Blog

Bottom up systems analysis of urban water resources and market mechanisms for pricing water and sewage services
Presentation Peter J Coombes, Michael Barry and Michael Smit at the HWRS 2018 conference in Melbourne at 11:00 am on Tuesday 3 December 2018. Consumers in the Greater Melbourne region pay uniform fixed and variable tariffs for utility water and sewage services. Removing fixed tariffs creates substantial reductions in water demands and improvements in water security to 2050 at a net present value of $8.6 billion. A full usage tariff regime was seen to increase water efficient behaviours and reveals improvements in household welfare.

Australian Rainfall & Runoff 2016 Urban Book workshop at the Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium
Workshop by Peter Coombes, Steve Roso and Mark Babister at 11 am on Monday 3 December 2018 at Ballroom 3 Pullman Hotel 192 Wellington Pde Melbourne.

Introduction to Australian Rainfall & Runoff 2016 Urban Book workshop by Peter Coombes and Steve Roso at 1 pm on Thursday 18 October 2018 at Reg Sparks Room, Sporting Car Club of SA, 51 King William Road, Unley. Join the authors and editors of Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR) Urban Book as they cover the philosophy and application of ARR in urban catchments.

Presentation by Peter Coombes, Mark Colegate and Sophia Buchanan at Stormwater 2018 conference at 3:45 pm on Wednesday 10 October 2018. Urban stormwater catchments can be subject to complex hydrological and hydraulic responses that are driven by unresolved sub-catchment influences, flow pathways and local depression storages. This paper provides an overview of the processes to define complex urban hydrology, establish evidence based targets for urban catchments and design of detention basins using ARR2016 resources.

environmental management
Presentation Dr Peter Coombes at Stormwater 2018 conference at 2:00 pm on Tuesday 9 October 2018.

This research project builds on previous publications by the author that utilised a Systems Framework of historical big data from government agencies and utilities to identify the water and stormwater benefits of property scale water conservation measures for Australian cities. Bottom up systems analysis is used  quantify the stormwater resources and economic value of  stormwater infrastructure for Greater Melbourne.

Melbourne could save 100 billion litres of water a year by 2050
Interview with Dr Peter Coombes on ABC News Breakfast at 6:30 am on 16 August 2018.
Water savings targets for buildings can drive an average 50% reduction in demand for utility water supply in households. Achievable water efficiency targets for buildings would drastically reduce water usage and create better environmental and economic outcomes. These benefits apply to households, water utilities and government across normal climate and drought periods.

Targets for sustainable buildings will increase household welfare and urban areas will have reduced impact on drought effected rural catchments.

New Journal Paper: Status of transforming stormwater drainage to a systems approach to urban water cycle management – moving beyond green pilots
This investigation was motivated by revision of Australia’s national guide to rainfall runoff and flooding, Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR), and systems thinking about the future of urban stormwater management. Reflections on this change process revealed internationally relevant challenges and a need to reframe stormwater drainage as integrated management of the urban water cycle from a design, economic and policy perspective.

Systems analysis reveals challenges of climate change on linked towns and irrigation districts connected to Murray Darling Basin
Presentation by Dr Peter Coombes and Dr Michael Barry at the Climate Adaption 2018 on Thursday 10 May in Room P3, 13:30 15:00, at Crown Promenade South Bank Melbourne.