Water Sensitive SA

Guidelines

Water Sensitive SA, South Australian and other guidelines.

Water Sensitive SA guidelines

Stormwater management guidelines for small-scale development

A guide to rainwater tank size selection for Kent Town PDF

Raingarden planting palettes – fact sheet PDF

A guide to raingarden plant species selection and placement PDF

Green roofs and walls – fact sheet PDF

South Australian guidelines

Technical manual for water-sensitive urban design in Greater Adelaide – December 2010

Other guidelines

Design

Adoption guidelines for stormwater biofiltration systems and Summary Report | CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, 2015

Maintenance of WSUD systems

WSUD maintenance guidelines. A guide for asset managers PDF | Melbourne Water, 2013

Lifecycle costing

Water sensitive urban design Life cycle costing data, Fact Sheet PDF | Melbourne Water

Guide to the cost of maintaining bioretention systems | Water by Design, Healthy Waterways, 2015

Water sensitive urban design

Urban typologies and stormwater management – achieving a cool, green, liveable Western Parkland City PDF | Sydney Water

Design of biofiltration

The CRC for Water Sensitive Cities released the Adoption guidelines for stormwater biofiltration systems in July 2015. This document provides a comprehensive guide to:

  • What are stormwater biofiltration systems and how do they work?
  • The business case for biofiltration: Performance for water treatment, benefits and cost-benefit analysis
  • Technical considerations: setting management objectives, biofilter function and processes and conceptual design
  • Key design configurations: lined and unlined systems or combinations
  • Design procedure: sizing, hydraulics, media, vegetation selection and stormwater harvesting
  • Practical implementation: designing for successful maintenance, monitoring

The full guidelines are available on the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities website. Note: this version is best viewed on screen as images may not be of a suitable quality to print. Print quality versions will be available for purchase from the CRC in the future, if required.

Plant species selection

When designing your raingarden a holistic design approach to vegetation selection is essential. Consideration of the placement of species in appropriate positions corresponding to inundation frequency and drought tolerance is needed in addition to other considerations such as trees and shrubs for shade, tap rooted plants to maintain filter media infiltration, spreading plants including herbaceous plants may negate the need for mulch.

For guidance on appropriate plant species native to the Adelaide region that are proven to be effective at nitrogen removal and for a selection of potential companion plantings to enhance the amenity of your raingarden, download our fact sheets:

At least 50% of the plants you select for a bio-filtration raingarden must be effective at nitrogen removal to ensure suitable stormwater treatment performance of your raingarden. This fact sheet includes photo images of the various plant species to assist your plant selection, courtesy of The Atlas of Living Australia.

Other resources & guidance

Acknowledgement of Country

Water Sensitive SA acknowledges Aboriginal people as the First Peoples and Nations of the lands and waters we live and work upon, and we pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge and respect the deep spiritual connection and the relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to Country.