WRC launches reports on Water Sensitive Design

© Julián Rovagnati – za.fotolia.com

In 2013, the WRC initiated the Water Sensitive Design (WSD) Lighthouse to strengthen South Africa's research approaches to urban planning and design that integrates land and water planning and management into urban design. The purpose of this lighthouse is to develop a critical mass of knowledge around the integration of planning activities for the adoption of more integrated and sustainable solutions using the water sensitive design lens for urban, peri-urban and rural environments.

The WRC has invested in a five-year Community of Practice programme which started in 2014 and is aimed at developing human resource capital and expertise in this area. A critical aim of the Community of Practice programme is to ensure that water planners and urban planners and designers are aligning towards sustainability by providing platforms for engagement.

Global risk

WRC CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo, said water is a fundamental enabler for all life of planet earth and has also become one of the foremost global risks as presented by the latest Global Risks 2015 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This places water ahead of hazards such as the spread of infectious disease, the failure to adapt to climate change, and interstate conflict.

The fact that the future megacities of the world are now still smaller towns and cities, especially in Africa, offered a unique opportunity for water sensitive design, said Dhesigen. "Retrofitting existing designs is much more difficult than getting it right from the start." Africa especially now had to opportunity to design and plan its cities from the start in a way that made sense for water.

South Africa had two cities that developed in the last 15 years, namely Mbombela and Rustenburg, where it missed the opportunity to incorporate WSD.

Keynote speaker, Prof Ana Deletic, Professor in Water Engineering and Associate Dean of Research (Engineering) at Monash University and co-founder of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, said that with water resources becoming scarcer, the world now had to think about integrating the streams of the water cycle (i.e. fresh and waste water).

Waste water a resource

Cities such as Melbourne in Australia had to rethink the way they were managing water when there was a drought. Many of these cities were now becoming water smart. Waste water was now being seen as a resource and was being recycled while storm water is now harvested instead of being allowed to run out of the city.

Prof Deletic said it was also important to address the social component around WSD as there was still much resistance to it. Challenges in cities, such as institutional fragmentation, undefined organisational responsibilities, limited political incentives and poor organisational commitment all hampered the implementation of WSD.

Professor Neil Armitage, head of the Urban Water Management Department from University of Cape Town, launched the WRC reports on WSD. The first was the South African Guidelines for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). SuDS attempts to manage surface water drainage systems holistically in line with the ideals of sustainable development. It aims for design for water quantity management, water quality treatment, enhanced amenity, and the maintenance of biodiversity. In so doing, many of the negative environmental impacts of storm water are mitigated and some benefits may, in fact, be realised.

Strategic guidance

Prof Armitage explained that instead of transporting storm water away from cities, SuDS attempt to mimic the pre-development ecological situation with regards to run-off quality. "The fact of the matter is that we have run out of dam building sites - we need to work better with the water we have, including our storm water and waste water," Prof Armitage said.

The second report to be launched as Water Sensitive Urban Design for South Africa: Framework and Guidelines. This study was aimed at providing strategic guidance to urban water management decision-makers (primarily city managers and other local authority officials) on the use of WSD in a South African context.