Creating a Water Sensitive City Strategy for Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal Area in Melbourne, Australia

Background Fishermans Bend is Australia's largest urban renewal area and planned to be Australia's largest Green Star Community. At 485ha, or over twice the size of Melbourne Central Business District (CBD), it stretches from the CBD to the mouth of the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay. Currently dominated by low scale industrial and warehousing uses, the precincts' planned transformation into a high-density mixed use and employment precinct creates an ideal opportunity to build a city where water plays a pivotal role in ensuring economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The Challenge Fishermans Bend experiences drainage and flooding challenges at present and stormwater, riverine and coastal flooding are anticipated to increase in the years ahead from climate change, coupled with Victoria's climate becoming drier and warmer leading to water scarcity. This project addresses those challenges and seizes the opportunity to apply innovative solutions to enable and enhance the liveability of the area, by using novel and proven technology to address issues like flooding and provision of recycled water, and also by connecting this important and valuable piece of land to the Melbourne CBD to create a new residential, learning and economic centre, while building a climate resilient community. The Response The Fishermans Bend Water Sensitive City Strategy (WSCS) is an ambitious water sensitive urban design project that articulates how the precinct will become a thriving leading example for environmental sustainability, liveability and innovation. Publicly released by the Victorian State Government in May 2022, and underpinned by 10 years of planning and collaboration between multiple agencies, it required new ways of working to apply world's best practice in managing water as a resource and the impacts of climate change in urban environments. It will facilitate development, improve climate resilience, reduce potable water demands and sewage discharges, boost biodiversity and urban ecology, and reduce pollution from storm water runoff. As an innovative, whole-of-government, whole-of-precinct, whole-of-water-cycle, integrated approach to water management, the WSCS builds on three overarching pillars: Flood Management, Climate Resilient Water System and Urban Ecology. It responds to environmental, geotechnical, and spatial constraints - embedding water initiatives at precinct, street and building scales and across public and private realms. Key technical innovations include distributed green infrastructure storages featuring water in the landscape and 'smart' rainwater tanks at all buildings as part of a suite of actions to mitigate flooding, reducing drainage infrastructure capital costs by 30% while meeting broader liveability and resilience goals. A water recycling plant to treat the community's sewerage, for toilet flushing, washing and irrigation, reducing potable water consumption and wastewater discharges. Together with the rainwater tanks, this will halve average and peak day potable water demands, and there is now a target to reduce per capita demand below 100 L/p/d. In addition, there was an Australian first application of biodiversity-sensitive urban design at this scale. The Approach Alongside community and industry consultation, the Strategy brought together insights from across disciplines of urban planning, architecture, engineering, and urban design. Key process and governance innovations included independently led co-design processes such as the 'Ideas for Fishermans Bend' design charrettes by the Co-operative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC), and a supporting governance model through the Water Sensitive City Working and Steering Groups. These groups were co-ordinated through the Fishermans Bend Taskforce, a specially convened State Government entity with responsibility for delivering the precinct, and included representation from Melbourne Water, South East Water, City West Water, City of Port Phillip, City of Melbourne and the independent advice of the CRCWSC. Whilst planning and decision making occurred across myriad processes between 2012 - 2022, at key points in time consultants were engaged to lead the development of foundational strategic plans and servicing strategies underpinning the broader Water Sensitive City Strategy. These included an IWM (or One Water) Plan in 2015 focussed predominantly on water, wastewater and drainage; a Water Sensitive Drainage & Flood Strategy in 2018 that resolved the approach to drainage and flood management, and an Urban Ecology Strategy in 2019 that brought together a strategic approach for the Urban Forest, Urban Heat Island, Biodiversity & Wind Strategies. Learnings The outcomes achieved for Fishermans Bend were the result of genuine, ongoing collaboration across different levels and parts of government, and with research and industry partners — who recognised a shared call to action in response to climate change, flooding, and water management issues in the precinct. Outcomes from the WSCS are transferrable to other places which is particularly relevant for coastal cities impacted by climate change and high-density urban renewal developments. More generally, as an industry leading One Water example both the processes used to achieve the outcomes and the barriers and mis-steps offer useful insights for One Water planning.