The Model for urban stormwater improvement conceptualisation (MUSIC) is a software tool developed by e-Water that can be used to model urban catchments and the effectiveness of stormwater management or water sensitive urban design (WSUD) responses. MUSIC uses local climate and soil data to simulate rainfall, stormwater runoff and pollutant generation. It simulates pollutant removal and stormwater flow volume reduction through stormwater treatment assets such as sediment ponds, wetlands, bioretention and harvesting.
South Australian MUSIC Guidelines, March 2021 PDF | 4.4MB
MUSIC is intended as:
- A conceptual design decision support tool that informs an iterative design approach. MUSIC conceptualises how development alters hydrology and pollutant runoff and allows the user to test a range of responses to first reduce these impacts, and then mitigate the residual impacts.
- An assessment tool to assess the WSUD responses proposed in a planning submission and demonstrate that these can achieve relevant stormwater quality objectives.
Climate data
MUSIC is a continuous simulation model and requires input time series for rainfall and potential evapotranspiration (PET).
It is recommended that a climate template incorporating rainfall and PET with a length of at least 10 years of data is used for most modelling purposes. A series of climate data sets are provided for Greater Metropolitan Adelaide areas, with guidance provided on how to develop your own data set for areas outside of these regions.
MUSIC Auditor – does your model meet the guidelines?
The MUSIC Auditor assesses a MUSIC model against relevant criteria as specified in the South Australian MUSIC Guidelines. MUSIC Auditor identifies any MUSIC model input parameters that do not comply with the guidelines or parameters that are outside common or expected ranges.
Other resources
Stormwater re-use modelling
Irrigation demand can be estimated using the SA Water Irrigation Management Toolkits.