The infrastructure costs, water quality and environmental concerns associated with continuing with the current urban water cycle paradigm are increasing to unsustainable levels. It is argued that a systems approach is required to understand and hence find optimum solutions for urban water cycle management that includes decentralized approaches used to supplement to current centralized management methods.
Dr Coombes has spent more than 30 years dedicated to the development of systems understanding of the urban, rural and natural water cycles with a view to finding optimum solutions for the sustainable use of ecosystem services, provision of infrastructure and urban planning.
Utilising mixed methods of defining joint probability of catchment and coastal flooding to increase certainty and utility of flood risk analysis Peter J Coombes and Robert Swan presenting at the Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium HWRS2024 on Tuesday 19 November...
New Journal paper from Peter J Coombes explores the influence of regulation, legislation and monopoly processes on preference for utility supply side infrastructure. The effects of price regulation and preference for utility supply infrastructure on Australian urban water utilities and urban water markets are considered by examination of historical data and models of the future of a case study of the Greater Sydney and Melbourne regions. Interesting read in the context of requests to double water bills and limit user pays pricing
The Essential Rainwater Harvesting Course was created by Peter Coombes of Urban Water Cycle Solutions (https://urbanwatercyclesolutions.com) and Michelle Avis of Verge Permaculture (https://vergepermaculture.ca). First recorded in 2020, a large majority of the course is now being released, for free, on YouTube as part of our shared mission to educate and spread information on rainwater harvesting as widely as possible.
Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises New journal paper published by Nature Sustainability by the ANU team lead by Quentin Grafton and our colleagues. The world faces multiple water crises, including overextraction, flooding, ecosystem degradation and...
Benefits, costs and enabling conditions to achieve ‘water for all’ in rural and remote Australia. I am honoured to announce the publication in Nature Water of our multidisciplinry research collaboration into an important challenge of access to good quality water in rural and remote communities.
Urban flood risks, water law and insurance: The intersection of emerging science, practice and authority By Professor Peter J Coombes Published in Precedent issue 178 - September/October 2023, Journal of the Australian Lawyers Alliance This article discusses the...
Results from two decades of accumulated big data and systems analysis of Greater Melbourne and Sydney was investigated to develop insights into the resilience of each city. The key resilience parameters are distributed water sources and conservation in an urban water market, household welfare, government policy and regulation, pricing strategies, total dam storage and supply of desalinated water. These parameters have different levels of impact and significance across the two cities. Further studies are needed to better define the attributes and benefits of these parameters.
Systems Frameworks of Big Data: Averages, Economics and Policy Peter J Coombes at the GK Symposium 12 - 13 June 2019 at Noahs at Newcastle Beach Bottom up systems analysis highlights the illusion of averages and economic opportunities for development of government...
Making of the paper: Planning resilient water resources and communities: the need for a bottom up systems approach
Michael E Barry and Peter J Coombes. Impact of averages on water modelling.
This paper was awarded the GN Alexander Medal by the Engineers Australia National Committee on Water Engineering. This Medal is usually awarded every 18 months for the best paper in hydrology and/or water resources published in an Engineers Australia publication.
This article presents an overview of the processes leading to making this journal paper.