarden featuring on the front cover of the current issue of ReNew magazine. (I see that the issue includes an article by friend of urbanstreams.net, Peter Coombes, on the performance of the rainwater harvesting…

Catchment extractor app updated

Contact

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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