Water performance evaluation of residential infill development

Densification through residential infill development is expected to grow over the coming decades in Australia and globally, responding to increasing population and urbanisation. “How this growth will impact the urban water cycle?” and “How can it be done sustainably?” were two main overarching questions that this research project aims to answer. In particular, the joint influence of architectural design and water sensitive urban design technologies on local and city-wide water performance is being quantified and evaluated. The project helps to identify solutions that provide greater residential densities while minimising the negative impacts of developments on the urban water cycle. It also helps us better understand the complex interactions of natural, built-environment and socio-technological systems on water performance under population and climate change projections, residential land use dynamics, and uptake of emerging water technologies. 

Funding

• CRC Water Sensitive Cities

Collaborators

• CRC Water Sensitive Cities
• Queensland University of Technology
• Monash University
• TU Delft

Project Outcomes

• Development of “site-scale urban water mass balance assessment” (SUWMBA) model that can be used to test a wide range of alternatives including architectural design typologies and water sensitive urban design technologies. 
• Quantifying the performance of alternatives and Identifying design-technology configurations with good water performance. These solutions can increase residential density by 300% whilst increasing stormwater discharge by only 8%, compared to the conditions before infill development. 
• Architectural design has a greater influence on the urban water flows than the implementation of technologies.
• Water performance pathways at city-scale under population and climate change projections, residential land use dynamics, and uptake of emerging water technologies. The pathways show the required interventions for sustainable urban water management.

Publications

Papers

• Moravej, M., Renouf, M.A., Lam, K.L., Kenway, S.J. and Urich, C.  2021.  Site-scale Urban Water Mass Balance Assessment (SUWMBA) to quantify water performance of urban design-technology-environment configurations. Water Research 188, 116477.
• Moravej, M., Renouf, M.A., Kenway, S.J. and Urich, C.  2021.  What roles do architectural design and water servicing technologies play in the water performance of residential infill? (under review).

Conference proceedings

• Moravej, M., Renouf, M.A., Bertram, N., Kenway, S.J. and Urich, C., London, G. 2021. Analysing water sensitive urban design alternatives to improve water performance of site-scale infill development. 15th International Conference on Urban Drainage, 24-29 October, Melbourne, Australia.
• Moravej, M., Kenway, S.J., Renouf, M.A., Urich, C., Sainsbury, O., Bertram, N., Kenway, S.J. and London, G. 2021. The local influence of residential infill on the urban water flows: a multi-city analysis. The 24th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM2021), 5-10 December, Sydney, Australia.
• Renouf, M., Moravej, M., Sainsbury, O., Lam, K.L., Bertram, N., Kenway, S. and London, G. 2019  Quantifying the hydrological performance of infill development, Australian Water Association, Melbourne, Australia.

Industry tools

• Moravej, M., Renouf, M., Lam, K.L. and Kenway, S. 2020  User Manual for Site-scale Urban Water Mass Balance Assessment (SUWMBA) Tool V2, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
• Renouf, M., Kenway, S., Bertram, N., London, G., Todorovic, T., Sainsbury, O., Nice, K., Moravej, M. and Sochacka, B. 2020a  Water Sensitive Outcomes for Infill Development: Infill Performance Evaluation Framework p. 43, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne, Australia.
   

Industry reports

• Sochacka, B., Kenway, S., Bertram, N., London, G., Renouf, M., Sainsbury, O., Surendran, S., Moravej, M., Nice, K., Todorovic, T., Tarakemehzadeh, N. and Martin, D. 2021  Water Sensitive Outcomes for Infill Development: Final report, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne, Australia.
• Renouf, M., Kenway, S., Bertram, N., London, G., Todorovic, T., Sainsbury, O., Nice, K., Moravej, M. and Sochacka, B. 2020a.  Water Sensitive Outcomes for Infill Development: Infill Performance Evaluation Framework p. 43, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne, Australia.
• London, G., Bertram, N., Renouf, M., Kenway, S., Sainsbury, O., Todorovic, T., Byrne, J., Pype, M., Sochacka, B., Surendran, S. and Moravej, M. 2020b.  Knutsford case study final report: water sensitive outcomes for infill development, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne, Australia.
• Renouf, M.A., Kenway, S.J., Bertram, N., London, G., Sainsbury, O., Todorovic, T., Nice, K., Surendran, S. and Moravej, M. 2020c.  Salisbury case study final report: Water Sensitive Outcomes for Infill Development, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne.

Book chapters

• Kenway, S.J., Renouf, M.A., Allan, J., Nazmul, N., Tara, N., Sochacka, B., Moravej, M. 2022. Urban metabolism and water sensitive cities governance –Design and evaluating secure, resilient, sustainable, liveable cities. (in press)