Approaches to Water Sensitive Urban Design - Chapter 2: Water sensitive urban design approaches and their description

Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a broad area of practice, with a wide range of objectives from managing hydrology and water quality through to improving urban amenity and mitigating urban heat island impacts. Unsurprisingly, there is a wide set of management practices that can be applied. This chapter outlines some of the key approaches used in WSUD and provides a summary of current knowledge about practical application and performance. Key approaches covered in this chapter are as follows: Measures to reduce the generation of polluted stormwater runoff: erosion and sediment control, rainwater tanks, downpipe diverters, litter management, street sweeping, green walls and roofs, and permeable pavement. Measures to mitigate (treat) polluted stormwater runoff: gully baskets, gross pollutant traps, swales, bioretention, rain gardens, wetlands, floating wetlands, and street trees. The practices covered are by no means exhaustive, and the body of knowledge in relation to these grows year by year; however, it is hoped that this chapter will provide the reader with a useful introduction to the range of WSUD approaches to assist with specifying and designing projects.