Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) Assets Design

Name: Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) Assets Design
Start: 2026-10-21T10:00:00+1100
End: 2026-10-21T15:00:00+1100
Location: Melbourne Water Headquarters

Wed, 21 Oct, 10am - 3pm AEDT

Melbourne Water Headquarters

Docklands VIC, Australia

Clearwater

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Emerging (& traditional) WSUD Assets Design made easy

Learn how to design stormwater (WSUD) assets for water quality improvement, flow reduction and stormwater harvesting.

Training Overview

Designed by industry experts, this course provides practical guidance critical to the design and review of street-scale WSUD assets to manage stormwater pollution and flow volumes, with a strong focus on emerging asset classes (e.g., permeable pavements, passively irrigated trees, ephemeral wetlands, etc). It will cover both, lot scale / streetscape and greenfield systems, as well as design considerations for stormwater harvesting schemes.

This course will reference industry resources such as the Emerging Assets for Stormwater Flow Management: State of Knowledge, Melbourne Water MUSIC Guidelines and others. The course showcases real-world examples of good versus poor design. It also features insights from recent research findings.

Practical class exercises give participants a chance to apply best practice design and test learning in a small group context. Participants will be encouraged to share knowledge and experience with peers throughout the session.

The course highlights additional resources to extend the learnings from the course, for those seeking to further their knowledge and understanding.

Audience

Public and private sector practitioners who want to deepen their knowledge on the design of stormwater treatment measures to meet flow and water quality objectives.
WSUD designers and stormwater engineers, involved in the design and approval of WSUD assets that include stormwater harvesting, infiltration and/or water quality improvements.
Any other senior and junior staff involved in stormwater planning and/or asset management.

Format

Presentation, quizzes, Q&A and interactive activities. Participants are guided through worked examples.

Learning Outcomes

Understand the points of difference in the design of emerging WSUD assets (e.g., passively irrigated rainwater tanks, ephemeral wetlands, permeable pavements), including how to spot good vs poor designs.
Gain an appreciation of the difference in outcomes between traditional and emerging WSUD assets.
Gain an understanding of how to achieve flow reduction targets for stormwater harvesting and infiltration schemes.
Build your ability to apply modelling tools for WSUD assets design.
Learn about the latest insights coming from academic research in the area of best practice stormwater / catchment management.
Know where to find additional information and industry resources to further your skills and knowledge.

Training Outline

Stormwater management context: key policy drivers, GED and flow volume objectives.
WSUD design considerations across different asset types.
Research insights that can be used to drive on-ground innovation.
Use of modelling tools in design.
Real-world examples of good vs poor design.
Worked examples of lot scale and greenfield systems.

Registrations end on Friday 9th October 2026.

Registration fees must be paid online during the registration process. Unfortunately, invoice-based payments are not available for this event.

Facilitators

Dale Browne, Senior Principal Engineer (E2D-Water Technology)

Dale is an Environmental Engineer with over 15 years professional experience in WSUD and integrated water cycle management. He has practical experience in the design and delivery of alternative water supply schemes included recycled water and stormwater harvesting projects locally and internationally. Dale regularly advises industry on conducting future climate modelling and communicating the impacts on integrated water management outcomes.  He has been the technical author for industry guidelines including the New Asset Guide for Flow Volume Reduction (Melbourne Water) and MUSIC guidelines, 2026, Stormwater Retention Guidelines (Sydney Water), Green Infrastructure Capability for Onsite Stormwater Retention (Sydney Water), and provided the technical input and feasibility testing of the Victorian Flow Objectives (Victorian EPA.)
Gayani Chandrasena, Principal Engineer (Water Technology)

Gayani Chandrasena is a Principal Engineer at Water Technology with over 15 years of experience in Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD). Her expertise spans the design of WSUD assets, including wetlands, biofilters and stormwater harvesting systems, supported by extensive experience in hydrologic and water quality modelling. Gayani has led numerous Healthy Waterways Strategy (HWS) investigations across metropolitan Melbourne, identifying opportunities for stormwater harvesting and infiltration to improve stream health outcomes. She has also been involved in HWS annual reporting, supporting the assessment and tracking of stormwater volume reduction outcomes across metropolitan Melbourne.
Tim Fletcher, ARC Laureate Professor (Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership)

Tim Fletcher has expertise in stormwater quality, treatment and impacts, having written over 250 publications on the topic. His research focus has included modelling stormwater flows, quality and the performance of novel stormwater treatment and harvesting systems. He has been involved in a range of green infrastructure such as biofiltration, infiltration and green roofs. Tim was the Technology Project Leader in the Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration (FAWB) and formerly Director of the Institute for Sustainable Water Resources at Monash University. He was also an invited professor at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon (France). Tim has also been involved in the design and monitoring of several large-scale pilot green infrastructure projects in both Australia and France. From May 2011, Tim has been an ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Urban Ecohydrology, based at the University of Melbourne.
Chris Szota, Senior Lecturer (Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership)

Chris is a researcher interested in all aspects of blue-green infrastructure in cities, especially design, plant selection and maintenance. Chris aims to produce high-quality data on the real-world performance of blue-green systems to demonstrate their potential and continually improve design. He’s currently working on designing streetscapes which irrigate the urban forest with stormwater as well as real-time monitoring and control of constructed stormwater wetlands.