Water Savings Initiatives Map
Find out how the City of Melbourne is helping to save water, improve water quality and identify new water sources by downloading a copy of the Water Saving Initiatives map.
The interactive map captures a broad picture of the water saving projects currently underway across the municipality in the areas of:
- water harvesting
- water delivery efficiencies
- water storage
- sustainable development
- water sensitive urban design.
Download a copy of the Water Saving Initiatives map:
Water Saving Initiatives map (PDF, 3.3MB)
Water Sensitive Urban Design
The City of Melbourne WSUD Guidelines: Applying the Model WSUD Guidelines, An Initiative of the Inner Melbourne Action Plan was developed to inform Council staff, developers and residents on how to apply WSUD principles to urban developments or local water reuse and treatment projects.
The guidelines support Council’s Total Watermark City as a Catchment strategy by applying practical advise, options and solutions to managing water in our catchment more sensitively to maximise sustainable outcomes. The Guidelines also includes case studies and fact sheets.
Water conservation in parks
Trees and gardens are significant and valuable assets and need to be protected from the ravages of drought. At the same time care must be taken to ensure that the use of potable water is minimised.
The City of Melbourne’s Water Conservation Plan was drafted in response to the introduction of Stage 2 water restrictions in 2006. The Plan demonstrates water saving measures that allow the continued (but reduced) use of potable water for the irrigation of public park and garden assets.
The 560 hectares of open space including 55,000 park and street trees, all requiring year-round maintenance and management. Much of our green open spaces, particularly the European- style gardens, rely on irrigation over summer for their survival.
Water conservation initiatives include:
- gradually replacing city parks and sports ground lawns with drought-tolerant grasses to increase durability for sports and events
- using reclaimed water from Royal Park wetlands to water the Royal Park Golf course and Royal Park North sports grounds, as well as supplying water to the city’s trees and selected fountains
- designing and implementing an extension to the storage capacity of the Royal Park Wetlands reclaimed water scheme to provide more reclaimed water for trees and other sports grounds
- placing additional mulch under trees to improve the water retention over summer
Impact on Parks and Gardens Fact Sheet (PDF, 79kb)
Impact on Parks and Gardens Fact Sheet (Text only, 137kb)
Impact on Community Sports Fact Sheet (PDF, 80kb)
Impact on Community Sports Fact Sheet (Text only, 134kb)
Future management of our parks
As part of our planning for protecting our parks and gardens over the long term, the City of Melbourne also led a high-level forum focusing on drought proofing Melbourne’s parks and gardens. This involved a range of experts and key stakeholders looking at a collaborative approach to developing a sustainable water plan for the city’s green open spaces. Through this approach, the City of Melbourne is looking to stop using potable or drinking water for irrigating its parks and gardens by 2012.
Water features
Due to the Stage 3a water restrictions, many fountains have turned off to avoid water waste through evaporation and natural loss. Many of these fountains have been drained and fenced off for safety reasons and to prevent damage.
With excess water overflowing from Trin Warren Tam-boore wetlands into the Moonee Ponds Creek there is an opportunity to refill some of the fountains that do not consume large amounts of water. As most of the fountains are designed to operate underwater, this also assists in preventing the cracking and other damage that can occur from lack of use. To prevent this, the City of Melbourne decided to use the reclaimed water to refill and operate certain fountains for short periods.
Parks and Leisure Australia Excellence Award
The City of Melbourne won a Parks and Leisure Australia Excellence Award in September 2007 for its work on water conservation and management for the Royal Park wetlands, also known as Trin Warren Tam-boore.