Client: South East Water
The development of a long-term water solution for Melbourne’s
water supply is now underway. South East Water (SEWater), Melbourne
Water and Southern Rural Water have gone into partnership to
develop an Integrated Water Management (IWM) scheme for the south
east of Victoria.
In addition, a Stakeholder Reference Group (consisting of 27
members from government, community and industry) was developed to
provide knowledge, information and advice to drive the
strategy.
GHD's technical experience was required to assist the project
partners and the Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG) in the creation
of a strategy that would best serve an IWM scheme.
The strategy involved identification and assessment of
integrated water supply solutions that best meet the needs of
customers, the broader community and the environment, and which
achieve a vision of a community working together to manage water
wisely to support a vibrant and thriving region.
Project objectives were achieved, including:
- GHD was able to characterise the SEWater spatial area in order
to confirm the spatial distribution of nine water use initiatives
based on their ‘suitability’ for different land use and geographic
characteristics across the study area. The methodology for
determining the spatial distribution of the water use initiatives
was documented so that if required, the spatial analysis may be
repeated in the future for sensitivity analysis.
- The project team was responsible for the development of a
transparent and repeatable framework to form combinations of the
nine water use initiatives into IWM options. These include
multi-sourced water and meet the vision and broad themes of the
strategy.
- The undertaking of a water balance assessment by GHD helped
gauge the potential water supply volume of each initiative when
combined with other water use initiatives. However, the temporal
variations in the supply and demand for water needed to be taken
into account.
- Quantitative ‘data’ was developed and used to support a
Multi-Criteria Assessment of the options including Net Present
Costs (NPC), nutrient reductions, greenhouse gas emissions and
water supply potential.
- GHD formed and implemented strategic option maps to represent
the spatial distribution of initiatives that make up each IWM
option for communication with the SRG.
- The recommendation of the preferred IWM strategy assisted in
achieving the objectives of the IWM project.
- The evolution of a collaborative working arrangement with SE
Water encouraged an open and productive work relationship, which
saw the views and inputs from the SRG represented in the strategy.
This resulted in key decisions being resolved in a timely and
efficient manner throughout the project process.
Benefits
Working closely with SEWater,
Melbourne Water and Southern Rural Water, GHD has helped in the
identification of an IWM strategy for the SEWater region to assist
in securing Melbourne’s long term water supply.
This will enable communities to work together, managing water
wisely in order to support a vibrant and thriving region.
One of the 'breakthroughs' on the IWM project has been in the
use spatial analysis for the creation of innovative IWM strategies
to best meet the needs of customers, the community and the
environment.
The development of a spatial analysis methodology that is
transparent and repeatable will allow for future revisions to the
strategy, and the application of the strategy to new frontiers.
The project team has established a presentation format for the
IWM options that represents the spatial distribution of IWM
options,,providing a tool for communication of the strategy to the
SRG.
For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Haeusler
T: 61 3 8687 8690
E: Elizabeth
Haeusler