Projects

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. 

Using surfaces of Big Data to Underpin Continuous Simulation in Systems Analysis
Following our presentation at WSUD 2018 & Hydropolis 2018, our peer reviewed paper can be downloaded below.  This paper outlines some of the methods in the systems framework that was designed to explore the multiple scale impacts of water, energy, economic and environmental decisions using a bottom up approach to spatial systems analysis.

Workshop with the editors on application of Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR2016) in Urban Areas
Workshop prior to the Climate Adaption 2018 conference on Monday 7 May, 2018 at Engineers Australia 600 Bourke Street Melbourne Victoria from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. This afternoon workshop will be presented by the editors Dr Peter Coombes and Steve Roso of Book 9 (Urban Book) of ARR2016 and will cover the philosophy and application of ARR2016 in urban catchments.

Using surfaces of Big Data to Underpin Continuous Simulation in Systems Analysis
Following our presentation at WSUD 2018 & Hydropolis 2018, our peer reviewed paper can be downloaded below.  This paper outlines some of the methods in the systems framework that was designed to explore the multiple scale impacts of water, energy, economic and environmental decisions using a bottom up approach to spatial systems analysis.

Following our presentation at WSUD 2018 & Hydropolis 2018, please find attached our peer reviewed paper and presentation. Historical demographic, water resources and economic “big” data was examined and included in “bottom up” systems analysis to understand the benefits of distributed solutions for household water efficiency and rainwater harvesting in Australian capital city regions. We use a long history of data from government departments, agencies, utilities and private industry to discover the whole of system and society value of distributed solutions.

This investigation aims to contribute to knowledge about this key question for water sensitive urban design – local actions provide whole of society benefits but what are the benefits and how do these benefits manifest across scales?