The Contribution of Integrated Water Management to Achieving Environmental Protection and Sustainability Outcomes in the New Urban Areas of Melbourne, Australia

The city of Melbourne in Australia provides examples of how a growing city can integrate urban planning and water planning to achieve sustainable urban development, environmental protection, liveability and integrated water management outcomes, and move towards becoming a "Water Sensitive City". Three examples are provided - the development at Botanic Ridge, where urban development and integrated water management options are being planned and implemented using a "triple bottom line" sustainability investment approach; the Toolern development, which will capture and reuse stormwater and recycled water to greatly reduce the suburb's demand for potable water, and the development at Kalkallo where a 1,200 hectare industrial precinct development is planned which will merge design of the development's water supply, sewerage services and stormwater system. The Paper concludes that integration of urban planning and water planning is funda­mental to achieving sustainability outcomes. More work is required on developing investment and risk ­analysis frameworks to ensure that all scenarios can be assessed equally.