Fishermans Bend Water Security & Resilience Living Lab
Climate-proofing Fishermans Bend Campus
The Water Security & Resilience Living Lab (WSRLL) is a large scale proposal put forward by the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) and Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) to construct and test an integrated stormwater and water recycling system at the University of Melbourne's Fishermans Bend Campus. Climate-proofing the campus and managing its water uses and associated pollution, positions the University of Melbourne to lead the Fisherman’s Bend precinct in integrating water treatment with urban greening and ecosystem health.
The mismatch between increasing water demand and the decline in the availability of water of desired quality is the most critical resource issue worldwide. In areas of water scarcity such as Australia, the problem is particularly acute. Additionally, the increased variability in rainfall caused by climate change will see more frequent droughts and floods, meaning our resilience is low, as demonstrated by the millennium drought when the reservoirs levels drew to very low levels leading to the need of urgently building desalination plants in all major cities including Melbourne. There are projections of rising temperatures and highly variable rainfalls for most regions of Australia including Melbourne leading to significant water security issues in future.
Due to ongoing risks associated with either too much or too little water, the water industry globally has been exploring innovative Integrated water management (IWM) options such as alternative and decentralised water supply sources.
Our Challenges:
- How can we effectively redevelop a post-industrial floodplain to be resilient in the face of climate change?
- How do you provide adequate (safe, reliable, resilient) water service?
- How do you build to protect from floods and droughts to our cities, that are subjected to population growth, climate variability and climate change in an environmentally sustainable and cost effective manner?
